2009-06-14 49 -122

Sun 14 Jun 2009 in 49,-122: 49.0595272, -122.7652863 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

Back yard of a farm near South Surrey, on 32 Ave

Participants

• Elbie
• plypkie
• Rhonda
• Xore
• yangman
• SueB

Planning

Getting there by bus:

• nearest bus stop: the 351 stops on King George and 32 Ave
• the stop is about 3.4 km away from the hashpoint; quick bike ride, or longish walk
• 351 route map and time table

For those taking the bus, you can join us at these meetpoints:

• 8:50 at Burrard Station
• 9:00 at Broadway and Granville

Bicyclists: caution, there are only 2 bike rack spots on each 351 bus, and the buses are half an hour apart on sunday.

Detailed planning and schedules moved to talk page

Expeditions

To summarize, success. The two groups managed to converge on the hash point at almost exactly the same time, and we were given permission to enter the property. Ambassador achievement for some, cycling for others, and yangman tried and failed at Tron due to getting lost. Then we had a picnic about a block away.

Details later.

Rhonda

I made it down to the 8:30 AM seabus just in time to catch it, but with not enough time to buy additional tickets for the trip back. Oh well, I have change. I won't be stranded.

Despite being reasonably certain that I could walk fast enough from the seabus terminal to Burrard station where I was catching the 351, I opted to take the skytrain for one station, to make sure I wasn't late. The train was even in the station with its doors open when I arrived on the platform, so I hurried inside.

And waited. A few more people came down the stairs, spotted the train with its doors open, and ran to get inside.

Really it was only a couple of minutes before it started its route, but it feels longer when you've run to catch it and the doors don't close right behind you. It zoomed along the underground skytrain track and I got off at the very next station, and climbed the stairs out into the sunlight. After a pause to re-orient myself, I decided that the 351 stop was probably to my left, and headed that way to look for it.

When I reached the corner and looked at the row of bus stop signs halfway down the block, I saw Xore juggling at one of them and knew I was in the right place.

Elbie

I left UBC on bike, and discovered that it was a lot cooler and windier outside than in my east-facing apartment. I arrived at Broadway and Granville around 8:50. Soon after, Xore phoned to warn me that one cyclist had gotten on the bus. I then set myself up for waiting at the bus stop such that I could run and lock up my bike as quickly as possible, should the 351's racks be taken.

I spent the next ten or so minutes standing in suspense, watching for that yellow bus to cross the bridge. When it did, and when it left the cloverleaf stop -- I continued waiting anxiously until I could see the bike rack -- only half full! I quickly nabbed that last bike rack as soon as the bus came to a halt, and came aboard to sit near Rhonda and Xore.

Elbie, Rhonda, Xore

The three of us settled in to the comfy seats on the express long-route bus and chatted as we roared down Granville, making express-bus spaced stops to pick up the occasional passenger.

The obviously hung-over and tired passenger draped over three seats in the wheelchair section directly in front of us didn't seem too impressed by the fact that we were talking, but still managed to doze intermittently in a position that looked somewhere between uncomfortable and painful. Once he roused himself to ask if we were talking about Dungeons and Dragons, which we were. It looked like he was trying to join the conversation, but was unable to maintain focus much longer than the one question; his eyes glazed over and he slumped into his half asleep position again. We laughed a bit when he almost missed his stop but woke up while the bus was still in the bus loop and convinced the driver to let him off.

We discussed our route and where we would be meeting SueB, who was on a different bus that would drop her off at a different point on 32nd.

At our stop, while Elbie was getting her bike off the front of the bus, Rhonda noticed that there was a cell phone and jacket on the seat and told the driver the hung over guy had left that behind when he got off. The driver collected them and tossed them in the corner of the dash to bring to the translink lost and found later.

Also, Sue was at our stop instead of half a kilometre away, to general surprise.

SueB

I was awake before my alarm clock - a nasty habit I seem to be developing lately. My bus was a few minutes early and the skytrain was just pulling in when I walked up the stairs to the platform. Same thing happened when I switched trains at Columbia which trust me is virtually unheard of. All this slickness let me catch the 9:12am bus instead of the 9:30am one as planned. Contrary to what I thought, the bus travelled along King George instead of further east on 152nd. I arrived at the bus stop 5 minutes before the others.

The sun wasn't out as the weatherman promised, but being a red-head with fair skin, this boded well for me. My sun-block stood up to the test and I stayed un-red for the entire day. Seven kilometres, a successful geohash and some slightly confused homeowners later, we reached the bus stop as our bus pulled up. Elbie, Yang and I hopped on and started our journey back to the city. We parted ways at Broadway, all of us ready for a nap but with too much still to do, in our respective schedules - naps would have to wait.

Geo-hashing done, it was time to play tag in the park with Xore and Rhonda and 19 other fun-loving adults then off to meet another friend for a sunset walk to the end of Buntzen Lake and back.

Four walkers

Elbie, Rhonda, SueB and Xore departed the 351/321 stop after getting their bearings, and after a detour to what was estimated as the last public washroom opportunity, set off on the 32 Ave Diversion. The four had a leisurely stroll down the sidewalk of 32 Ave, enjoying the fenced off portion of the area, and remarking how much more developed the area was than it looked like on Google Maps.

Eventually they wound up at the end of the suburbs, as did the sidewalk. They switched to the shoulder of the highway, walking single-file, as Elbie kept an eye on her GPS for their distance. About 100 metres away from the hashpoint, a familiar-looking cyclist was spotted, along with one more.

Achievements

We all earned the Ambassador achievement by obtaining permission from the property owners to access the (49, -122) geohash on 2009-06-14.

• Elbie met plypkie
• SueB met plypkie