17-Aug-2008 -- During a business trip we found a lot of geocaches in the neighborhood. But for the weekend we would like to see more of the country. So I checked the nearest confluence points and this one seemed to be a bit easier than the others. And there's a geocache at this point :-).

The map in my StreetPilot showed 2 possible roads near to the confluence point. I entered the south road as destination into the StreetPilot. Because it seemed to me that this road is a bit closer to the confluence point than the other.

As the last turnaround came in sight it was clear: we have to walk the rest. About 1 km as the crow flies. The first approx. 800 m we used the road. At 13°C and no rain it was ok.

The last 300-something m were the toughest. So far we didn't know this kind of wood. Completely the whole surface is covered with something. Mostly moss, rotten trees and overgrown rocks. Between all these you don't see the holes filled with water. Later more about it. Deep in the wood and the trees covered with moisture it's hard to get a good signal with a Garmin eTrex Vista (the old one without the high sensitivity chip set). With some detours and back and forths we finally found the confluence area. While my colleague found the cache I did my confluence dance to catch all zeros.

Unfortunately it began to rain. So we started to go back. We took not the same way back because of a lost signal. The effect was that we had to go through a little swamp for the last 50 m to the road. In the little swamp I stepped into a deep hole filled with water. This was covered with some kind of grass. Due to the fact that I was stuck up to my knee and that I worn flip-flops I couldn't get out of this hole with the flip-flop on my foot. Therefore I put it off. This is not the nastiest part. To get my flip-flop out of the hole with my bare hand... At the end I had my flip-flop back but with a slimy layer and some half-rotten wooden pieces loose-hanging. Now I can't use them anymore because the slimy feeling I think sticks forever on my favorite flip-flops. For my next confluence point I'll use appropriate shoes. Perhaps...