#1: [18-May-02]

31-Aug-2002 -- This confluence was visited by my father and myself on the last day of August in 2002. Since we both grew up in the general area (in Canada near the USA border) it made sense for us to try for this confluence. It also gave me another excuse to use my GPS receiver!

The day itself was a bit too warm, with temperatures around 27C/80F. Frequent rains in the past few days meant that we could not get as close as we otherwise could have with a car. Our first attempt (from the north-east) failed to get us as close as we wanted. Our second attempt was better (from the north), but we still needed to walk to remainder of the 1.24km/0.77mi over a mushy stubble field. The walking portion took place from 14:00 to 15:00 (about 20 minutes each way, with a 10 minute photo/GPS session at the site).

The 49th parallel was the Canadian/USA border, but there were no obvious markers that could be seen at a distance to reveal this. After confirming the location with the GPS receiver, only subtle signs like the edge of a field (with a bit of a fence line) hinted that we had crossed from Canada into the USA.

Within the accuracy of the GPS reading, the confluence itself seemed to be within a field of rye itself, rather than on its edge.

We took 8 compass direction shots, some of the GPS itself, and ourselves, and returned back to the comfort of an air conditioned car. We regretted that we had not brought any water with us!

The trip was interesting, but it would have been easier if we had waited till it was drier and cooler.

The borderline to Canada is passing about 160 ft north of the Confluence.