02-Aug-2015 -- This was the continuation of a summer trip with several successful confluences with 48N 119W being the most recent
We had spent the last couple of days with about 200 old friends and crew members at a work reunion in Spokane.
This morning, I had dropped my wife off at the Spokane Airport to catch a plane home since she had to be back at work on Monday. I now had several days while driving back home to visit confluences!
I discovered that Stoneridge Road through the golf course community is blocked with a gate at the intersection of Poirier Road. This was frustrating since I would end up parking just beyond that gate after backtracking through Blanchard to Poirer Road and then following it south and west to a pullout just before a small bridge and dam ending up only about 200 meters west of where I was on the other side of the gate!
I was only about 500 meters away and made quick progress along a narrow dirt road on the east side of the lake. The path turned west and soon I was on the 117W longitude line and went south, up the hill towards the confluence. About 70 meters away, the slope increased significantly when I entered the treeline. It was slow going through thick trees and brush. The thick coverage overhead also made it tough for my GPS receivers. After considerable maneuvering up and down the slope and around trees to get all zeros I took my pictures. Haze from multiple distant fires obscured an otherwise clear day.
After returning to my vehicle I made sure to wash all of the plant debris off my arms and legs. Pants and long sleeves would have been ideal while bushwacking up the hill.
Post processing of the GPS data reveals that my GPS receiver was 8.5 meters southwest of the actual confluence with a Horizontal Precision of 4.5 meters.
Total time off Highway 41 in Blanchard was 1:00 with 5.8 km driving. The round trip hike was 3.3 km and took me 44 minutes including about 15 minutes spent in the vicinity of the confluence.
Onward to 43N 116W!