19-May-2002 -- As my second attempt at locating a confluence 48N-67W looked a bit easier on the map, close to the 132 highway, maybe a river in between but as you can see from the main picture the confluence is situated on a very steep, pine covered slope leading to a river, about 341m away from where the photo was taken. This would have been much easier in summer, a quick swim or boat ride across the river and a short climb but this was spring and the water was cold and running fast.

I followed my GPS along gravel roads to the back of the slope and parked as close as I could get, about 2.5Km away. The road leading to the confluence is more suitable to 4WD than my vehicle so out came the bike, walking up the hills and through the bush and riding down the hills.

I left the bike and marked a waypoint with about 800m to go, the walking was getting tuff at this point, with 400m to go the dense bush was forcing me to change direction every couple of meters, this is very difficult terrain. I neared the peak of the hill in the main picture just as the rain started.

The confluence was 80m down a slope on an angle of about 75°, this was the hardest part, it was wet, the ground was slipery and most of the logs on the ground were rotten and collapsed beneath my feet. The confluence site is in thick pine forest just by a small stream. Trying to get all zeros was frustrating me as moving 1m horizontally meant 3m vertically, enough is enough, close enough.

The trip back to my bike and car was an ordeal in itself, trying to decide which of two courses to follow, my trusty GPS says to go bush, I start following a nice easy trail but I spot a Bear about 40m ahead so I turn around and follow the GPS.