Hickman County High Point Trip Report

Date: January 24, 2004
Author: Ken Oeser

four areas close to Wilson Hill Road, 1 mile west of Dublin

From Dublin at the curve of KY339/1748, go west on Wilson Hill Road for about a mile. Pass a cemetery on the right, then watch carefully for two houses on high ground on the right. The second house seems to level higher than the first, and is higher than the fourth area. The second house is higher than the first area, which is between the cemetery and the first house. Nobody was home at either house, and an area a little behind the second house seems to be the highest of these four.

six areas about 1 mile east-northeast of Fulgham

On KY58, about 1 mile east of Fulgham, and 1.2 mile west of Watts Station, look for the curve in the road shown on the topo. The owner of the largest area here lives in a white trailer on the north side of the road. One could park at the curve and hike into the field. We turned onto Pillow Road just west of the curve and followed it roughly north to a house on the westernmost contour. The man here told us the owner shouldn't mind us walking in the field to the largest contour, so we walked from his drive east to the contour. From here hand- leveling ruled out the contours east and west, plus the contours to the south, across the main road. We were in luck here: chicken droppings had been put on this field the day before, so the odor was pretty strong. We returned to the curve on the main road and hand-leveled the southern contours again, confirming that they are lower than the larger one.

seven areas 1 1/4 miles NE of Jackson Chapel

From the previous areas, drive east on KY58 1.2 miles to Watts Station and cross over the railroad tracks, and continue 0.3 mile farther and turn right onto Kimble Road. Drive south on this road for 1.2 miles and pull into the driveway of the yellow vinyl house on the right. This is the owner of all the land on the right (west) side of the road, with 6 contours. We got permission to park at the old white house (shown on topo) on the largest of these contours. There is an opening in the fence near this driveway to access the other contour on the east side of the road, a few hundred feet to the southeast. The highest area of the contour with the house seems to be at a shed just northwest of the house. We hiked west-northwest through the field to the small second area, then followed the field west-northwest another 0.3 mile to its end. From here I turned on the GPS, and we followed it through some blackberry and thick bushwhacking to the 2 areas next to the railroad track. These are covered in Kudzu. We saw several deer running in the distance here, and followed their trails through the bushwhack. After climbing to the highest spot here, it's our opinion that these areas are man-made from digging out the railroad trench. We returned the way we came, but before reaching the house, we cut north into another field which contains the other two contours. We used a gap where the fence is down. The first area is about 150 feet from the fence, while the second area is another couple hundred feet away. Hand-leveling all 7 of these areas shows this northernmost contour and the one by the house are the highest here, but due to trees we couldn't sight from these to each other.