2008-09-05 30 -83

Fri 5 Sep 2008 in Valdosta, Georgia: 30.4562038, -83.9947245 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

September 5, 2008 Meetup for Valdosta, Georgia

I had the day off, and I hadn't been geohashing for a while, so I decided to go for it today. The spot in my graticule was too far away, but this one was just right: an easy drive down I-10 to Lloyd, then a couple country roads.

After the GPS indicated I passed the hash, I parked on the shoulder of the nearest intersection and began approaching the hash on foot. My GPS led me to a gently sloping area of knee-high grass, making me very pleased I had decided to wear long pants. As my elevation continued to slowly decrease, the grasslands turned to sparse forest, interspersed with huge banana spider webs. At this point, I stumbled onto a vehicle path that seemed to lead in the direction of the hash, so I gladly followed it. By now, there was an intimidating wall of vegetation on either side of the path. This vehicle path had other tracks shooting off at right angles every hundred feet or so, and I took one that appeared to head directly toward the hash.

I should mention here that while there was thick woods on either side, the path itself was grassy. However, due to the flooding from Tropical Storm Fay, all the grass was flattened and pointing downhill towards a small lake. I can only imagine how much water was pouring down the hill to make that happen.

At my closest approach, I was within 35 feet, and I then headed in the direction of the hash through deep underbrush for at least another 20 feet, putting me less than 15 feet from the spot. I call that success, but some may question whether I actually reached the hashpoint. Please consider that my GPS only stores 5 significant digits past the decimal, instead of the full 6 (or 7, depending upon format) that the hash contains. Also, my accuracy never went below 21 feet. Therefore, my range of plausibility is ten times bigger than usual.

Participant

James

Awards

James earned the Graticule Unlocked Achievement by being the first to reach any hashpoint in the (30, -83) graticule, here, on 2008-09-05.

James achieved level 1 of the Minesweeper Geohash achievement by visiting coordinates in Tallahassee, Florida and 1 of the surrounding graticules.

Photo

...maybe later