2009-01-03 36 -77

Report

We decided to conquer this virgin graticule because the N36 W77 geohash would take us to Lake Gaston, an area we seldom visit. There was freezing rain last night throughout this region, but by the time we started our trek, the roads were drying off. We first went to our cabin to thank our kind-hearted and hard-working neighbors who repaired the washed-out road in the neighborhood. After some target practice with our handguns, we drove east to the geohash.

We navigated the old-fashioned...well, 20th Century way, using only the state road map, and after driving an hour, arrived at the geohash parking area at about 1540. Amazingly, the area looked relatively unchanged from the Google Earth image. We guesstimated the geohash point and oriented the map. We moved further back into the woods so we were aligned with the northern triangulation point - the bluish-green storage building (now two of them) almost directly north. Since the woods were thinned out and there was a lack of foliage, you could see the three triangulation points clearly. We then shifted south until we were aligned with the second triangulation point - the trees and the intersection just SSE of us. Since the tree line to the SE matched up, we knew we were right on the geohash point.

After photographing our success, we looked around for signs of wildlife, waited 15 minutes for other XKCDers, then gathered up our hashing equipment and panda bear. We had brought trash bags prepared to do some geotrash collection, but the area was spotless. A credit to the residents of Timber Lodge.

Participants

Eisen & Bear - NCBears

Geological Features

Rolling farmland (mostly corn and cotton). Geohash was located ~10 meters inside wooded area. About 375 meters from Lake Gaston and 4.0 miles/6.5 km south of the Virginia border. Open field between Geohash and road was used for corn crop. See Google Earth screenshot below.