#1: [05-Jul-01]

#3: [21-Jun-22] (incomplete)

16-Aug-2003 -- I recently sold my pickup truck after getting married, so I thought I'd try for the confluence point in our spare car, a little, yellow, 1990 Ford Festiva.

This confluence point had already been visited on 05-Jul-2001 so I thought I'd try a different approach. I parked about 7 km SW of the confluence point and hiked up through Johnson Gap and along the backside of Steamboat Ridge to the confluence. The first 3 km were through sand dunes. After the sand dunes, I found myself in an area full of big sagebrush. The sage was quite dense and about 2 m tall, so that slowed my travel a bit.

Once I got through Johnson Gap onto Steamboat Ridge, it was an easy hike along the top of the plateau at 2400 m elevation to within 1 km of the point. Then another easy walk down off the ridge to the point itself.

There were quite a few cattle grazing in the valleys to the east and west. Back up the ridge to the south of the point was a small stand of trees (rare in this area) which provided nice shade for a brief rest before returning.