Allegany County High Point Trip Report

Date: March 30, 2000
Author: Michael Schwartz

Dans Rock (2895 ft)

(See Glenn Bock's report)

unnamed point at northwest corner of county (2880+ ft)

This was a real adventure. The first thing I did was climb the wrong mountain. I ended up on Samson Rock, in Garrett County, about a mile SW of the correct point. After finding the Samson benchmark, and realizing the error, I drove to the turnoff about 3/4 miles NW, and turned onto the dirt road shown on the topo that approaches the point from the west and just south of the state line.

Here I was stymied by a ramshackle farm and a lot of very insistent no-trespassing signs. The following approach is longer, but works: Take exit 29 off I-68 onto MD 546 north. Go 3.3 miles into Pennsylvania and turn right onto SR 2011. Take 2011 to the 4.8 mile point and turn right onto TR 716 (Savage Mtn. Rd.). I drove about 1/2 mile and parked. With a jeep one could drive almost the entire route.

Consider checking in at a farm office 1/4 mile up TR 716. On the way out, the farmer flagged me down, expressing his concern about what I had been doing. The big fear seems to be of poaching. When I told him I'd been hiking, he had no problem.

As you hike up TR 716, take the first significant dirt road to the right, SSE over Little Savage Mountain, then descend toward a creek. On the descent, ignore the more substantial, signed Bear Run Road, to the left. After crossing the creek, start uphill and go right after 100 yards on a fair dirt road. Take this road to a utility right-of-way and hike left up the right-of-way to the crest of Big Savage Mountain. Hike south (right) onto the high ground of the 2880 ft closed contour. I found the state line marker #179 (shown on topo) almost immediately. It is inscribed with the number 1797, erected 1902. I then spent an hour searching unsuccessfully for the marker shown at the NW corner of Allegany County. In the process, I thoroughly covered the 2880 ft closed contour area.

The above sounds pretty complicated, but the round trip, even with the wandering, only took a couple of hours.