#6: [14-Jul-24]

#4: [22-Oct-09]

#3: [28-Aug-09]

#2: [04-Jul-06]

#1: [03-Sep-00]

30-May-2010 --

The 31 Road heads off from the Wind River Road (aka the 30 Road) a mile or so south of Old Man Pass. It is a hard-packed surface with a few potholes, but is a relatively easy ride even in a passenger car when it is open. Therein lies the rub. Despite low snow conditions early this winter, the 31 is officially closed to vehicular traffic between December 1 and April 1. If you choose to park at its junction with the 30, you have a 15-mile round trip ahead of you. Even if you do wait until it is snow-free, you may elect to walk the last mile or so to the confluence due to some overgrowth of the 115 Road after it spurs off the 3107.

My geocaching partner and I parked at the top of "the Beak," the northernmost bend between the junction of the 30 and 31. From the point at which further progress was obstructed by snow, it was 3.9 miles on foot to the Grand Conjunction of Zeros, for the most part on pleasantly walkable road which steadily declined in elevation. At two-tenths of a mile from GZ, we followed the righthand "tine" of a three-way fork which took us within approximately 100' of the confluence itself.

The woods is open here with very little understory except close to the road. There is some medium-sized deadfall among mature timber (largely hemlock), but it can be circumnavigated easily. The canopy is dense, however, and it took almost twenty minutes to satisfy two GPSrs with readings of perfect zeros, my Garmin Summit being the first to obtain and hold the coordinates for any length of time. Variation on my unit ranged from .996 to .011 north and .997 to .005 west during that space of time. A small cedar (20') sits within one foot of the Zero Point.

This foray provided me with an additional reward: a photograph of Anemone Oregana, found near the start of the 3107 Rd. In over half a century of hiking Pacific Northwest trails, this was my first observation of this delicate wildflower.