#1: [20-May-02]

During August 2003 I drove through British Columbia and into the Northwest Territories on a combined confluence hunting and sightseeing trip. I started close to 49°N and went as far North as 61°N, covered 6,200 kilometers (3,850 miles), did 7 successful confluence visits, and had another 12 confluences that are incomplete. I made a map that shows the route, and the confluences in the order they were done, with the successful ones shown with black markers. The incomplete visits are a mix of actual attempts and situations where I drove somewhat close to the confluence, and included a 'visit' as a way to document the confluence location for future visitors. The first confluence on the trip was 52°N 121°W.

12-Aug-2003 -- After concluding my visit to 52°N 121°W I drove back to Highway 97, and headed north, through Williams Lake and Quesnel, and then west on highway 26, the road to historic Barkerville.

Shortly after passing Cottonwood, I turned south onto the Swift River Forest Service Road (1300 Road). Just past the "1308" sign, I took the right branch at a Y intersection. I drove up this road a ways, but eventually turned around, as the road started leading away from the confluence. I drove back down to an open area, and as it was almost 8:30PM, I camped there for the night.

On the Landsat-7 satellite image (from October, 2001) this is marked as waypoint 033.

As with the night before, there were some heavy rains overnight, but it wasn't raining in the morning. I drove a little way back up the road, and parked at the waypoint you can see on the satellite image marked as "53-122-CAR", which was 1.13 kilometeres from the confluence. I started heading up an old road, then through some forest, then through an area that had been logged sometime in the past.

Eventually I entered unlogged forest. The first problem, which was fairly minor, was that I ran into some areas with a lot of Devils Club, which meant making some detours. The second problem was more serious - due to the combination of the satellite constellation, the forest cover, and that the forest was soaking wet from the rain, GPS signal reception became a problem.

In fact, I was somewhat lucky, in that at one point, when I was near the confluence, I had checked my GPS, and saw that I was 140 meters from the confluence. It was at this point that I lost satellite reception, and I was unable to regain sufficient signals for a position fix, either at that point, or at the confluence. Because I knew the distance and bearing to the confluence, I used my compass, and paced off enough distance that I knew I was well within the required 100 meters.

After trying for a while to regain a GPS fix, I took my photos, and then started heading back to the car. After a little while, I was able to get a GPS position, so it just happened to be a series of factors that made it a problem to get a fix in the area of the confluence.

Once back at the car I had to dry off, as the heavy rain the night before, coupled with the underbrush in the forest meant that I was thoroughly soaked below the knees.

The next confluence on this trip was 54°N 123°W.