Megafest 7.0 (part 3)
Started: 2008-06-13 09:52:57
Submitted: 2008-06-13 10:53:54
Visibility: World-readable
This is part 3 in the continuing saga of Megafest 7.0. See also part 1 and part 2.
Saturday, 24 May 2008
During breakfast, I attempted to recruit Festors to join me in a mission to reach the local geohash. (The whole thing was created as a Spontaneous Adventure Generator in xkcd comic #426.) I participated in the discussion on the wiki, since the randomly-generated site was in fact on the Coney Flats four-wheel-drive road (NFSR 507), which I visited last summer, so I knew the terrain. I was successful in convincing Kiesa and Humblik to join me. (I may also have been instrumental in convincing other potential Geohashers that the idea was less than terrible.)
We set out a bit earlier than strictly necessary to make the rendezvous itself, since I wanted to get a bit of extra hiking in before the actual hash meetup. I handed Humblik my video camera and got him to film me narrating the drive as I drove up the South Saint Vrain canyon to Beaver Reservoir. We parked at the gate (still closed for the season) and headed up the road on foot. We encountered snow quickly, often in the form of drifts covering the entire road. We post-holed a bit, but I was usually able to find a post-hole-free route over or around the snow.
We reached the hash site, a few hundred meters down the road after the road turned south to avoid private property. Actually locating the site was a bit tricky, since my GPS receiver couldn't get a good signal in the in the trees trees. I finally declared that I had found the site and we headed back down the road to the trail that the road turned south to avoid and hiked along it for a while before turning back to the hash site for the 1600 rendezvous.
The rest of the group, organized by the Internet, planned on rendezvousing at Beaver Reservoir at 1530 and hiking up to the hash site for the designated 1600 meetup. We amused ourselves waiting for them at the hash site; Kiesa brought a book and Humblik and I played Star Munchkin. (Actually, we played a slight variant because I couldn't quite remember all the rules.) We finally gave up on the rest of the group at 1630 and headed back down the road, only to find them half way down. Kiesa continued on to the car (not wanting to visit the hash site a third time), but Humblik and I returned to the site with the new group. (I figured it must be the geohashing group when I saw a collection of somewhat-under-prepared hikers, one of which was wearing the famous sudo make me a sandwich t-shirt.) This group post-holed a bit more on the way up to the site, owing to the often higher pressure exerted on the snow by their feet. When we reached the hash site, I continued taking documentary video footage as the group took photos, played Twister, built a tiny snowman, and generally amused themselves.
Humblik and I headed back before the rest of the group, since it was well after 1700 and we had other plans for the evening. (I declared Saturday night to be a "Board Game Extravaganza".) We met Kiesa on the trail up, who noticed the time and had come to fetch us if we hadn't noticed the time. We drove back down to Longmont in time for supper.
Swinyar and Heather made a brief appearance, being in the area for Campion's graduation this weekend. Heather got excited when I mentioned that I had undertaken a vast irrigation project in my back yard; when I mentioned that the pipes fit together "just like Legos", she told Swinyar to ask me about my "new Lego set". They didn't actually have very much time to stick around during the evening, being expected for more events back up at Campion that night.
I taught Anya to play Carcassonne when my coworker Adam and his girlfriend joined us for the Board Game Extravaganza. We played two games of Star Munchkin (once I had a chance to remind myself of the rules) and played another game of Carcassonne with the double river expansion and the Inns and Cathedrals expansion. Adam took control of one of my cities with a super-follower and managed to complete it with a cathedral, multiplying his points to ultimately pull far ahead of Yanthor and I. That rounded out the Board Game Extravaganza sometime well after midnight.
