#7: [07-Apr-24]

#6: [24-May-11]

#5: [02-Apr-10]

#4: [22-Feb-06]

#3: [06-Oct-00]

#1: [05-Jul-00]

29-Jul-2000 -- We set out, Becky and I, from the Mid-Cities, heading west, around north Fort Worth, and out Highway 199 -- Jacksboro Hwy. We are approximately 50 miles from the confluence on a near due west heading. We have maps (1:24000), GPS receiver, magnetic compass, and good weather. What we don’t have are hats, long pants, or a large container of water. I should know better!

We maneuvered easily through Lake Worth, Azle, Boyd, and Springtown. We were looking for Farm Road 2210, which turns south and west off of Hwy 199. We plan to go through Gibtown and turn south on Witt Road, but we made a small detour here, and turned north to get a look at Two Bush Knob -- the major topographic feature in the area. It lies approximately 5-5.25 kilometers to the NNW. The Knob is on private property with No Trespassing signs posted -- so we didn’t! But we did take its picture. I would have liked to see how the land looks from the top of the Knob. But one should pay attention to posted signs.

We turned around and headed back south on Witt Rd, across FM 2210, looking for an east turn. We found DPS Tower road, which heads east and just north of the confluence will turn back to the north. We are looking for what appears to be a dirt road heading south, just a little north and west of the confluence. The maps indicate a dirt road that could possibly get us to within 50-80 meters of the confluence. But we are not so lucky. We found it but the road is gated. However, there are no posted signs regarding trespassing. We continue on down DPS Tower road to just where it turns back north at its nearest approach to the confluence. So we head in from the north. There is a dirt road/path heading in our general direction of travel but it turns back east and we are still 1-1.5 kilometers north. The terrain is forrested and between the trees are thorn vines and bushes (long pants idea popped up here). We tried navigating through the growth and even ducked down into a dry creek bed but we couldn’t make any real headway -- a machete would have been handy. So after numerous scratches and some effort we managed to back out to the road and the car.

The sun is no longer obscured by the earlier overcast and we had too work at getting ourselves out of the thickets. A jug of water would be nice right about now. We headed back to the gated dirt road. The map indicates that it will get us to within 20 meters of the confluence. It also indicates that this is not a straight line. We have to take the road south of the confluence, head east a little, and then back north -- uphill. Probably 3km if we use the road.

The walk is at a relaxing pace -- the sun is out now and the temperature is in the mid-90s. We took a decent picture of the countryside from the stairs on an oil storage tank (a small one). Becky was getting tired at this point and she was looking a little red in the face. A hat would have come in handy. We head on, and are able to cut across a wide-open field just south of a stock tank. All we had to watch out for were goat-head burrs.

We found the road on the other side of the field and headed north. We stumbled across four or five Black Angus cattle -- sturdy examples of their breed. Becky kept an eye on them, as they had moved from underneath a shade tree on our left and now were standing just off the road on our right, about 10 meters ahead. Becky wasn’t too sure they would move on as we approached, and she wasn't too crazy about how they just kept staring at us.

We found the confluence in a stand of trees. It is on a rise with a good view of the surrounding countryside, that is if the trees weren't in the way. Becky took several pictures at the confluence and from 60-80 meters south, on the dirt road that brought us here. She was now very thirsty and ready to find a gas station for a large bottle of water.

We headed back but this time we spotted a cow trail that ran along a fence line that very nearly followed the N33 latitude. We had missed it coming in. We probably shaved off 1.5 to 2 km this way. It didn’t take long to get back to the car and we headed for Gibtown, where earlier we had spied a service station -- the only one actually. We picked up some water and the nice folks inside also had cooled watermelons. We picked up one for later in the evening -- back home.

All in all we had a memorable confluence hunt and learned to bring along more equipment -- hats, long pants and water!