2023-08-12 41 -71

Location

Around 500 feet North of the ice rink of Pomfret School, Pomfret, CT.

Participants

JBest
Map Man

Plans

On Friday the 11th, I had discovered that the hash location for this graticule was only a few miles North of Mashamoquet State Forest's Wolf Den campground, which was where my family and friends were happening to be camping for that week! (We play games, hike and discuss Shakespeare.) I decided that I would not want to miss such an easy opportunity for my first hash while I still hadn't obtained my driver's license yet, so I silently plotted a scheme to obtain a ride and people to travel with...

Ultimately, after everyone I persuaded to travel with me called me a nerd (fair, we are all nerds, but this felt EXRTEMELY nerdy even to them), my father agreed to commit the crime with me. Map Man is his blog alias, he used to letterbox with the family when we were younger and I had drawn a comparison between it and geohashing. I didn't count on meeting anybody else for 4:00 on location, but following the tradition for my first go just felt right.

Expedition

The blue sky above us was turning slightly gray when we left at around 3:40, and I had realized it would have been smarter of me if I had read the forecast and brought a raincoat. It only drizzled, fortunately, and we were able to reach Pomfret School ten minutes before the hour. Another thing that I should have done was a bit more research about the school, as I had no idea that it was a privately owned boarding school, and it is possible we could have been trespassing. No-one was there to witness us, though, and there were no warning signs posted, so in we went. It was a beautiful complex, and I made sure to grab pictures on the way out.

Parking by the hockey rink, we plotted how to move around the lake that blocked our way to the hashpoint. We decided to move counterclockwise through a path of trimmed foliage (Map Man joked that the faculty must have known that geohashers would be there and planned ahead), then cut through the woods. After doing the Geohashing Dance™️ for a few minutes around the hashpoint, we snapped the pictures for the gallery, left my marker, and started back. Heading back, we found a road that had a few bridges that made for an easy return journey, so was it a win or a loss that we took a somewhat difficult approach to get there in the first place?

Anyhow, Map Man said that he very much enjoyed getting to try something new, and he requested that I invite him on further expeditions when he has time! Our first hash was a great success, and while the rest of my family are still shaking their heads, Map Man and I revel in our triumph and also learn from the handful of missteps we made. A first time for everything, indeed.