28-Mar-2004 -- On a beautiful early spring day, I visited this confluence point which is only 1.1 km from my house. I have known for several years that I live near 39N77W but I only discovered the Degree Confluence Project last summer. Since this is among the world's least challenging and unremarkable confluences, and has been visited several times already, I wanted my visit to be noteworthy in some way. The area surrounding the confluence is not particularly scenic for most of the year, but in late March or early April, the flowering pear trees bloom for a short time (usually no longer than a week). None of these trees are visible from the point itself, but there are dozens along the streets in the surrounding neighborhoods. There are other kinds of flowering trees and bushes in this area, but they bloom later and by then the pear trees are in full leaf.

I arrived at the confluence at about 1:30 PM after an easy 20-minute walk. (What a luxury not to have to get up at dawn like most confluence hunters!) It was sunny, breezy and mild (about 63 degrees F). As was found by previous visitors, the point is located in the middle of the Flower Branch apartment complex off Piney Branch Road (Maryland Route 320). The point is apparently inside one of the two connected buildings seen in photo #1, so I found the side where the GPS showed the smallest distance (9.58 m as seen in photo #10). The GPS reported an error of about 7 or 8 m, so the overall accuracy is about 17 m. The elevation reading fluctuated somewhat, between about 70 and 85 m.

After taking pictures at the confluence, I got several nice shots of the flowering pear trees. On the way home, I met one of the neighborhood cats (this might be the first cat photo posted on www.confluence.org!) I'm so glad I discovered this project--it's gotten me interested in GPS and digital photography, and (hopefully) will make me a more adventurous traveller. I know I'll never have an easier confluence visit than my first one!