Armchair Exploring.

The earth is an amazingly diverse place. And it's big.

When I was an elementary school kid in Saskatchewan, I was told in a geography class that northern Saskatchewan has so many lakes you could never visit them all in one lifetime, no matter how hard you tried.

And that's just lakes in northern Saskatchewan. What about the rest of it?

What about all the mountains and canyons? Cliffs and caves? Rivers and bays and oceans and islands and hotsprings? Glaciers? Rain forests and deserts and tundra and marshlands and everything in between? Salt flats? Beaches? Unique geological features like hoodoos andgeysers and smoking hills and tufa mounds and poljes and pingoes... I could go on and on.

There's so much to see!

From my earliest days, my parents - and my dad especially - instilled in me a passion for exploring. That passion nearly drives me crazy when I pass through an area that looks interesting - especially if that area is hard to get to. And there are so many places to see, it's amazing I haven't gone totally insane. Fortunately, I can get an idea of what different parts of the world looks like, thanks to the Degree Confluence Project.

I heard about the Degree Confluence Project a few years ago. I can't remember how I heard about it, but I thought it sounded interesting and filed it away in my head for further investigation.  When I got a GPS, I decided to join in the fun.

The Degree Confluence Project was started in 1996 by a guy named Alex Jarrett. Driven entirely by volunteers, the goal of the project is to find and document every point where latitude and longitude intersect at whole numbers on or within sight of land. It is, essentially, "an organized sampling of the world".  In other words, a way to get a general idea of what different parts of the world looks like.

When, owing to work and family commitments, I am not able to get out and explore for real, at least I can do some vicarious globe-trotting. Click on the image below to do a little globetrotting of your own, then click on the pictures on a part of the globe that you'd like to explore.

There's still so much to see!

As you can see by the map, there are still a lot of confluences to be found. I was the "first finder" for two of those little spots.

I visited my first confluence in July 2006. 60^oN 132^oW itself wasn't anything extraordinary, but the idea that I had been the first to reach and document the confluence was a blast!  I came within two kilometers of 60^oN 134^oW last summer (now that I know the best way to get there, I'll go back to complete the visit - eventually), and found 60^oN 123^oW this summer.

I may not be able to see the whole world in my lifetime, but I'm determined to see a lot of it.  I figure I might as well take a few pictures so other people can see what it looks like, too.

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Confluence Hunt: N60 W123

If I had known about the Degree Confluence Project and if I had owned a GPS when I lived in Fort Liard, NWT, I would have visited N 60^o W 123^o sooner. I was in the area for the Petitot Gathering - a summer gathering for the local First Nations people, industry, government, and anyone else with an interest in the area.

While I was there, I took a morning to visit the confluence. With my canine companion, Nanuq, we followed the 4-wheeler trail from the Petitot Gathering site (near the Petitot River Bridge on the Liard Highway), downstream along the Petitot River, as far as Maxhamish Creek.

Looking upstream at the Petitot River from Maxhamish Creek.

Maxhamish Creek, where it flows into the Petitot River.

One of many cliff faces along the Petitot River.

We waded across the creek and continued along the south bank of the Petitot, where we saw some wolverine tracks in the sand. When we approached a drunken forest and steep bluffs, I attempted to wade across the Petitot. Near the base of the drunken forest, a small, naturally-occurring oil seep ran into the river (The main industry in the area is natural gas exploration and production).

Seep.

The river level was low, but not yet low enough to cross to the opposite, walkable bank. Instead, I cut upwards through the drunken forest to the plateau above the river.

Walking uphill, above the drunken forest.

From the top of the bank, we walked through birch and poplar forest along the bluffs above the river.

Bushwhacking through the poplar and wild rose.

A bend in the river and a large slump leading to a moose pond forced us to make a large arc to the confluence site.

Looking down at the moose pond and the Petitot River valley.

Aside from some small patches of muskeg, two wasp stings at a small creek crossing, and general bushwhacking through wild rose underbrush and willow and poplar deadfall, the walking was fairly level and easygoing. There were mosquitoes, but they weren't biting.

Easy walking.

The confluence was on a north-facing slope, where the vegetation was thicker. Fortunately, with the help of my trusty compass, I had little trouble finding the exact coordinates. I left my GPS on the ground for several minutes to ensure that the displayed coordinates didn't shift.  Unfortunately, I didn't take the same amount of time to take my pictures - a couple of them came out blurry.

If you look closely, you'll see that I'm right on the mark.

Looking at the confluence.

Looking north from the confluence.

Looking east from the confluence.

Looking south from the confluence.

Looking west from the confluence.

N 60^o W 123^o

We generally followed the same route on the way back out, but chose to cut across to Maxhamish Creek rather than follow the Petitot River again. This made the trip shorter in distance, but took longer because a large black bear was hanging out along the banks of Maxhamish Creek. A detour was required, but we made it back to the Petitot Gathering site safe-and-sound.

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