#4: [22-Sep-11]

#3: [28-Aug-06]

#2: [10-Jun-00]

#1: [29-May-00]

#6: [08-Sep-18] (incomplete)

28-Jul-2015 -- This was the continuation of a summer trip with several successful confluences.

The previous day we had visited 43N 122W and had spent the night west of Eugene. In the morning we continued west along Oregon 126 until Mapelton where we turned south on Sweet Creek Road. We followed the south side of the Siuslaw River along the heavily treed road until we came to a gate with a No Trespassing sign on it. As I was taking pictures of the sign and about to turn around, a vehicle with two older women was coming out. I asked if we could go about a quarter mile beyond the gate to a GPS point and take some pictures and then return. They told us we could and off we went.

We quickly came to the point but finding all zeros was going to be very difficult. There was a canopy of heavy tree cover that blocked a lot of light and almost all of the GPS signals. At the time I could tell the only views were to the north. Examination of GoogleEarth imagery depicts this confluence as located with rising terrain to the south and north south running ridges on either side of the point effectively masking signal acquisition. Homogeneous tree cover suggests that this area was previously clear cut logged.

In the short time we were there I could only get as close as 15 meters without going steeply uphill into impassible brush. My Trimble never acquired enough satellites for to calculate a position. I took my pictures but did not realize until long after that they came out poorly in the low light conditions. Apologies for the fuzzy pictures.

On our way out we stopped at a marina directly abeam the point and took a picture across the river towards the confluence.

Total time off Oregon 126 was almost exactly 1 hour with 31 km roundtrip.

The rest of the day was spent hiking to the top of Thumbs Point just north of Lincoln City. My wife had been completely captivated by a video titled the The Oregon Coast – A Winter Odyssey and really, really wanted to go there. The music and time-lapse imagery in this video are incredible! At about 1:09-1:19 in the video you will see Thumbs Point – a steep grass covered point about 400 feet above the ocean that has a nearly sheer drop off to the north and a trail along the sheared edge inland.

It took a lot of research to figure out just how to get there. We secured a beachside room at the Chinook Winds Casino and then drove a short distance to Roads End State Park and started walking north along Logan Road (there is no parking beyond the State Park) until a switchback. The trailhead begins beyond a gate to the north of the Dead End sign – not the one just beyond the sign.

After a couple mile hike along the trail through some dense foliage you will come out on a grassy area that rises steeply to Thumbs Point. The panoramic views on this cloud free day were simply incredible. The next morning we walked out of our room and right onto the beach where we spent a couple hours exploring and playing on the beach.

What a great couple of days!

Our next confluence would be 48N 119W!