Degree Confluence 38N 122W

On January 22, I found myself within a mile of the Concord degree confluence as I headed back to San Jose from an appointment east of Concord, not realizing earlier in the morning that I had come so close to the confluence even though I had driven along the same stretch of highway, just in the opposite direction.

Fortunately, I had the 13 closest confluences to home loaded into my GPS (along with the usual number of about 400 local geocaches), so it just popped up as I headed back west along the highway towards Concord to nab this, my second degree confluence visit. My GPS showed the degree confluence at 157 feet, and accuracy with seven good locks on overhead satellites was 17 feet, well within the 100-meter minimum distance for an acceptable confluence visit.

Directions

From Highway 4, head south on Willow Pass Road. Almost exactly a mile down the road is a small crossroads with a no-left-turn sign. About 40 feet to the left is as far as you can go because of the chainlink fence and the posted warning sign.

I didn’t stick around very long — probably a wise choice, considering the posting made by the first visitor to the confluence back in 1998 which I hadn’t read until AFTER I visited the Concord naval weapons area. Within moments, he was amid a swarm of military police. For some reason, the MPs guarding a naval base that houses nuclear weapons are wary of the occasional civilian holding a GPS in one hand and a digital camera in the other…



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