#4: [31-Jul-22]

#3: [21-Mar-10]

#2: [10-Jul-05]

14-Nov-1998 -- November 14th was a doubly successful day as my friend, Drew, and I traversed the 41st parallel to visit the two northern New Jersey confluence points.

41N, 75W is located about a mile northwest of scenic Blairstown, New Jersey, a rural town near the Delaware Water Gap. Drew (a confluence virgin) and I set out on a beautiful Saturday morning with the goal of hitting the Blairstown confluence, and, if time permitted, the 41N, 74W confluence on the north bank of the Hackensack river -- a point I had tried, but failed, to reach on Labor Day.

From my studies of the terrain from the terraserver web site, I noted a long straight feature which passed very close to the confluence point. It was not on any of the latest road maps, although it did cross a known road, and it appeared much too straight to be a river or stream. Only direct investigation of the area (or better resolved satellite maps) would elucidate this mystery.

When we arrived at the point on the road where the blurry satellite feature should have been located, all was made clear. "Of course! It's power lines!" I exclaimed excitedly to Drew. Large towers carrying high voltage power cut a wide swath through the forested area (photo #5). Drew, who had developed an odd fascination with power plants in connection with an old job, wondered if we were close to a generating station. The observation of an odd vertical blue line on a distant hillside, apparently some kind of massive pipe, only piqued our fascination with this country's glorious industrial infrastructure. (Look closely at photo #5, to the right of the closest tower, and you can see the distant pipe yourself!) But on to the matter at hand...confluence! To our delight, the electrical towers were erected more or less alongside the 41st parallel!

We parked the car and approached the "corridor of power". To do so, we had to skirt the property line of a local homeowner. A dog, looking suspiciously like a pit bull, charged toward us. Reminding myself that dogs can sense fear, I tried to relax and appear as friendly as possible. Luckily, he was rather friendly, and the ever-resourceful Drew managed to dispatch him with an assured "Go home, doggie!" The only obstacle after that was a large patch of brambles (foreshadowing events to come), which proved quite difficult to penetrate. One of the prickers caught Drew and drew blood (no pun intended). Once we finally made it to the cleared area under the power lines, it was an easy journey eastward up a hill and to the confluence point, located right at the northern edge of the corridor. After posing for pictures at the site (photos #1 and #2), we bemoaned the fact that there was no official confluence marker. Grabbing a pen out of his bag, Drew attempted to rectify this situation (photo #3), scratching the coordinates into some lichen (photo #4). "Don't worry.", he said to me. "I used a soy based ink in the pen." This satisfied my environmentalist's conscience, and we bounded back to the car.

Determined to solve the mystery of the pipe, we drove over and discovered that it was the ultimate destination of the fortunate power lines! Connecting two large reservoirs at different elevations, the pipe was a vital component of the Yards Creek Pumped Storage Electric Generating Station. We got to observe the pipe at close hand (photo #6), providing a sense of closure to our confluence experience. Exhilarated, we had a quick lunch at a truck stop at the New Jersey/Pennsylvania border and sped off on a fresh quest.