08-Aug-2003 -- After completing 57N 121W we were looking forward to a more direct confluence visit at 57N 122W. On our map it looked great – a direct road leading in a straight line to the confluence – the total hiking distance required was only a few small wagers away. However, as seems to be the norm with many confluence visits, the journey to this one was a different story.

Traveling west from the last confluence we missed a main turnoff, resulting in about 40 minutes of extra driving up into heavy construction areas and over rough gravel roads. It started to rain heavily just as we were suspecting that we may not be where we though we were. A sign perhaps? After pulling in our drenched socks from their “pinch them in the truck window to dry them in the wind spot” (soaked from our earlier muskeg walk), we revisited our map and GPS reading skills. It was soon apparent that we were reading 5 minute division lines as 15's... doh!

Apparently still learning from the first time, we turned too soon the next time and ended up twisting and turning our way up through both old and active mucky logging areas – all coming to the same inevitable dead ends. The closest we could come to the confluence was 5km. Our map showed a direct and straight road to the confluence - surely something was wrong. It started to rain hard again. Definately an omen.

After missing TWO turnoffs and driving for about 1 hour longer than required – we soon came to the conclusion that it helps to have the GPS navigator and the person reading the map in close contact with each other at all times.

In the end – we found the correct road that led us within 420 meters of the confluence point. The first hundred meters was across a field – with the remainder of the trip an easy walk through poplar and spruce trees to our confluence point. There are many muskeg swamps in this area – it was quite a treat that this confluence point was easily accessible. After doing the ‘confluence dance’ for about 5 minutes we pinpointed the exact location and achieved the coveted all zeros display reading.