Hopkins County Highpoint Trip Report

61 areas in Saint Charles Quadrangle and 16 areas in Hortonville Quadrangle (all 650+ ft)

Dates: June 7, 18, and 19, 2006
Author: Bill Schuler

DeLorme Atlas page 61 D10 and page 62 E1

This has been a hard report to write because the usual methods of recording data don't work. The spot elevation at 729 feet has obviously been strip mined away, as has anything over 700 feet. In order to claim this county, I decided to try to climb everything over 650 feet. To compound this quest, it is hard to determine natural terrain from reclaimed land. To give road directions isn't feasible as I was up every possible route and spur in and around the Bunt Sisk Hills and Barnsley Hills, many of them dead-ends and many others with alternate routes.

I decided to give only general areas and approximate latitudes and longitudes. Each area requires roaming around to cover the possibilities and occasionally scaling cliffs.

I use DD-MM-SS and WGS 84 settings in my GPS unit and relied heavily on the GPS altimeter (not very reliable except for comparison purposes) to identify areas over 650 feet. Here are the results of 28 high points on June 7th, 33 high points on June 18th and 16 high points on June 19th.

Saint Charles Quadrangle:

Spot elevation (729 feet) and 3 areas south of the spot elevation - Strip Mined
Lat 37-13-43N - Long 87-32-27W

9 areas north of Browns Creek Headwaters (650 to 660+ feet)
Near Lat 37-08-18N - Long 87-32-28W
Lat 37-07-53N - Long 87-31-55W
Lat 37-08-10N - Long 87-32-13W

1 area North of Parkway (661 feet)
Lat 37-12-41N - Long 87-32-15W

17 areas around the conveyor in the Bunt Sisk Hills (650+ feet) - strip mined
Lat 37-12-41N - Long 87-32-15W

10 areas west of Flat Beach Hollow Creek (660 - 680+ feet) in Bunt Sisk Hills
Lat 37-14-24N - Long 87-31-58W

16 areas Southwest of Flat Beach Hollow Creek (650 to 700+ feet) in the Bunt Sisk Hills - Strip mined
Lat 37-13-34N - Long 87-31-15W

3 areas in the North Barnsley Hills (690+ to 710+ feet) - Strip mined
(Didn't get Lat/Long readings)

1 area in South Barnsley Hills (680+ feet) - may be the highest land depending
on the amount of strip mined land in other areas, impossible to level.
Lat 37-14-19N - Long 87-30-40W

Nortonville Quadrangle:

5 areas in the Southwest Bunt Sisk Hills (650+ feet) - Strip mined
Lat 37-13-13N - Long 87-29-48W

3 areas near Mortons Gap (680+ feet) - Strip mined
Lat 37-14-10N - Long 87-28-51W

4 areas South of Mortons Gap (670 to 700+ feet) - Strip mined
Lat 37-14-09N - Long 87-28-51W

3 areas North of Ward Mines (650+ feet) - Strip mined
Lat 37-13-45N - Long 87-27-43W

1 area (660+ feet) - not sure of the location - forgot to write it down.
Lat 37-13-37N - Long 87-25-48W - Strip mined

This effort involved over 45 miles of off-road driving and over 20 miles of hiking/bushwhacking. I asked everyone I saw for permission to continue. I usually got a shrug or "I don't own the property" and "Don't know who owns it" or "Shore, go fer it". As a result, I claim good faith effort for Hopkins County, KY.