Guess Where I Was....

[+WeatherMaker]

Took a work-related trip last week. Can you guess where to? And from the looking I've done, I'll trust my GPS much more than any map that plots this point.

 

The WAAS satellite #47 very low on the horizon is another clue.

 

Found a few benchmarks & caches while I was there, too (well, near here anyway).

 

[+zoltig]

Very most Northern tip of Alaska on the Beaufort Sea

[+Spencersb]

northern-most point of land in the United States.

Northeast of GC6341 & GCB266

but I confess I cheated, I just looked to see which caches you logged last week

[WolfWalker]

And what?!?!?! You didn't invite me to go with you????

[+RainbowCache]

O.K. Let me think....

 

A southern boy in the most northern tip of the U.S.

Work related? Sound like fun!!!!

 

Ain't ya glad you went in August instead of December????

[+WeatherMaker]

Technically, I'm not a southern boy. I'm a South Dakota native, and most recently moved from Idaho. We have a weather research station in Barrow, and yes, we try to visit it during the summer months for obvious reasons. While no polar bears were present, we did find a few rather large carcasses scattered about: (http://www.qsl.net/kw1nd/dead_big_something.jpg) (Intentionally no imbedded picture) Don't know what creature they're from or who ate them, but nevertheless, it'll be wild country again when the ice returns.

 

I was a little surprised when I returned home & plotted the point in both DeLorme's Topo USA 5 & TopoZone. DeLorme put me 2000+ feet out to the west in the ocean, while TopoZone put me on the western coast, but still quite a bit from where I actually was. And since I roamed the beach up there, I'm REALLY sure I was on the most northern tip of land, not to mention GPS backing me up.

 

There is a radio tower out there, that according to topo maps, is benchmarked, but it was down the beach a way & we were already tired of hiking almost 4 miles in small, loose gravel & fighting the wind, and facing the task of walking back. Considering where the maps showed me at, marking the tower's survey point may have been a good idea for cross-checking.

 

As the picture shows, I did have excellent satellite coverage up there, and was surprised to see WAAS POR (I think that's the satellite's name) as long as I held the GPSr up 4-5 feet off the ground.

[edmcnierney]

Actually, the TopoZone map is here:

 

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=71.388...867&datum=nad83

 

which is about 200 meters south of the northernmost tip of land shown on that map.

 

However, if you click on the "Map / Photo Info" button you'll find that that map - the Barrow B-4 quad - was last updated in 1955. I don't know for sure, but judging by the appearance of that area (flat) and the rough weather, are you sure the "northnmost point" hasn't moved in 50 years? Were those two lakes still visible just south of the point?

[+WeatherMaker]

Wow - thanks for pointing this out. Two issues have arisen since you caused me to look into this. One, my picture ain't my waypoint. Don't know how or why, but my saved waypoint was significantly off from my picture. Amazingly, I've got a picture to create the correct waypoint.

 

Two, the point is different still from yours (assuming you entered the coords directly at topozone.com) - since the coords are actually in NAD83, ExpertGPS is converting them to NAD27 before TopoZone.com gets them (derived from reading the URL). However, even with WGS84/NAD83 selected on the topozone menu, the point doesn't appear to shift between that & NAD27, & never quite matches your map. Interesting.

 

FWIW, yes, at least one lake was still there. In all actuality, considering the small gravel & sand the entire peninsula appears to be formed from, I'd be shocked if it hadn't moved somewhat in 50 years. Again, I wish I had marked the tower.

[+greengecko]

gezz... i was going to guess walmart!

[+mogolloyd]

Walmart? You know people who can afford a color display go to Target.