#3: [09-May-04]

#2: [09-Feb-02]

10-Aug-2001 -- Having successfully completed two of our three planned confluences for today ( N54° W109° and N54° W108°) we headed off for our final one before heading home. Our Garmin MapSource program had indicated this one might be a bit harder to achieve successfully - they showed it lying in a lake.

Our approach was from the north down Highway 12 since we had just been to N54° W108°. Our map showed this point to be just off the highway. We reached the approximate location and found that the closest approach by car appeared to be just under one kilometer from where we wanted to be. We drove down the highway a bit further to see if there was an access road we could take but nothing seemed evident. Apparently we were in for our longest hike of the day. We drove back to our one kilometer spot, pulled off the highway and armed with our trusty GPS and digital camera set out looking for the confluence. The path lead us west along beside a field and into an area that appeared to be a dumping area of some type. We found the tracks used by the trucks taking things to this "dump" and followed it through the trees. After walking about 700 m we came out of the trees and, much to our surprise, found ourselves on a golf course! Apparently we should have driven around the area a bit more than we did because there was a road running right through here. Convincing ourselves the walk was good for us we plodded on.

The GPS indicated our point was somewhere down one of the fairways on the golf course. We could see the lake by now so began to wonder if we would be successful this time around. Our path took us to the 8th hole then up and around a corner on a path we later discovered led to the 9th hole of the course. As we walked along I kept an eye on the GPS and when it hit 190 m the distance starting rising again so we knew this was going to be as close as we were going to get. We were looking south, out into Martin's Lake, and if we were to get the zeros we were seeking we would need a boat. It appeared that the Garmin software was once again right on the mark. Pictures were taken looking out into the lake towards the confluence and of the GPS showing our closest approach. We then decided to head back to the van. It was almost 5:30 and we had a long drive ahead of us. We walked the same route back to the van arriving there about 5:50.

As we left the area we discovered about a kilometer further down the road than we had gone before there was a road leading to a recreation area. This road was not shown on the MapSource program since it would have been built by the developers of the recreation area. Had we taken this road we could have saved a lot of time and a lot of extra walking.

So, our two days of confluence hunting had ended with five successful visits and two attempts. We headed home feeling that we had done remarkably well. We still had several hours on the road to get home but we knew we had achieved the goals we'd set out to meet. We arrived home shortly before 11:00 PM having registered a total of 1648 km on the GPS. Tired but happy ....

In Martins Lake, about 80 m from the lakeside.