17-Jan-2003 -- Tsvika has come to Texas and wanted to try another confluence hunt. Since he likes West Texas we decided to try the one near Ft Stockton. Taking the advice of Tim Vasquez, who had attempted this confluence, we departed Ft. Stockton north on highway 18. A few miles north we turned back west on Gomez Road. We then headed several miles west, passing numerous oil pumps and a couple of new wells being drilled, until we came upon a road that turned north and led both into a natural gas plant and a dirt road that split both north and west - we first took the western road.
From here we traveled for about 3 miles but ended up on a dead-end. We retraced our travel back towards the plant and took the dirt road that ran north along the property line of the gas plant and it eventually turned northwest, towards the confluence.
The going was slow as the road was a bit rough and we had a sedan with a low clearance. However, the road took us to a dead end but only 300 feet from the confluence. The only item out here to use as a marker was a windmill (picture #3) aproximately 200 yards northeast of the confluence.
Tsvika performed the confluence dance with our Garmin GPS III, which indicated an EPE of 18 feet. We took the picture of the GPS display zeroed out and then a few more on the cardinal directions. The land is quite dry and barren looking, with only tumbleweeds and Mesquite trees to look at.
This hunt turned out to be relatively easy compared to others we have tried, but still satisfying. With the extra time we had before heading back home we visited Ft Stockton and had some lunch in town. It is a nice clean town with friendly locals, and deserves another visit when more time is available.