All,
I visited and documented my first "Degree Confluence" yesterday. 46 degrees north, by 111 degrees south. To commemorate the occasion, I put a letterbox there. Problem is, it is SO far from a traveled way, and there are SO few landmarks anywhere near it, I was unable to come up with clues that would get a person without a GPS to the site. I guess that makes it a geocache, though it doesn't contain the sorts of "treasure" geocaches are supposed to contain. It does have a hand-carved stamp in it. (Those of you who have seen my carving will be appropriately unexcited by this news.) Next time I'm out that way, I'll put a stamp pad in the box, too, so that geocachers will have SOMEthing (an ink impression of the stamp, not the stamp pad!) to walk away with.
For the adventurous...
-Mark
===========================
46N 111W Letterbox/Geocache
NE Gallatin County, Montana
DIRECTIONS:
Take State Highway 86 (county road 293 on some maps), aka Bridger Canyon Road, from Bozeman about 31 miles north to the Forest Service sign pointing to Flathead Pass. There are two such posted intersections; take your pick, but the one further south and west uses a rougher road; the one further north and east is smoother but it adds a couple miles to the overall trip. Follow the Flathead Pass road west to the intersection with Forest Service road 6980 near the top of the pass. Note that the western reaches of Flathead Pass road are steep and very rough; expect deep ruts in a wet spring. Take 6980 (a much smoother road!) north to the intersection where the continuation of 6980 is gated and the Haw Fork road intersects. Park across the road from the gate and follow 6980 uphill past the gate on foot until your GPS tells you the goal is about 0.4 miles to your east. Walk east, following the GPS or, for a less maddening trip through the thick, satellite-blocking tree cover, your magnetic compass. On the steep, cleared slope, home in on the confluence with your GPS. A few feet south of the confluence two fallen tree trunks cross. The box is hidden by strips of bark in the gap under the upper trunk.
Topographic map: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=12&n=5093828&e=499999&s=25&u=2
Look for photos to be posted soon at: http://www.confluence.org/region.php?id=53
New Montana Letterbox/Geocache/Confluence marker
2 messages in this thread |
Started on 2001-05-21
New Montana Letterbox/Geocache/Confluence marker
From: Mark Sheehan (sheehan@alumni.indiana.edu) |
Date: 2001-05-21 12:14:02 UTC-06:00
Re: [LbNA] New Montana Letterbox/Geocache/Confluence marker
From: Thom Cheney (tcgrafx@imagina.com) |
Date: 2001-05-21 11:58:39 UTC-07:00
on 5/21/01 11:14 AM, Mark Sheehan at sheehan@alumni.indiana.edu wrote:
> I was unable to come up with clues that would get
> a person without a GPS to the site. I guess that makes it a geocache, though
> it doesn't contain the sorts of "treasure" geocaches are supposed to contain.
My first box had little to offer in the way of clues. I also resorted to
using GPS coordinates. It was way back in '98 before geocaching had caught
on in its present form. I still think of my box as a letterbox.
I checked on it Saturday. It was the first time I had been back since
placing it! In spite of its lack of ziplocks, the pad remains fairly dry,
so the comments by the 2 groups of letterboxers who found it were legible!!
TC
> I was unable to come up with clues that would get
> a person without a GPS to the site. I guess that makes it a geocache, though
> it doesn't contain the sorts of "treasure" geocaches are supposed to contain.
My first box had little to offer in the way of clues. I also resorted to
using GPS coordinates. It was way back in '98 before geocaching had caught
on in its present form. I still think of my box as a letterbox.
I checked on it Saturday. It was the first time I had been back since
placing it! In spite of its lack of ziplocks, the pad remains fairly dry,
so the comments by the 2 groups of letterboxers who found it were legible!!
TC