#1: [02-May-02] (incomplete)

02-Oct-2005 -- I stumbled across the confluence project while surfing the net this morning. I noticed no one had completed a visit to 50N93W, a confluence within 20 km of my home.

I drove up highway 665 to the Amesdale turnoff just before Richan. The gravel road to Amesdale follows the CN Tracks west. When the road turned north at Amesdale (just a sign on the CN railway - no actual town), I continued west on the Pear Lake road - a very rough bush track. After about 3 km, this track became impassable because a beaver had dammed a culvert, and water to a depth of 15 cm was running over the road.

The road pretty well ended at this point anyway, so I rode my mountain bike through the water and followed a trail that more or less paralleled the southern flow of the stream. In less than a kilometre it became obvious that the trail was too rough for even my mountain bike, so I continued on foot.

This path - a game trail, really - soon turned west away from the stream up a shallow valley. I continued in this direction even after the trail dissappeared until I hit 90 degrees west. The walking was not to bad as this area was completely burned in a huge fire in 2002. This fire had cleared away much of the undergrowth and tanglefoot dead wood that make walking in the Northern Ontario bush so difficult. New growth - poplar and jackpine saplings - was apparent everywhere.

When I reached 90 degrees west, I turned south and crossed a moderately steep ravine with a small stream at the bottom. I climbed the other side and continued on for maybe a kilometre until I reached 50 degrees north.

Almost directly to the west of the confluence a small lake (unnamed on my map) was visible (photo #1). This view is representative of the general area - very rough, broken terrain with many small lakes. I photographed my GPS at 50N 93W and then North, East, South and West. I built a small Inukshuk on exposed bedrock within 10 metres of the confluence to mark the spot and the occasion.