2014-06-12 47 -122

Location

Edge of 11th Ave NE, near Northgate

Participants

Plans

Stop and chalk on the way to work, perhaps revisit on the way home at 5.

I could make a 5pm meetup... -- OtherJack (talk) 11:45, 12 June 2014 (EDT)

OK, Thom and I are meeting there at 5:20 or a bit earlier! Did you make it at lunch Stan? -- OtherJack (talk) 18:41, 12 June 2014 (EDT)

I did. Tron achievement was achieved! I'm writing it up now. --Stand (talk) 21:39, 12 June 2014 (EDT)

Sweet, we also made it at 5:20. I'll write up later when I have time... -- OtherJack (talk) 21:41, 12 June 2014 (EDT)

I'm going to use my bike and attempt the Tron achievement, probably around lunchtime --Stand (talk) 12:53, 12 June 2014 (EDT)

Expedition

Thomcat

First expedition of the day. This was close enough to home that I could have walked, but I needed to get to Bothell. The hashpoint was not far from our Pinehurst School hash back in January.

Drove to the spot, parking on the hashpoint. I chalked the road outside the door, as that would be more easily visible than the shrub that contained the zero point. What is 7/10 of a meter between friends?

The house across the street is for sale (pictured below). Returning to the hashpoint at 5:20 pm, I discussed the possibility of a purchase and couch potato with OtherJack. Turns out I was right about day-of-hash purchase, but incorrect about the definition - the geohash point must be inside the domicile. A correction on the discussion page puts it on the property, but this was still outside the window (so to speak). At roughly 10 meters away, it would certainly be the closest honorable mention so far though!

OtherJack

I'd been reviewing a manuscript all day at the office and needed a break, and the advertised clouds and rain still didn't look to be arriving for a while, so I caught the #68 bus and headed north to meet Thomcat. Right around this time I realized I'd forgotten to bring the remainder of my lunch, and was getting kind of hungry - and then to make things worse, I noticed an email advertising cake left over from a department graduation reception! But it was too late - I was on my way to the hashpoint.

It was a very pleasant residential neighborhood though, on the steep north slope of Maple Leaf hill leading down to Thornton Creek not far north from where I used to live. I was a bit early, so took a leisurely stroll over to the hashpoint, found it manually with my GPS readout, but still marked a waypoint just so I could get another "0.00ft" shot.

I was taking pictures of Thom's chalk marker and the neighborhood, waiting for him to show up, when the inhabitant of the house directly behind the hashpoint pulled into the driveway, a middle-aged woman. She asked if I was checking out the house across the street (the one for sale that Thom mentioned above) - but when I explained what I was really doing, she actually thought it sounded cool! She'd clearly heard of geocaching before, which I think helped. Also, just then the ThomcatMobile pulled up, giving me instant additional evidence that other earthlings play this game. We all chatted for half a second and then she went inside. Thom and I then briefly caught up, but he had to leave quickly (something about having kids.) I forgot to take a picture of him (or to have him get one of me), unfortunately.

I checked the various buses back to the UW to find there was nothing for 20+ minutes. Getting hungrier, too. But figured I might as well take this chance to check out the neighborhood a little, maybe find an access to the creek. Though I did not find such access, I did discover a tiny hiking trail connecting two disjunct parts of NE 105th St, as well as the home of the Lamers. Aww.

The bus back was terribly delayed by the crush of drivers trying to use southbound Roosevelt as an alternate to I-5 (definitely should have anticipated this) and by the time I got back to the lunch remainders I was starving. But still had a very nice hash.

StanD

When I saw the location for this hash I knew it was a good candidate for the Tron achievement so I got to planning the route. The trickiest part was figuring out the I-5 crossings. The closest crossings were at 92nd and Northgate. I wanted to bike it though and Northgate isn't terribly bike-friendly so I picked the next crossing to the north at around 120th. Luckily, the Interuban North bike trail takes me up to 125th and then I just had to cross east around Haller Lake. There are a lot of dead end streets around I-5 so I took it pretty slow around there to make sure I didn't ruin my track. Seattle has pretty good bike lane coverage now. I was able to go almost the entire way on either bike paths or "sharrow" streets.

Once I got to Roosevelt, it was pretty much home free. I took a jog to the east at 105th and there I was. I took a couple of pictures and went on my way. I got back within my lunch hour with a few minutes to spare. The weather was nice and I got some exercise. What could be better?