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the Degree Confluence Project
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Canada : Alberta

23.3 km (14.5 miles) W of Notikewin, AB, Canada
Approx. altitude: 722 m (2368 ft)
([?] maps: Google MapQuest OpenStreetMap topo topo250 ConfluenceNavigator)
Antipode: 57°S 62°E

Accuracy: 17 m (55 ft)
Quality: good

Click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

#2: East #3: South #4: West #5: North #6: Proof #7: Chris and Greg at the (cutline) confluence #8: Chris crossing the beaver dam #9: Panorama from the cutline confluence near the degree confluence

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  57°N 118°W  

#1: General view of the confluence area.  The exact spot is probably about 20 meters into the trees on the right.

(visited by Chris Shannon and Greg Shannon)

05-Jun-2011 -- While visiting my brother up in Peace River, we planned to visit the most easily accessible unvisited confluence.

Google Earth and street view showed a nice gravel road out of Notikewin, township road 922, which was in great condition. The satellite imagery of Google Earth showed a very faint cutline running 2.8km NE of the confluence to the parking spot. This cutline happily appeared to run to within 10s of meters from the confluence. This might be too easy.

Greg was already familiar with the oil and gas backroads of northern Alberta but had not driven down this particular one. It took about an hour and a half from Peace River to get to the parking lot. We explored a bit further up in the truck to see if there were any nearby cutlines in better conditions. One ran due north from the confluence but the truck would likely be stuck if we attempted to drive down it.

It was a beautiful 15 degree sunny day. The mosquitoes were not too much of a bother. I used a patch of Vitamin B as repellent, which I'd use again.

The walk itself started was immediately blocked by a pond created by a beaver dam. On the way there, we bushwhacked around it, but on the way back we crossed over the dam itself. We didn't see any beavers.

We motored very quickly down the cut line, only having to slow once or twice to climb over fallen logs, or where the growth was particularly thick. We estimate that the cutline has been unmaintained for about 4 years, but that's just a guess.

We arrived at the confluence only 50 minutes after leaving the truck. This was as easy as I could have hoped. Right when my GPS was telling me to go a few meters into the bush, we came across an intersecting cutline. This new one ran due north, while the one we were on ran almost perfectly NE. We looked into the bush at the exact confluence and there was a nearby clearing which can also be seen on Google Earth. Being in the trees made the accuracy of my GPS only 11 meters, so there was no point in finding the all zeros point. My GPS told me that the confluence of the cutlines was only 17 meters from the degree confluence so that's where I took the photos from. I stitched them into a equirectangulal panorama.

Other than the cutlines themselves, we saw only a couple other signs of from humans. Very near the confluence was a survey marking left on a tree reading "ENERTEC, ID 97 1386", and later on, broken plastic truck body parts that looked like they lost a battle with a tree.


 All pictures
#1: General view of the confluence area. The exact spot is probably about 20 meters into the trees on the right.
#2: East
#3: South
#4: West
#5: North
#6: Proof
#7: Chris and Greg at the (cutline) confluence
#8: Chris crossing the beaver dam
#9: Panorama from the cutline confluence near the degree confluence
ALL: All pictures on one page