User:Robyn

I'm Robyn, also known on the internets as Qov. You may recognize me by another pseudonym from elsewhere, and I know I'm not doing a very good job of keeping quiet like this, but I can trust you not to blab, right?

I hash on foot, by bicycle and by transit, not by car, because burning fuel for pointless expeditions is dumb, but exercising for pointless expeditions is the win. I may stop off at a geohash in a car when I'm on my way elsewhere, though. When I'm at home in Vancouver I'll usually try for the nearest hash, in Vancouver, in Surrey or across the border to Bellingham. I may get over to Victoria from time to time, too. I have good maps locally. I also travel all over North America for work, so you'll see me at strange graticules elsewhere.

Statistics

Graticules

• Hashes Attempted: 21 in 15 different graticules
• Hashes Achieved: 11 in 9 different graticules

Green are successful, red means so far unsuccessful, horizontal lines are just to facilitate counting.

31 -84 - Albany, GA

32 -93 - Shreveport, LA

39 -121 - Chico, CA

40 -112 - Tooele, UT

42 -123 - Grants Pass, OR

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44 -123 - Eugene, OR

47 -122 - Seattle, WA

47 -121 - Snoqualmie, WA

48 -123 - Victoria, BC

48 -122 - Bellingham, WA

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48 -121 - North Cascades, WA

49 -123 - Vancouver, BC

49 -122 - Surrey, BC

55 -115 - Utikuma Lake, AB

55 -114 - Slave Lake, AB

• Saturday Hashes: 3 in 3 different graticules
• Geohashers met: 0 in 0 different graticules
• Continents geohashed: 1

Things that have thwarted me

• No trespassing sign: 2
• Being chicken: 1
• Body of water: 1
• Transportation failure: 1
• Mis-setting the GPS: 1
• Time constraints: 2
• Terrain too nasty to continue safely: 2

Never turn down a chance to geohash.

All Geohashes Attempted

Most recent are listed first. Bold numbers are the success count and bold words indicate an award or consolation prize taken for that attempt. I limit myself to one ribbon per expedition. I've decided to count a geohash "successful" if I:

(a) get to within the accuracy figure of the coordinates as shown by my GPS,

(b) have the GPS show a distance remaining of zero,

(c) get to where it is obvious I could reach the geohash, but refrain from trampling crops, or

(d) meet other geohashers who didn't travel with me, while trying to reach the geohash.

• 2008-08-24 55 -114 (Slave Lake, AB): I don't remember the raptor attack, but I have significant claw marks on my legs. Success #11.
• 2008-08-21 55 -114 (Slave Lake, AB): First ever hash here, for success #10 and coldest documented.
• 2008-08-17 55 -115 (Utikuma Lake, AB): Mother Nature makes me her bitch in deep tangled forest.
• 2008-08-16 55 -114 (Slave Lake, AB): Stopped by deep swamp filled with metaphorical alligators a mere 0.2 nm from the geohash.
• 2008-08-15 55 -114 (Slave Lake, AB): Uphill dirt road took me too close to bedtime.
• 2008-08-14 55 -115 (Utikuma Lake, AB): Ran out of time cycling around the lake.
• 2008-07-28 48 -123 (Victoria, BC): Border geohash at Point Roberts. Success #9.
• 2008-07-21 49 -123 (Vancouver, BC): Second attempt at a hash in my home graticule. Blinded by Science entering coordinates.
• 2008-07-19 48 -121 (North Cascades, WA): Thwarted by No Trespassing sign.
• 2008-07-18 47 -122 (Seattle, WA): Ambassador achievement, on a boat dock. Success #8.
• 2008-07-14 39 -121 (Chico, CA): Suspense-filled adventure. No raptors. Success #7.
• 2008-07-13 42 -123 (Grants Pass, OR): My first speed hash. Virgin graticule. Success #6.
• 2008-07-10 44 -123 (Eugene, OR): Unsuccessful because the motorcyclist refused the road.
• 2008-07-06 47 -121 (Snoqualmie, WA): A drag-along hash, where the draggee brought me, on a motorcycle. Success #5.
• 2008-07-05 49 -122 (Surrey, BC): My first repeat hash in the same graticule, and 4th successful geohash. Logged bicycle.
• 2008-06-14 40 -112 (Tooele, UT): Unsuccessful, thwarted by a ditch in the way.
• 2008-06-14 32 -93 (Shreveport, LA): Another aerial hash, my 3rd successful one. Just missed getting the Master Pilot Award.
• 2008-06-11 31 -84 (Albany, GA): My 2nd successful geohash. First ever aerial hash reported by anyone.
• 2008-06-07 49 -123 (Vancouver, BC): Thwarted by the watershed. And wolves.
• 2008-06-04 49 -122 (Surrey, BC): just south of King George Skytrain station - My 1st successful. It's the parking lot of a Korean church slated for demolition, but said demolition hasn't stated yet and the construction fencing only covers the north side, allowing me to walk in through the west side, snap a quick photo of the parking stall and continue on my way.
• 2008-06-03 48 -122 (Bellingham, Washington): east of Limestone Junction - unsuccessful, because I chickened out at the border.

