2013-05-17 46 -117

Location

On a wind farm in eastern Washington.

Participants

Thomcat

Expedition

Spent the night with a friend in Prosser (after yesterday's Yakima success) and as he went to work this morning, I had nothing ahead of me but the drive home. A little scouting on his computer indicated that the geohash two graticules east was possible - and how often will I get a chance to say that? In the interest of eventually collecting my entire state, I headed east.

Research showed the geohash to be on a wind farm, near one of the turbines. As long as these are publicly accessible, I should be golden. Satellite indicates a road leading from turbine to turbine, but no idea where those connect to the farm roads of the area.

The drive to the geohash was uneventful, and when I arrived I could see the hilltop in question. Advanced scouting played a major role here - even if I couldn't find which road led to the windfarm road, I could see one that leads near to it, and walk from there if necessary.

Indeed that turned out to be the case. With a higher clearance (and less hybrid) vehicle, I could have driven on to the windfarm road, but walking was sufficient.

I've been by a few turbines on other geohashes, and there is always that tripod feeling of dread to deal with. These were larger than others I've seen, and noisy - circular whooshes as the blades swing by. One of the units was out of commission, a Siemens truck parked below. I didn't stop to say hi.

Cross referencing the maps led me to wind turbine number 4. The geohash on the satellite photo seems to be much closer to the road than it turned out in real life - perhaps the spinning blades were also chopping up my signal? Anyhow, a few small grass snakes later, I reached the geohash point with ease, snapping a few pictures of the phone screen.

On the way in and out I saw deer, which explains the "no permit for hunting" signs I saw earlier. Poor deer, though - I was able to walk fairly close to them, as long as they didn't see me. They probably couldn't have heard me with all that noise.

Geohash collected, I headed returned to the road a bit dustier and more wind blown. Time to give a stab at the graticule to the west of here on my way back to urban Seattle.