#9: [27-Sep-15]

#8: [12-Apr-15]

#5: [27-Nov-04]

#4: [02-May-04]

#3: [19-Jan-03]

#1: [28-Dec-99]

#7: [27-Nov-11] (incomplete)

#2: [14-Nov-00] (incomplete)

13-Jan-2005 -- On January 13th, my wife Beth and I drove the "back route", so to speak, from Phoenix to Gila Bend, then along I-8 to the Painted Rock Road exit, and north about 7 miles. We parked and walked west about a half mile and zeroed the GPS. A feeling of happiness and warmth enveloped us both - we had successfully visited confluence 33N113W. We celebrated with a breakfast at the Space Age Restaurant in Gila Bend. There's not much in GB to recommend it to anyone, but this restaurant is pretty clean with some well done murals. Aside from the gas stations and mini-marts, this is the only place in town worth a stop.

When we got home and I began to submit this visit I realized we had used the wrong datum: we had used NAD27, which I have my GPS set to by default to agree with the USGS topo maps (most of them). Disappointed, I opted to not count this visit as official. Dang!

Fast forward to March 26, 2005. On my way to Yuma (Beth was not with me this trip), I gave the confluence another visit. With the datum set to WGS84, I found the confluence without incident and took the four cardinal photos (the ones you see here). Curious, I reset the datum to NAD27 and saw that it was almost all 9's… we were not more than 100 feet, I'd say, from our January visit, and within seconds I had located our small cairn we'd built next to a large ocotillo. (The GPS read 32.99991, 112.99927). I think our January visit would count under the bylaws of this project. More interestingly, the path of least resistance of our hike in and out of our January visit would have carried us literally right over the WGS84 datum confluence, as it lies on top of a gentle ridge, with minimal brush. We likely walked within feet of it and didn't realize it! Therefore, I am submitting our January visit as official, with my March visit acting as insurance.