2010-10-09 50 -119
| Sat 9 Oct 2010 in 50,-119: 50.6427434, -119.8359639 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
Just off Lower Duck Range Road, between Pritchard and Monte Creek.
Participants
- Rhonda and Sophie
- Xore and Wump
- Rhonda's Mom
- Rhonda's Dad
Plans
As the hashpoints were both very close to highway 1 and even closer to marked (though not always named) roads, the whole group of us decided to try for a Thanksgiving Saturday multihash.
The basic plan was: drive to Pritchard, follow Duck Range Road and then Lower Duck Range Road, visit the hashpoint, then proceed to the point in the Kamloops graticule.
Expedition
After a short discussion of transportation options, in which jeep (would handle anything we might encounter, but only had 2 seatbelts), subaru (new 4wd car, unknown road quality), and truck (2wd but more clearance) we settled on taking the subaru and walking if the road got too bad for the comfort of the car owners, who hadn't taken it on anything more challenging than a graded gravel road up to that point.
Xore took control of the car, and all six of us piled in.
We followed highway 1 east from Kamloops to Pritchard, then turned up toward Duck Range Road at the Pritchard gas station/general store/liquor store. It had a sign 2km prior - advertising the liquor store.
We briefly misread the map and turned onto Old Duck Range Road, then realized our error and backtracked, followed Duck Range Road further from the highway, then turned onto Lower Duck Range Road. There were quite a few ranches along the road, many fenced with bright orange signs posted (but not POSTED) on the fenceposts at regular intervals. Closer inspection revealed these to be not "no trespassing" signs, but simply "no shooting" signs. We all agreed that it was quite reasonable for people who own livestock to not want them shot.
Within a kilometre of the hashpoint, we passed a house with a "no trespassing" sign, and hoped that they didn't own the land at the hashpoint. Shortly after that, the fences ended. We passed the hashpoint and parked the car in a track just off the road. We didn't follow the track for long, instead following the GPSs directly across a flat, grassy, open piece of land.
There was a hashtree, and while Wump and Sophie enjoyed climbing it, the tree was definitely not climbable for anybody bigger. Xore made an xkcd marker, then we walked back to the hashmobile via another point of interest in the area - a damaged car. Rhonda took a photo of the car and its VIN to ask the police if it had been reported stolen.
We decided to continue on Lower Duck Range Road and follow it through to highway 97, rather than backtracking, just because new scenery is more interesting than backtracking.
The road gained more potholes the further in we went, but was still clearly used regularly. There were fresh tracks ahead of us. A few times we followed an unofficial road widening to go around one that looked like it could swallow most of Robyn's car. There were at least half a dozen places that Robyn's car would have found completely impassible. Robyn's car is cute, but it does not like unpaved roads.
Photos
Of course it's uphill to the geohash.
This hashtree is horizontal!
Two of the silly grins
XKCD marks the spot
