19-Mar-2004 -- This was our first attempt to visit a degree confluence, two days after getting my new (used) Eagle Explorer GPS receiver. We had a lot of fun during the drive to Hancock, playing around with all the functions of my exciting new toy. After a 20 minute drive from my temporary home town of Temple, NH, we took a right onto Depot Road just after the lake in the town of Hancock. We found out why Depot Road has its name: There is an old railway station, with no rails. We decided to leave the car on the side of the road, about 3/4 of a mile from the confluence.

We took a well-maintained hiking trail to the west, which took us through the deep woods for about ten minutes, when I suddenly realized that we were just crossing the 72nd meridian, where we drew the line in the snow and took some pictures. Since the trail bent south in either direction, we decided to hike through the forest in a straight line, which would lead us to the confluence after less than 500 metres.

The hike was not too difficult, there were few obstacles and the snow was less deep under the trees than it had been on the trail. Within 200 metres of the confluence, we saw a wide clearing to the left, which appeared to be a swamp, so we decided not to walk on it.

When we came close to the confluence, it took us a lot of walking in all directions to get all the zeros, and at 2:30 PM we finally decided that we had found the spot. We took the required pictures and had a can of Diet Coke with lemon to celebrate our first degree confluence visit.

The hike back seemed much shorter. Half an hour later we were back home and had a pizza.