Lafayette County High Point Trip Report

Date: February 5, 2004
Author: Bill Jacobs

Area One: From downtown Mayo, at the intersection of H51 and H27/H20, proceed west 9.3 miles on H27/H20. Turn right (north) on H53 for 4.5 miles to the hamlet of Day. Turn left (west) on Sumter Avenue, which is two blocks to the south of CR348B (flashing yellow lights) on H53. Continue on Sumter for 1.4 miles to a "T" in the road. Turn right then immediately left after passing through a gate signed "4 Mile Creek Hunting Club". The gate had a string of padlocks so there's a chance you'll find this gate locked leaving a two-mile hike. The road grid on the topos is still highly accurate. Continue another 1.5 miles to a closed gate. Walk around the gate and take the second road to the right (about 100 yards) with a small wooden sign "G1RD" in bushes. Walk 300 paces up this road and observe off through a hole in the trees a 20-foot mound. The swampy waters can be circumvented. It's really bizarre to find such a protrusion in an otherwise completely flat terrain. Some wooden planks sticking out mid way up the mound made me suspect a manmade origin.

Area Two. From Mayo proceed 2.7 miles east on H27/H20 to W.R.Williams Road. Turn right for 0.6 mile to 738 Williams Road, the home of Mr. Nathan Lemts and 4 zillion cats. When driving up to his house, the pasture to your immediate right is the direction of the high area. Walk through this pasture along a line of trees to the end of the field where you will find some pits. Cross a double fence and climbed a few hundred yards into the forest. I didn't have the coordinates preloaded so I wandered at first into another pasture after being warned that there was a 1,400-pound fun-loving bull in residence who was enamored with the color red. (I would have taken off my red jacket but I had a red shirt on underneath and it was too cold to strip down to my "T" shirt.) Mr. Lemts was quite hospitable and will be even more so after I send him some topos of his ranch.

Area Three. Continue another 0.4 mile from Mr. Lemts home to Koon Lake Road. Turn right 0.5 mile to Sunset Road. Turn right 0.3 mile to Russell Drive. Turn right to 2045 or 226 Russell and head up the driveway to the top of the hill, the highpoint. Unfortunately, the owner's house (Jonathan), a few feet off the top of the hill, had burned down six days before. He said he had no problem with future visitors stopping by.