13-Sep-2019 -- While driving from the San Francisco Bay Area to Oakridge, Oregon (for a quick mountain biking trip), I decided to pay a visit to this point - that had been visited only twice before (and not since 2008). I soon discovered why this point has received little interest: It is quite remote. Furthermore, unfortunately, it is not particularly interesting. (The point lies on a steep, forested slope; many other Degree Confluence Points are just like this.) I was, however, able to get a nice ‘drone’s-eye’ view of the area.

There are two possible ways to approach this point: from the South (i.e., from California), or from the North (i.e., from Oregon). The first visitor to this point, in 2001, made the mistake of approaching from the South. This requires a very strenuous, 1000’ climb from Elliot Creek. The second visitor, Steve Skoog, in 2008, approached the point from the North, by dropping down from the ridge top. This approach requires much less climbing/descending.

To access this point, I left Interstate 5 (the main North-South freeway along the U.S. West Coast) at Siskiyou Summit, Oregon - just North of the California-Oregon state line. From there it was a long drive westward: First along a paved road past the Mount Ashland ski area, and then continuing on National Forest Service Road 20 (gravel/dirt), which was often very rough, and then a series of increasingly narrow, feral forest roads, until I got to a locked gate at [42.00970,-123.00702], just 0.76 miles NW of the point (‘as the crow flies’). I parked here and hiked the rest of the way. I found a series of old forest roads and road cuts that ‘switchbacked’ down the hillside. These helped me a lot, but I still ended up having to do a lot of steep ‘bushwhacking’ down (and then up) the slope. For 60-year-old me, this was much more strenuous than Steve Skoog’s narrative would have you believe.

Here is a remote-controlled aerial video of this confluence point.