Date: 2012-02-28
To: Another One ÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂJust a StoneÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Throw from the TrailÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ?
Miles today: 0.0

The response to our 2/20 post on the Degree Confluence Project and whole integer latitude-longitude intersections located near the Appalachian Trail has been so amazing, we feel compelled to do report on another such confluence point, this one in Virginia. (Well, OK, in truth, the total response has been we asked a friend ¢Did you see that entry we put up a while back about going to 43 North 73 West?¢ and he said ¢not yet, but I¢ve been pretty busy lately. I might get around to reading it next week,¢ but, be that as it may, we¢re going to do an illustrated report on 39N 78W anyway, as it was exactly five years ago today, I joined our current Base Camp Manager to do an exploratory expedition to this yet another Confluence Close Encounter with the A.T. We were attempting to determine if this imaginary point might be (in degree confluence hunter terminology) just a stone¢s throw from the A.T.) For this visit to 39-78 we traveled west on U.S. 50 heading towards the Blue Ridge Mountains through Loudoun County¢s town of Middleburg, where an ancestor of mine had been wounded during the American Civil War. Past Upperville (Fauquier County) the road climbed towards Ashby Gap, and the Clarke County line. We found parking at a building then being used as a taxidermy shop. According to our old USGS maps, the A.T. use to go right beside this place, but it has since been rerouted to a more wooded corridor just a little to the west. The shop owner not only allowed us to park, but also let us warm up by his woodstove on the return from our adventure. About six inches of snow had covered the area during the previous weekend. Much of this was already gone from the open fields in the valley below, but with the shade and higher elevation, the AT was a cold white path as we headed south up from Ashby Gap towards the ridge line. On this last day of February, the sun was shining, and you couldn¢t ask for a nicer winter day to be out in the woods. Heading south, we encountered only a single set of northbound footprints on the snowy trail. Along the way we passed boundary signs for Sky Meadows State Park. About an hour later, we stood where a gas pipeline crosses the AT. Well down the hill to the west, and in the woods just to the north lay our objective. A northbound through hiker would already have 976.7 miles under his belt when he reaches the pipeline cut. 55% of the trail (1207.3 miles) would still remain before Katahdin. Obviously this would be a great place to take a break. If you could hide your heavy pack in the woods, a jaunt downhill and back to 39N 78W would make a great diversion. However, admittedly, as this view of me standing exactly on 39o N. 78o W. shows, there¢s not much see. Pretty much trees in all directions, and in thru hiking season, with all the leaves out, visibility would be even more limited. Anyway, here¢s the money shot of the GPS ¢ ten zeroes in northern Virginia. It¢s a sight you don¢t see every day¢¦ And by the time we trudged back up the hill to the trail, it was pretty obvious we¢d diverted much more than a stone¢s throw from the A.T.-N