24-Aug-2022 -- While driving from Redding, California to Oakridge, Oregon (for a mountain biking vacation), I made a detour to revisit this Degree Confluence Point (that I had previously visited 10 years earlier), in order to get a ‘drone’s eye’ view. Approaching the point from the small town of Dorris, California, I was reminded once again of how insanely rough and rocky the approach roads are. Even with 4WD, they were quite difficult to drive, and it took a long time, with very slow driving, to get near the point. For this reason, I probably won't be visiting this point again; the approach roads are just too difficult to negotiate.
But eventually I arrived at a junction of two rough dirt roads at [41.99908,-121.99294], 0.37 miles East of the point. I parked here and started ‘bushwhacking’ down the hillside towards the point, skirting the private property (with flimsy-looking greenhouses) that’s just to the North. As before, the point lay on a rocky hillside, in a small grove of trees, amongst bone-dry grass.
Ten years ago, there were no signs of civilization near the point. Now, however, there were several ‘developments’ nearby. I put ‘developments’ in quotes, because these were all quite basic: old trailers, rough-looking sheds, outhouses, and bizarre, mostly failed attempts at agriculture - with empty greenhouses and strange irrigation setups. Today (a hot summer day), all of these ‘developments’ were unoccupied; in fact, nobody else seemed to be present on the entire hilltop. But I had to wonder: Who would buy land in such an inhospitable area, and what are they trying to do here? I immediately thought of cannabis-growing, which is now legal in both California and nearby Oregon. But why would anyone try to grow cannabis (or anything else) in such arid, rocky land? Surely there are better places for this?
Perhaps a future visitor will encounter one of the local residents, and learn more about just what they are doing here. But a warning that this Degree Confluence Point appears to lie within private land, and whoever owns this land might not be particularly receptive to visitors.
Here is a remote-controlled aerial video of this confluence point.