#4: [13-Jan-04]

#3: [02-Jan-04] (incomplete)

#1: [03-Aug-02] (incomplete)

02-Jan-2004 -- After New Years day, my son Erwin, his wife Maria, and myself agreed to go after incomplete confluence 51 North 98 West. At the last minute before departure, we borrowed a snowmobile from my friend Paul and with a few more delays we finally got on our way about 1:00PM. We arrived in an area East of Mulvihill as close to the confluence as we could get in my 4WD truck. We decided to look for a closer approach to get to our destination and as we checked out another road we saw another truck trying to find its way on this lonely and snowdrift covered road. They hesitated and stopped, and I got out and approached the driver's side to see if they could help on my quest, or if I could be of assistance to them.

As I looked inside at the driver and passengers, I saw it: maps, charts, GPS, Oh Noo.. "These guys were after my Confluence". I asked "Are you looking for a Confluence?". They where somewhat surprised at my question until I admitted I was after the same thing. We had a very friendly chat as we shared common interests and exchanged some info. Later we realized we had met Jonathan Gray and his friends that had already found 4 confluences at the time. Then we took a group picture and they decided not to continue, which proved to be a good choice.

We headed out to our target on snowmobile with a rough ride. It started to get dark fast. We where 800m away when we left the snowmobile and continued through dense bush and frozen lakes. Exhausted, we arrived at 51 North-98 West, but it was too dark for panoramic pictures. We took some pictures anyway with our fingers freezing, and the camera and GPS reacting slow due to extreme cold (-20° C, Wind chill -33°C, Wind 40 Kph with gusts to 60Kph).

Walking in circles the best we could the GPS to stabilize was on 51° 00' 00"N and 98° 00' 02"W. With our tracks across the frozen lakes being quickly erased by the high wind, our situation started to look urgent and we headed back the 800 meters to the snowmobile in darkness, and found it with help from the GPS.

After eating a few snacks we took a different route back to the truck trough bush and lakes in blizzard conditions and thank God, we made it safe back home to Fisher Branch, MB, Canada. I will have to go again to take new pictures during daylight hours. G.V.

Coordinator's Note: This visit is listed as Incomplete because the pictures of the confluence and area were too dark, therefore the visit doesn't meet our photo requirements.