• See my blog for details on my early geohashing adventures, before I had properly figured out wiki-ing.

Geohashes Rejected

• 2008-08-11 55 -114 (Slave Lake, AB): 116 km away into the bush and I don't even have a bicycle here.
• 2008-06-05 49 -123 (Vancouver, BC): in the ocean in the mud flats just south of the south arm of the Fraser, about 2 km off shore. I was going to attempt this. I actually went to Canadian Tire to get a paddle, but then but I couldn't find my other bike bag, to put my wetsuit in, and it's such a miserable day that I've decided to clean the garage instead.
• See my blog for details of the attempted and not attempted hashes.

Geohashers Met

• None yet, but I'm hoping to meet some soon.

Achievements

Oh no, now that I've seen the list of available Achievements, I want them *all*. Just for fun, I'm trying to make an achievement at every geohash, but limiting myself to taking one award per geohash, and only taking each award once. The exception is Virgin Graticule, which I take every time it is applicable.

Robyn earned the Air geohash achievement by reaching the (31, -84) geohash on 2008-06-11 by air, attaining the rank of Pilot.

Robyn earned the Bicycle geohash achievement by cycling to the (49, -122) geohash on 2008-07-05.

Robyn earned the Drag-along achievement by dragging Wade to the (47, -121) geohash on 2008-07-06.

Robyn earned the Ambassador achievement by obtaining permission to access the (47, -122) geohash on 2008-07-18.

Robyn earned the No trespassing consolation prize by almost reaching the (48, -121) geohash on 2008-07-19.

Robyn earned the Blinded by Science Consolation Prize by failing to reach the (49, -123) geohash on 2008-07-21 when she missed a digit entering coordinates in her GPS.

Robyn earned the Border geohash achievement by crossing the Canada-USA border on 2008-07-28 to reach the (48, -123) geohash.

Robyn earned the There might be alligators! consolation prize by being prevented from reaching the (55, -114) geohash on 2008-08-16 by an impassable and unforeseen marsh (and probably lurking alligators).

Robyn earned the Cold geohash achievement by reaching the (55, -114) geohash on 2008-08-21 while the temperature was 14.8°C.

Robyn earned the Velociraptor Geohash Achievement by reaching the (55, -114) geohash for 2008-08-24 with highly visible raptor claw marks.

Checklist of achievements to get

land, water, first, geotrash, public transport, multihash, time traveller, endurance, no batteries, speed racer, geoflashing, walk, underground, underwater, golf, pub, hash collision, freeway, birthday, picnic, sex, snowman, twister, phonebooth, hopper, MNIMB, restricted. McGyver, circus, and most everything else that has been made up.

Have land, of course but haven't documented. I'm saving that for an otherwise boring hash.

Progress Towards Multihash Achievements

• Regional Geohash for British Columbia (page still under construction)
• Graticule Hopper (future page)
• xkcd Centurion (future page)

Most Irritating Thing About Geohashing Algorithm

Coordinates are generally not available until after I have to report for work, so I go past twenty geohashes in a day without a chance to try for any of them, then have opportunity to go after only one lousy one at the end of the day. But I guess that's a good thing, or else I might wake up at 2 am to check the day's geohash location.

Wiki Stuff

• I've made it my goal to complete the needed pages to fix red links on the Achievements page. People keep making new achievements (which I love) but every one needs a page describing the achievement, a ribbon template, and a ribbon image.
• I also obsess about every page belonging to its proper categories, and every category belonging to a category, all the way up to the root.
• My C-key doesn't work all that well, so some of my categories are ategories.

57 / f / 49,-123