#7: [20-Feb-13]

#6: [18-Apr-11]

#5: [18-Apr-08]

#4: [02-Nov-03]

#3: [27-Dec-02]

#2: [04-May-02]

#1: [14-Nov-99]

13-Jun-2025 -- En route on a long but fun Friday of driving from Georgia to Virginia, Emma and I figured a confluence would be a perfect way to break up the relative monotony of nine hours of pine forests and Southeast suburbia on this steamy June afternoon. As a little luck would have it, there was a confluence–36°N 80°W–that appeared to be easily accessible, sat at roughly the halfway point of our trek, and required barely a ten-minute deviation from our already planned route through central North Carolina–a great way to introduce Emma to the unique world of confluencing! This specific point is in the quiet small city/college town of High Point, North Carolina–really putting the “point” in High Point! High Point is a part of the Piedmont Triad region and interestingly the only city in the Tar Heel State to extend into four counties –the confluence lies in the portion within Guilford County.

This being both of our first times through this general region of the Southeast, one thing that stuck out to us was the sheer number of small- to medium-sized cities there were along our I-85 journey through the Carolinas. Over 250 miles (400 km) straight from Anderson, SC to Durham, NC was generally developed in nature, and High Point was no exception. While this made navigating to the confluence easy, the downside was a ton of unexpected traffic along this stretch, and throwing in a handful of heavy summer thundershowers to the mix made our journey a good bit longer than planned. However, by mid-afternoon, we eventually arrived at the junction of Interstates 85 and 74, marking the start of our confluence diversion. Getting to the confluence from I-85 was remarkably simple–a couple exits up I-74 West and and a couple of well-traveled suburban streets, and within a few minutes we arrived at the townhome neighborhood (the Watermark at Oak Hollow off N Centennial Street) that hosted this confluence. Not quite recalling exactly where the point lay in respect to the neighborhood, we parked in front of the building housing units 1206-1212, near the center of the complex, knowing it would be an easy walk to the point regardless.

We got out of the car, collected our bearings, and took note that we were just southeast of our eccentric destination, so we began the walk northwest. Cutting between units 1235 and 1237, we were careful as to not come too close to the residences and not disturb (or more likely confuse) any High Pointers enjoying an otherwise normal Friday afternoon. We descended a small hill behind these townhomes and were met with the field hosting the confluence–a small patch of bright green undergrowth that sits between the townhomes and Oak Hollow Lake. Based on some cursory research, I believe this land is maintained by the city (it is certainly beyond the domain of the townhome community). Conveniently, there was a newly mowed grass path that led almost directly to the point–would we really get all zeroes that easily?! Not quite–we found the point seems to unfortunately lie about 5-10 feet (2-4 m) to the east of the path. Once getting that close, we decided to not try for all zeroes; clad in shorts on this hot summer day, we didn’t want to unnecessarily risk an encounter with mud, snakes, and/or poison ivy! Additionally, I imagine zeroing out would have been a challenge in this local valley, as I could not even get my GPS app to zero out on the 36°N parallel even though I knew we were crossing/along it. Not a huge problem at all–we were easily within 100 m, so I discretely took the required photos and a screenshot of the GPS app, the time being roughly 3:00 PM. This was my third time intentionally standing on 36°N (I had stood due west of here twice in Oklahoma) and my first time on 80°W. All in all, my 18th (and more importantly, Emma’s first) successful confluence visit was complete!

Quite typical for early summer in North Carolina, temperatures hovered in the mid-80s F (~29°C) with partly cloudy skies, though soupy humidity made it feel quite a bit warmer. There were some brief showers/storms in the broad vicinity, and while they affected our trip to and from the area, they did not bother us one bit on our confluence excursion. Note that this confluence may be a little difficult during and after rain events, as the grass was muddy and we imagined the lake may on occasion flood to this level.

While we were standing at the point, we heard some very…unusual commotion from the direction of the lake: a series of muffled deep voices over a loudspeaker, but one line stood out very clearly: “WE ARE NOW RECOVERING THE BODY”. While this line admittedly gave us a slight unease, we had seen nothing out of the ordinary when approaching the point and Googling “High Point news” turned up no interesting hits (unsurprisingly, there’s not a lot of crime in this sleepy suburb). We figured there was a local fire or police department performing a routine water rescue training. That being said, hearing this added a bit of a creepy undertone on this Friday the 13th. Coincidentally, this was the second straight Friday the 13th that I had gone confluencing; the last one featured some scarily close encounters with wild hogs in Texas . Maybe I should take a hint! Furthermore, this was just my second confluence that I was not joined by fellow explorer Michael G (the first being 39°N 77°W in Maryland), and I couldn’t help but notice that this point was very similar in many ways to the Maryland point–easily accessible in a quiet suburban multi-family housing complex with quick access to surrounding interstate highways. On one hand, I’d love for them to all be like this, but I will say the more rugged confluences provide for more interesting adventures, so I can’t complain either way!

Happy (if not a little confused) with our short detour to visit what was essentially an unremarkable backyard, we packed up and pulled out of the neighborhood. On our way out of town, we stopped at a Cook Out , a now-regional chain that was founded just up the road in Greensboro and is known for classic (and very inexpensive) burgers, fries, and shakes. After this hearty late lunch/early dinner, we pushed northward on our journey toward southeast Virginia. One might say this was the “high point” of a successful and fulfilling day!