#5: [08-Jul-23]

#4: [13-Nov-16]

#2: [31-Dec-08]

#1: [06-Sep-01]

16-Feb-2016 -- This is the eighth out of 9 reports on confluence visits during our road trip across the USA. The story starts at 39°N 77°W and continues from 33°N 97°W.

Driving from Albuquerque in the morning, we took I-40, turned to I-25, then turned to US-550. After driving 66 miles on US-550, we arrived in a small town named "Cuba". We had beautiful scenic views along the side of the road. Not many traffic. We turned on Rd 197 at Cuba. It took us about 1.6 miles to reach a private road, which was shared by a couple of families. We went all the way to the end of the road and parked in front of a private house. Nobody was at home at that time. As we started walking to the back, there was a guy next door who was about to leave. We asked for permission to take his pathway and to walk to the back hill. Although we got his permission, we still parked at the first house, which had no one in the house.

The hills in the back actually do not belong to any private owners. However, we needed to cross these private properties in order to climb to the hills. It was in February and it was a sunny day, however, there was still snow covering the ground back in the hills. It must have had pretty heavy snow in the past few days because the snow on the ground was at least 6 inches high. We had to step into the snow and tried to avoid stepping on goat poops. Following the direction of our GPS, we climbed towards our target. It took us about 45 min to reach the point. Round trip was 1 hour and 10 min. The total distance was 2.54 km. It is in an altitude of 2168 meters above sea level. We recorded the exact point of 36°00.000'N 107°00.000" with an accuracy of 3 m.

When we got down the hill with mud all over our shoes, the homeowner was already there. We went to talk to her and explained to her about our trip. She was pretty calm about it. We finished this task within 1.5 hours.

CP Visit Details:

• Distance to a road: 1 km
• Distance on foot: 2.54 km
• Round trip time on foot: 1.5 hours
• Time at the CP: 11:10 AM
• Measured height: 2168 m
• Minimal distance according to GPS: 0 m
• Position accuracy: 3 m
• Topography: mountainous
• Weather: mostly sunny

The story continues at 36°N 115°W.