Magoffin County Highpoint Trip Report
four points (1,640+ ft)
Date: May 26, 2007
Author: The Oesers
Two years ago I had tried to drive up the road to Signal Knob Lookout and found
the road gated soon after it left KY2029. On my way home from my trip with Fred
a few weeks ago, I was close and decided to check out permission. I drove up
Lick Fork Road from KY2029 and when the road narrowed and turned to gravel,
met an ATV. After chatting, I was told where the owner of a gate across the road
lived and drove over to chat with him. His son was visiting and both were very
friendly and said it would be no problem to hike up. The road from KY2029 up to
Signal Knob Lookout is gated and controlled by a hunting group and they say the
road is rough also, so they recommended Lick Fork Road, then hiking from there.
We arranged to pick up a key to the gate Saturday morning and chatted a few
minutes before driving over. From Hazard, KY drive northeast on KY80 to the
junction with KY2029, then head north and east about 5-6 miles to Lick Fork Road
on the left. From Garrett, KY from the east, take KY7 north about 3.5 miles to
KY2029 on the left. Lick Fork road is on the right after a little over a mile.
Lick Fork road starts as paved, turns to gravel after 0.8 mile, and dirt at 1.2 miles.
A gate is encountered at 1.7 miles; we had a key, so drove through the
gate and continued straight (northwest) another 0.5 mile to a gas meter and parked.
From here we hiked west up a woods road, then up an obscure woods road to just
below the saddle northeast of the tri-county knob. A short bushwhack gets to
the ridge. All these ridges have ATV/4WD roads on them, so travel along the
ridges is easy.
Numbering 1-4 west to east:
Point 1 is 0.82 mile from this saddle to the west but about 1.25 ridge miles.
This tiny contour is on a small hill along the north side of the road, but is
not pointed, so likely not a contender. Altimeter set at 1,640 feet here.
Point 2 is 0.3 mile northeast of the saddle. Although the largest contour,
it is pretty flat. Altimeter check here showed 1,640 feet. There is a fencepost in
the middle of this contour that has a benchmark at ground level. This is from
Bocook Engineering Inc out of Paintsville, KY and has the numbers 2027 on it.
This can't be elevation, so I don't know the significance.
Point 3 is 0.4 mile southeast of point 2, and is fairly flat also.
Altimeter showed 1650 feet.
Point 4 is about 250 feet east of point 3 and looked unnatural with its steep
rise but, once hiking up and on top, it turns out to be a natural ridge that
towers over the surrounding ridge. The rise is about 30 feet from the
ridgeline/road and the altimeter showed 1680 feet. There is definitely a
significant difference between point 3 and 4. Another spot farther east looked
pretty high also, so we checked that, and it showed elevation of 1,660 feet.
A recheck at home showed that my coordinates were correct, so GPS is a little off
from contours. Several Warblers (Prairie, Cerulean, Blue-Winged, and others)
sang to us the whole way. Good looks at some.
We returned the way we came. Our guess is that point 4 is the highest in the
county but I will let someone else check it out for a second opinion.