#2: [13-Oct-12] (incomplete)

05-Jun-2004 -- It was 2 attempts confluence visiting:

1st:

Early spring we visited it without GPS device – using map (scale 1:100000) and compass only. We tried being as much precise as possible: applied declination and corrections on height differences (contour lines), precise measured steps pair…

Victor took major task following azimuth: crossing meadow & counting steps pairs… Andrew was little bit busy with bottle of beer but looked after Victor to be sure he did not flounder with count. Eugene was following Andrew & Victor with camera.

But we were really disappointed when understood our visit can not be recognized because of insufficient map’s scale…

From the other side we received one more opportunity to check our “terrain orientation” skills. Or at least check - does this GPS stuff really work?

2nd:

On June 5th we were armed with:

• Ipaq handheld
• GPS Holux GR-230 (Bluetooth)
• Lot of fervor at 2 heads

Arrived to confluence neighborhood our fervor was reduced significantly – Gnats were hungry as a lion at the desert. Seems to use we were the only warm-blooded things which visited that place in the summer.

It was hard to stay still on one place. Thank god we had bluetooth devices so, Victor was able to run around Andrew who kept GPS device in one hand and was flapping with birch twig at noisy gnats with the another. It takes almost 30 min when we fixed confluence and 20 min more to make photos (staying still and pushing button on camera lead to dozen gnats bites on your hands and neck).

But guess what?!

GPS really works – our first visited “confluence” was 120m behind of GPS pointed one.