#8: [01-Aug-22]

#7: [25-May-19]

#6: [20-Feb-10]

#4: [24-Oct-04]

#3: [29-Jul-03]

#2: [11-Apr-02]

#1: [16-May-98]

12-May-2007 -- This narrative describes the visit to the confluence at 43N 74W.

The goal of this day trip was to capture two confluences at the 43rd parallel; 73W and 74W, and to visit Annie's dad, who lives midway between the two longitudes.

After a successful visit to 43N 73W, we continued west along Vermont route 9, known as the Molly Stark Trail, to the town of Bennington, famous for its large granite monument, commemorating Revolutionary War events.

Leaving the Green Mountains, we entered a more moderate terrain of lower elevation with a more advanced state of spring foliage. We crossed into New York state, continuing the journey through bucolic farmlands and towns with landmarks such as Hoosick Falls, Fiddler's Elbow, Batten Kill, and Duell Hollow. At Greenwich, we met with Annie's dad, Bill Schneider, who accompanied us on the hunt for the confluence. (At age 92, we wondered if this visit would make him the world's oldest confluencer.)

Our stop at Greenwich placed us outside the range of maps we had printed, so we relied on a talking GPS service Annie had on her cell phone. The scarcity of cell phone antennae, or the interference from the hilly terrain caused the service to send us in the wrong direction; to a place ominously called "Lake Desolation". We used the Garmin to get us back on track, and eventually found the town of Galway in late afternoon, and were happy to see the numbers converge as we turned west onto Crane Road.

The confluence is on the east bank of a small pond, 60m north of the road. A trail alongside the pond made for comfortable access, in spite of the cloud of black flies that quickly found us.
We reached 43N, then a problem arose. I was standing on the edge of the pond, and the GPS was telling me that 74W was 3m into the water! I didn't want to wade in; the water wasn't deep, but the pond bottom looked like deep mud. I stepped down to the water's edge and leaned out as far as I could with the GPS, while Annie held me from falling in.

Suddenly, the satellites readjusted themselves, and the longitude line shifted a half meter onto dry land. I seized the moment and snapped the photo.

As we took the directional photos, we were joined by the Denisons; owners of the adjacent property, who were curious about our presence. We explained our activity and learned that they had encountered previous confluence hunters. We conversed for a while, then departed, hoping they were impressed by our activity.
Annie's dad, and world's oldest confluencer, was less impressed. (...What are we doing here???)

With the day fading, we navigated back to Saratoga Springs for dinner, dropped Bill back home in Greenwich, then drove home to Massachusetts, arriving back on Cape Cod at 1:30am

Close to the lakeside of a small lake.