#2: [05-May-03]

10-Jul-2001 -- I first visited www.confluence.org in February of 2001, and noticed that the nearest point to my house (50N, 97W) had not been visited. Alas, by the time I got hold of a reliable GPS unit (several months later), it had already been visited. I decided to find another, and noticed that this one lay just to the west of where my job often took me. Even though it is a secondary point, I decided to give it a try.

This confluence point is about 20 km west of the town of Elie, and about 5 km north of the Trans Canada Highway, the main east-west corridor through the whole country. Heading north on Route 430, I passed several "mile roads" leading off to the east and west. Taking the third mile road east brought me 500 meters north of my destination. As I was getting out of my truck, a farmer rolls by and asks what my purpose was. I tried to explain to him what the project was all about. He seemed a bit perplexed, asked me "are you a land surveyor?", and when I said that yes, that was pretty close to what I was doing, he said I could proceed, but not to destroy any crops.

I headed south through a carrot field (rare in this area, where the main crops are wheat and canola) but after 150 meters I found my path blocked by a ditch filled with about three feet of water. Back to the main road, and another path along a tree belt brought me pretty darn close, just 100 meters east of the point. I had to walk carefully through the crops (no longer carrots, but pumpkins) and finally I found it. Out comes the digital camera ....click click click. My first confluence point visited. Hopefully I can visit another (49N 97W) on the Canada/US border in a few days.