#4: [13-Apr-24]

#3: [18-Feb-17]

#2: [24-Aug-04]

#1: [29-Oct-00]

27-Oct-2024 --

35°N was so good that we returned to stand on it for the second time this month, a couple degrees east. Unlike some other non-local confluence trips, there weren't any secondary motivations for coming out to the area — today, the confluence dictated where we'd explore (rather than being a bonus on a longer day). Late October was good timing, as fall colors were beginning to seep into the forests of eastern Oklahoma. The fall foliage wasn't yet spectacular (probably still a couple weeks off from that), but in combination with pleasantly overcast skies, some parts of the drive east along US 270 had me craving a pumpkin spice something or other.

We knew ahead of time that 35N 96W was a member of the 'exceptionally easy public road confluence' club: you could pass right over the exact location without ever leaving your vehicle (or the public road network). Google Maps would make getting there almost too simple, so we opted to navigate using only a waypoint on my Garmin's roadless basemap. It wasn't much of an ask getting within a couple miles (US 270 isn't far from the spot), but we did make a premature northward turn that cost about 10 minutes. No complaints though — it provided us some extra sightseeing along a winding gravel road in the forested hills a bit west of the confluence. We successfully located the correct turn shortly after getting back on the highway: it was the very next one, no more than 30 seconds down the road. The correct northward road (Cabiness Rd) was extremely high quality and must've been repaved within the last year or so (May 2023 streetview doesn't reflect its current state). I note this only because the well-posted speed limit was a whopping 25 mph (40 kmh) for a non-negligible stretch, oddly enough on a perfectly straight segment with very few driveways. Being a visitor, I adhered to it, but a local driver's reaction behind me suggested 25 mph was a pretty unpopular speed — very understandable for a piece of road I would've felt safe driving twice as fast.

The fresh pavement conveniently ended at the intersection with Bucklucksy Rd, the gravel road where 35N 96W falls (about 85 meters east of said intersection). We turned right and immediately drove past it in search of a place to park the car, somewhere away from the actual point; it would be nice to walk a little bit and enjoy the scenery. I think I prefer non-road confluences, but the low-stakes nature of this point was enjoyable in its own way. For one thing, we got some insight into the area's cereal preferences! There were also some beer cans scattered along the side of the road; curious about how long they'd been there (6 months? 27 years?), we considered looking closer to find expiration dates (but decided poking through trash didn't sound appealing). No more than 5 minutes into our stroll, the longitude decimals began to dwindle and we arrived at the confluence (for the second time, technically).

Trees lined the north and south sides of the road and constituted our longitudinal views, and our west-east views were filled by the road we'd been walking along. Some forested hills to the west were visible beyond the intersection with Cabiness Rd (and subtle autumn colors are visible in the distance of the west-facing picture). The thermometer hovered at a very comfortable 68°F (20°C) or so, made even better by the cloudy skies; this left us with no regrets about voluntarily walking there, it even would've been fine to park a mile away in that weather. With admittedly not much else to do after getting the pictures, we briefly admired the westward view at the intersection before starting back towards our vehicle. Perhaps not the most riveting adventure, but an undeniably representative taste of the surrounding locale (one of my favorite aspects of seeking out these points).

I get a kick out of 35N 96W falling in such an accessible place — the surrounding road network isn't particularly dense. This almost certainly makes it the most "zero-metered" confluence in Oklahoma, by volume of people that pass directly over the spot (whether they know it or not). In fact, we saw two vehicles do just that: I wonder how many other intentional confluence visitors observe others zero-meter the point? I know of at least one extreme case that lies on a freeway on-ramp (45N 123W in Oregon), and I'm sure there are a handful of others out there — confluences where you might get run over by other "visitors" if you stay too long.

After leaving the confluence, we headed east into McAlester (the nearest sizable community, 14 miles southeast of the point). Here, we got food at a really solid brunch place, then clinched (i.e., drove the length of) the US 69 business loop through town. Driving those sorts of 'business loops' occasionally reveals details of places that escape the sight of through-travelers; in this case, we learned that the present-day town is actually a merger of formerly distinct North and South McAlesters. Although the merge happened nearly 120 years ago, a secondary (small) downtown still exists in the north, which was news to us (having been through "regular" downtown McAlester a few times in the past). Obscure trivia facts successfully acquired, we declared our Pittsburg County confluence day complete, and soon started back on the highway toward central Oklahoma.