Kern County Highpoint Trip Report

Date: July 23, 2008
Author: Ken Oeser

We surveyed from the summit of Mount Piños to the high rocks under the trees and the elevation there we come up with is 8815.4 feet, subtracted from 8831. We did forward and back sites on the clinometer for accuracy. Unfortunately it was late afternoon and we didn't hike to Sawmill Mountain but, since I haven't seen any Lawrences Goldfinches yet, I may have to return anyway. I felt safe since Sawmill seemed to be -0.5 degrees from the rocks under the tree but must have been due to curvature of the earth.

If anyone wants to double check our numbers and plot each point to figure out the elevation at the county line, here they are (compass reading, distance, clinometer angle). Who knows, maybe the county line is somewhere on the down slope, higher than the rocks.

Sighting LineCompass BearingDistance (units??)Clinometer angle
Piños benchmark to Point 1285°94.7-2°
Point 1 to Point 2283.5°83.25-6°
Point 2 to Point 3299 °72.0 -1°
Point 3 to Point 4308.5°96.95-2°
Point 4 to rock summit under trees309°10.7+5.5°