#1: [12-Jun-01]

#2: [06-Jun-01]

05-Sep-2025 --

Visiting Winnipeg for the day with a couple of friends — my first time traveling internationally — I was more than happy to bag a confluence. Though visiting such a point in Canada had always been a goal, I've been unsure about the prospect of dealing with farm fields/property boundaries as an international visitor (like a majority of them require, in non-remote regions at least). Luckily for the three of us, Winnipeg has a confluence that's technically visitable from a public road — upon realizing this, we baked the necessary detour into our itinerary. In fact, 50N 97W was the very first destination on our trip: upon crossing the border into Canada, we set our sights on an unsuspecting exurban community on the northeastern periphery of the metro area. Surely this would be the best way to experience Manitoba for the first time!

The drive north along Manitoba Route 75 was uneventful, passing through several small towns, stretches of summer road construction, and a Flying J truck stop that seemed out of place being off of a non-freeway. I enjoyed observing the subtle differences in road signage here versus in the States, while also trying to remember some of my long-unused French vocabulary from high school (bilingual signs are helpful for that). It took us about an hour after entering Canada before we reached the Winnipeg municipality boundary, the equivalent of "city limits" in the United States. We then hopped on the Perimeter Highway, which we followed about a third of the way around its length going clockwise. This brought us to the small municipality of East St. Paul, wherein the confluence point is located. It's apparently the most densely-populated of the rural municipalities in Manitoba, making it look and feel more like a low-density suburb.

After exiting the Perimeter Highway onto MB 59, we drove about 1.7 km northeast to Bird's Hill Road, from where we could access Rebeck Road (home to our goal). The neighborhoods here had sidewalks that connected to the shopping area in the heart of the Birds Hill suburb, 3 km south of 50N 97W; if we had more time to spare (at least 90 minutes), walking to the confluence area would've been an attractive option. Instead, we spent no more than an additional two minutes driving before reaching a slight bend in the road that happened to mark the 50th parallel. There wasn't a convenient shoulder to completely pull over (see this photo looking south along the road, in the direction we came), but there was enough space to quickly park without blocking traffic.

50N 97W actually falls in someone's backyard, as documented by the previous visits 24 years ago (that independently occurred in the same week, amazingly). For the sake of not bothering anyone, we forwent asking permission to the "all-zeroes" spot and kept by the road. Recent satellite pictures suggest that a small structure (perhaps a shed) now exists on the spot anyway, not conducive to great directional photos. We opted to take our pictures from the head of a driveway directly on 50°N; the road technically gets a few meters closer to the confluence a dozen paces southwest, but there's something satisfying about standing directly on a latitude divisible by 10. I zeroed out the latitude reading on the GPS and started getting the photos — our group's first Canada confluence, and the most northern location I'd ever stood at up until that point. If I had a nickel for every time I visited 97°W in a large metropolitan area, I'd now have two: Andrew and I had also seen 33N 97W in the Dallas metro a few months before, over 1100 miles due south!

The confluence owner's home lies directly on the 50th parallel, seen in the west-facing picture, and several front yards are visible in the other directions. Having a confluence point in the backyard is definitely a flex, so I hope that they're aware of it! The surrounding trees and green lawns were very eye-pleasing, evidently well kept. Summarily: it was a nice but unremarkable exurban neighborhood, probably about 30 or 40 years old. The weather was a little cool for early September, roughly 60°F (15°C) with a brisk northerly breeze. Understandable, given we were in a place that averages snow as early as October. After about a minute at our closest approach, Malachi noticed a schoolbus coming down the road, our cue to get moving again. No vehicles had passed us until then, but more were sure to follow — it was a Friday afternoon and the locals were just getting off of work or out of school.

We resumed our Winnipeg exploration, first heading to the nearest grocery store in Birds Hill (a couple of kilometers south). Here, we proceeded to do the least obvious tourist activity and purchased nothing more than a bag of ketchup-flavored chips — they were very good, and I'm bummed they aren't sold in the States. Our trio spent the remainder of the afternoon in downtown, eating at an excellent Ethiopian restaurant (called Gojo) and visiting the outside of the Winnipeg Jets' arena; we will likely return for a Jets game in the future. We headed home that evening feeling pleased with the day — they seldom come better than visiting a confluence and a new city (and a new country).