2011-05-28 30 -86

Sat 28 May 2011 in 30,-86: 30.7062971, -86.2323159 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

About 180 feet south of Bob Sikes Road near the eastern edge of Eglin Air Force Base

Participants

• Liberian

Plans

None

Expedition

Having seen the evening before that the day's geohash was reachable, Liberian planned an afternoon around it. He drove out a few hours early and found three geocaches that were in the area. He also searched for a few survey benchmarks which had not been seen in half a century, but he wasn't able to find any. The appropriate time arriving, Liberian parked his car on the side of Bob Sikes Road, scrawled "XKCD 5/28/2011 160 ft" with an arrow pointing to the south, and surveyed the terrain. The ground sloped steeply downwards from the side of the road (well, steeply by the standards of Florida) and the underbrush was the thickest he had crashed through in some years. A few tens of feet further in, though, there was an honest forest and the undergrowth was a good bit thinner. There was nothing for it but to brave the thorns and brambles, climb over the downed tree, and crash on down the slope. Under the forest canopy, the GPS signal was nowhere near as good and Liberian settled for getting within 40 feet. It was a hot day, especially after the benchmark hunting, and Liberian downed the celebratory Gator-Aid with gusto.

Getting back out was much easier than getting in. On the way home, Liberian recovered survey benchmark BG1389, which had been placed in 1953 and hadn't been updated since.

Achievements

• Land Geohash