Do you reckon the unscalably large boulder is the one responsible for
the trifinium whirlpool at really high water?
The fact that your sightline runs across a flat rock is very
intriguing because I was told by some folks at the Harper's Ferry
outdoor store in 1998, I think, that the top of a flat rock had been
painted to mark the trifinium some years earlier and that the paint
was visible through several feet of water. At the time of that visit
water was VERY high and not possible to check even by boat. However,
a couple of years later I was there during very low water. You could
pretty much walk across the river. I figured the trifinium to be near
the large boulder, but checked the tops of other large rocks just in
case. Didn't see any paint however. In any case, the paint mark was
an amateur work, not official.
BJB
--- In BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "acroorca2002" <orc@o...> wrote:
> yes indeed good point
>
> sometimes the subjective or even downright whimsical approach is all
> that is available
> & why not
> if this is in fact the best one can do or try or guess at any point
> in time
>
> & indeed several of us have tried this lovely mdvawv tripoint in many
> ways & at many times
>
> & it has always come down to extreme guesswork
> til today
> when i returned at dawn for my 7th visit
> with the surveyors plats & detailed recovery instructions & even pix
> of the state line markers
>
> & because lots of things have changed at the busy highway location
> just above the tripoint since the vawv terminal markers were
> installed there on both shoulders of the road at ground level in 1997
> even all this exquisite detail couldnt prevent me from digging a dry
> hole first thru a foot of miscellaneous gravels
> hahahahaha
> before i actually measured rather than merely counted guardrail posts
> depicted in the survey diagram
>
> for i realized only then that a new post must have been installed
> since 1997
> or the draughtsman had miscounted
> so my hole was actually one post too far west
> hahahahaha
> but then i did finally find the terminal mark under only a couple of
> inches of gravel right beside the next post to the east of this one
>
>
> so i had a point on vawv for the first time
> yesss
> rather than having to guess at the road seam or the usdi nps marker
> or the highway departments concrete prism or various other red
> herrings
> all of which i can now report with confidence are at least several to
> 35 feet into west virginia
>
> however
> i still needed to find the second marker in order to determine the
> precise angle at which to proceed to the river
> & tho i again measured & searched & shoveled & moved large rocks that
> had since fallen from the cliff
> i still couldnt find the second marker after several hours of trying
> hahahahaha
>
> the difficulty was that all the recovery instructions were based on
> things that had been changed or been paved over etc since they were
> written
> & the xerox of the photo wasnt suffiently readable either
> & traffic was moving by too fast to measure things like the exact
> distance from the road centerline etc etc
> etc etc
>
> but no need to make excuses either because the survey plat showed me
> the correct angle i needed to proceed at was north 33 degrees east
>
> & i was able to project this angle from the marker with a protractor
> probably no less accurately than if i had recovered the companion
> line of sight marker itself
>
>
> & then
> i actually sighted at this angle
>
> & beheld mdvawv for the first time
>
>
> & though i couldnt tell at exactly what point on my sight line the
> mean low water line that determines both the mdva & mdwv vectors of
> this tripoint would cross the sight line
> i knew i had the target in view on one of its crosshairs
> & could at least now venture a really good guess as to the exact
> tripoint position
> rather than continue to wonder as before where in all the vastness &
> beauty it might actually be hanging out
>
> the line of sight passes right across the tops of 3 prominent rocks
> all protruding from the water at this time
> first
> between the 2 ears of a towering unscalable boulder that looks a bit
> like a standing bunny
> & then
> between the 2 ears of a much lower domelike rock
> & finally
> across a large flat topped rock barely visible above water
> before advancing into a reach of open water
> where i gauged mdvawv must lie
> wet now
> but on the bank in time of drought
>
> & of course i made my pix
> & approached the tripoint as close as i safely could
> & marked the marker position on the guardrail with black electrical
> tape
> & the correct angle with a second loop of tape very near the first
> so future visitors will have the same data
>
> just remember to look for the 2 vertical black stripes on the
> guardrail & you will get all the rest fairly directly
>
> & if anyone can recover the second marker before the next drought
> all the better
>
> must yield computer now
> more later
>
> --- In BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "dcupopelilly"
> <ronkessler@s...> wrote:
> >
> > I tried that point in September. For the VA-WV line, I found a 3-
> > inch white stripe near the edge of a rock that dropped about three
> > feet into the river at about the spot I figured the line to be. No
> > idea about where this is relative to the low-water mark, but I
> > accepted the point where the line dropped off the rock as the tri-
> > point (no actual marker that I could see though).
> >
> >
> > --- In BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "acroorca2002" <orc@o...>
> > wrote:
> > > tho it has just rained for 2 days here
> > > i am still taking aim at mdvawv today
> > > to at least examine the new alignments etc there against the
> > blueprint
> > > & behold for the first time the authoritative vawv terminal
> sector
> > as
> > > it descends & reaches into the river toward a still unknown mdvawv
> > >
> > > & no matter that the true trifinium
> > > or low water point on that vawv line
> > > can still only be guessed at
> > >
> > > my try will simply be for a truer class c look
> > > & thus a better guess
> > > than ever before