#2: [13-Jun-02]

27-May-2002 --

Note: Since the time I attempted and failed to reach this confluence, there has been a successful attempt. They posted it before I got a chance to post my attempt. I thought about not posting this since I was unsuccessful, but decided to go ahead and do it since it’s part of my 23-visit trip.

I departed 48°N 100°W and headed east towards this confluence. There was still plenty of daylight left and I wanted to do this one and one more. However, I didn’t think I had a chance of making it to this confluence because it appeared to be located in the water.

I was less than 10 miles from the confluence when I drove by something you don’t see every day. Mounted on a pole were two little 4-wheelers for kids. Behind the wheel of one of them was what appeared to be a small racing suit, which was stuffed with something to fill it out. Atop the suit was a helmet and inside the helmet was a pair of binoculars peering out. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to make this thing, although I’m not sure what it’s all about.

I continued towards the confluence and, sure enough, it was located in the water. I drove around trying to find the closest land to it. Along the way I met some people who were fishing. They were visiting relatives who lived nearby. We talked for a while and I asked them if they had caught anything. One of them, Francis Goodtrack, showed me a nice Northern Pike he had caught. It had a mean set of teeth.

I drove to a peninsula northeast of the point and walked out to the water’s edge. At that point I was 0.4 miles from the confluence. There was an old wagon nearby that looked as if it had gotten stuck many years ago and was abandoned. I decided to approach the confluence from the south, so I drove around and hiked across a field through some woods to the water’s edge. At that point I was 0.33 miles from the point.

After snapping a photo, I noticed there was lots of beautiful driftwood along the bank. I started walking along looking for a nice piece to use as a walking stick. I should have been watching where I was going because - WAM! - something struck me hard right between the eyes and then scraped across my left eye and then down my nose and upper lip. It knocked me stupid for a few seconds. I didn’t know what had happened. I was hurting pretty bad and there was blood running down my nose. I thought for a second I had lost my left eye, but thank goodness I didn’t. I looked to see what I had run into and it was the broken off limb of a tree that had washed ashore. I had walked headlong into it. Duh. Out of all the dangerous spots I had been in the last week and a half, I did something stupid like that.

I made my way back to the truck and looked in the mirror. It didn’t look nearly as bad as I thought it would. There was just a small cut on the bridge of my nose and scratches down one side of my nose and a cut on my upper lip. No big deal, but I looked like someone had just beat the crap out of me. I washed out the cut with some water and headed on towards the next confluence, 47°N 99°W.

(I’m writing this almost a month later. I’m all healed up now and I have a nasty little scar between my eyes to remind me of this trip. Talk about getting hit with an ugly stick....)

Danny Strickland
www.artgaga.com

In Devils Lake, about 0.3 mi from the shore.