2020-05-10 42 -78

Location

Just South of the Village of Hamburg, next to the South Buffalo Street bridge

Participants

Pedalpusher

Plans

Wow! This is about a third of a mile (just over half a KM) away from where I live for a Couch Potato Honorable Mention! Not sure exactly when I'll walk over, but it'll probably be in the late morning. A direct line of sight to The Pour House (closest Pub) will be blocked by trees, but from the satellite pictures, it looks like I might have the angle to see Mammoser's (local dive bar) if the hill doesn't get in the way. Unfortunately, with COVID-19 still in high gear, all the restaurants and pubs are closed so the Pub Geohash will have to continue waiting.

Expedition

After spending the morning with my family and all the dogs walking around Buffalo's Outer Harbor (appropriately distancing, of course), I got back to the house around noon. It was cold and windy on the harbor, but the rain wasn't supposed to start until the afternoon. Once I got the dogs settled in the house and made some lunch, I headed back out for the hash before the weather turned worse.

Walking down the street, there wasn't many people out and about, but it was easy to avoid getting to close to anyone. Getting to 18 Mile Creek, I stepped onto the grass around the guard rail and was happy to find the hash was still on the flat bit of land before it dropped off into the creek below. This was much easier than I thought it would be. Getting a couple pictures, I turned North, and sure enough, I could see the sign for Mammoser's Tavern. I should have brought a water bottle to drink in front of the Bar, but I'll wait for a better opportunity for the Pub Geohash. I was also originally contemplating jumping over the guard rail and trying to reach the hash from the bridge over the creek, but alas, the bridge hadn't quite started at that point yet. Going to the bridge section would definitely have been too far to reach even with the Circle of Uncertainty assisting.

The day before, I also checked out close GeoCaches and knew one was further up the creek in a small village park and within Honorable Mention distance. However, I completely forgot to grab a pen on the way out the door. I thought about just leaving it, but this was a medium sized cache and there was half decent odds there might be a writing utensil provided. Taking the chance, I wandered over to the park and down the path. There really aren't any signs for the park boundary, and the path kept going. Knowing "Magoo's Tree" was at the end of the path, I kept going until I found a quite large tree next to the path. Inspecting this tree, I didn't find anything, but was starting to think I had gone too far. Getting out the map on the phone and looking up the hill, I could clearly see the Church's steeple a little ways back...definitely too far. Retracing my steps, I found the correct tree and looked around and this time, found the Geocache. Pulling out the logbook, I didn't see a pen, but what's in this plastic bag? All the pieces of a pen that looks like it was delivered "Some Assembly Required". Not needing to put the whole pen together, I just grabbed the ink tube and used that to sign the book. Hash Collision Complete!

I did some calculations for the Juggernaut, but with Google Maps only having an accuracy to a tenth of a mile, my best ratio was about 1/5th deviation. The hash just wasn't far enough away to account for needing to walk to the end of the block before turning south toward the hash. I could pull out my bike and cut through the apartment complex across the street to cut the corner and get my accuracy to the hundredths of a mile, but I'm looking forward to being lazy the rest of the day after writing up this report. I'm also pretty sure I can't shave off enough distance to make it work anyway.

Photos

Hash is just around the corner!
This might be my closest reading on the HashDroid App.
View South and into the creek.
View West and toward the business at the end of the 'road'.
View East and you can see the bridge hasn't quite started yet at the point closest to the hash.
View North, You can just see the sign for Mammoser's almost at the end of the buildings on the other side of the street.
Standard Stupid Grin.
Distance to the Hash from the Cache for the Hash Collision.
Proof for Hash Collision that the Cache was found.