2014-05-24 37 -120

Location

In an orchard about 15 miles (24 km) west of Merced, California. At least, that's what Google Earth and Google Street View show. It would seem unreasonable for an orchard in the middle of nowhere to be drastically altered in a few years, but I can't rule it out.

Participants

Codae

Plans

This is an exciting geohash for a number of reasons. One, it's in a virgin graticule. Two, it looks as accessible as any off-road geohash could be--not in a building, not in a forest, not on a hill, not fenced off, and not in the water. Three, it's on Mouseover Day, when I happen to have no plans. (This fortuitous combination is pretty much what it took to secure a car for an otherwise pointless two-hundred-mile trip.)

I'm aiming to be at the hashpoint for the 4 P.M. official meetup time, though I don't expect to run into anyone there.

Expedition

This went pretty well. I drove up Interstate 5 without problems--I even felt I was ahead of schedule enough to pull off at a "Vista Point". There I took a few pictures, had some water, and learned about the local placename "Orestimba". (It means "meeting place".)

Refreshed, I continued through the cattle-festooned grasslands, found my turnoff, drove cautiously through the town of Gustine, and headed straight for the hashpoint. My turnoff, the closest road to the geohash, was Washington Boulevard. I knew beforehand that, despite its importance-connoting name, it was unpaved; I was, however, surprised to find that it was entirely sand, with several large puddles from the irrigated field to the west attempting to serve as obstacles. I may have driven a bit to fast along that road due to figuring I was by then a bit behind schedule.

I parked the car before I passed the hashpoint, then hurried there. I did make it before four; as expected above, there was no-one else in sight. Once I was satisfied that I had a decent documentary picture, I carved (that is the right word; it was quite dry) an X into the ground with my fingers and left. The way back was slightly marred by a wrong lack-of-a-turn just outside Gustine, a traffic jam on I-580, and an unexpected fifty-cent debit surcharge at the cheapest gas station I found.

Since my odometer read XX307 miles when I started out and XX425 miles a couple of miles into the return trip, I'm claiming XKCD-100 with a distance of 116 miles.

Tracklog

Photos

You could probably see the Sierra Nevada in the background if this were an exceptionally clear day.
As can be seen here, I was within a couple milliminutes of the hashpoint before the clock struck 4.
And here I am post-GPS dance.
This is what was growing in the orchard. I think they're almonds, but I'm not totally sure.
The view westward from the hashpoint (i.e. the shortest route out of the orchard).
The view westward from the car.