Fleming County Highpoint Trip Report

Sand Mtn (benchmark at 1,430 ft)

Date: May 29, 2004
Author: Ken Oeser

From the junction of KY32 and KY785 (Big Brushy Road) 2 miles north of Interstate 64, go north on KY785 3.3 miles to a white farmhouse on the left. Stop here and ask permission from Buster Pecco (sp?) to drive through his gate at the end of the road. Drive north on KY785 another 0.4 mile and go straight; the road becomes gravel here. Drive north another 0.2 mile to a gate, then another 0.3 mile where the road curves left into a major side hollow. Another gate is encountered at 0.4 mile from the curve or 4.6 miles from the start of KY785. Park at this gate (National Forest boundary) or drive through and park at a curve after 0.1 mile. The road goes uphill a couple hundred feet to a cemetery and ends.

From here we hiked up the valley to the northwest, followed the northwest branch to a creek-bed/trail up near the east/west ridge, then left at a split on the ridge that angled up to the north/south ridge. The summit is another 200 vertical feet above this and 1000 feet distant, but a nice ATV/horse trail leads to the top.

The benchmark was not found. The GPS helped keep us on the right direction, especially at the first ridge split.

Saturday night we tried camping from Carter Caves State Park to Twin Knobs, then hotels in and around Morehead, and everything was booked. Luckily I remembered a good flat spot at the parking spot for Limestone Knob, 1/2 of Rowan cohps, so we drove up there and pitched our tent. It began raining around 2:30 am, but not any storms.