03-Jan-2015 -- This confluence was attained following a New Year’s Eve camping trip to the west side of the Baboquivari Mountains. A snowstorm on New Year’s Eve had left the desert with a beautiful blanket of white and a few days were spent exploring the canyons and lower slopes of the mountains. An attempt at the summit of Baboquivari Peak had to be aborted due to the amount of snow and ice on the upper slopes. Upon packing up for the return trip to Tucson it was decided that there were enough daylight hours remaining for an attempt at a nearby confluence.

We headed west on Hwy 86 to the turnoff to Nolic and parked on the side of the road. Slightly worried about leaving the truck along the highway, the area is close to Mexico and crawling with Border Patrol, we set off at a jogging pace across the desert floor. According to our calculations the confluence was approximately a mile from our location. Jogging was quite easy as the desert floor here is soft silt and the vegetation a scattering of creosotebush mixed with mesquite, palo verde, ironwood and various cacti. Our path crossed numerous ATV tracks, presumably the result of the Border Patrol, as well as numerous human prints and the ubiquitous discarded pieces of clothing and water bottles. We reached the confluence in roughly 20 to 25 minutes of zig-zagging through the brush and across numerous dry washes. It took a while for the GPS to settle down and allow its zeros to be photographed but we were back to the truck within the hour. On the drive back to Tucson plans were made to nab two more confluences along 32° N the following weekend.