Harford County High Point Trip Report

Date: June 20, 2001
Author: Dan Case

From the Baltimore County HP, you want to backtrack down Middletown Road to Freeland Road, at the country store and Gunpowder Baptist Church (great name, no?). Follow this eastward to MD 45, which parallels I-83 at this point. Turn right at the light (south) and very soon you will reach MD 439, which continues to meander past fields and farms and rolling countryside into Harford County, where it meets up with MD 23. Turn left and take this north several miles to the HP areas.

Because of the way Mike Schwartz's trip report is laid out, I missed hitting one of the areas east of 23's bend at the state line. I may return for it. However I feel I have hit the high ground here.

The gas station he alludes to is not the Exxon station you see when the road bends to follow the state line (that's in PA). It's the Getty station near the orchard stand. These were the first two areas I did.

I parked in the orchard stand lot and walked up the road to the red barn area, breaking a major sweat on this easy walk due to the dragon's-breath heat and humidity of the day. I found the clearest high ground to be next to the windmill on the west side of the barn, from whence one can see a thin obelisk on the side of the road marking the state line, where 23 finally turns into PA 24.

I think this is the highest, although you can't do visual comparisons between this and the other area, in the pine grove between the orchard stand and the Getty station. This is accessible and easily seen to crest next to the trees close to the road, in front of the guest cabins.

Next I went into PA, to New Park Road, for the first of the two areas east of the bend. (I neglected the other because it was laid out on the web page below the possibly manmade BM near Whitesboro and looked like part of that write-up). First, the road is closed just past the turnoff, so if that requires going back to PA 851 that way another route will need to be found for now. Second, Mike's directions are accurate and need no correction. The Mason-Dixon line marker in the field across the road is quite useful in gauging the state line for this liner. However, do take care to use the field on the MD side (where it becomes grass is obviously the property and state line). You're a bit closer to the private residence in PA than Mike's report would have you believe, and walking on the grass is obviously using their side yard.

As for the area 0.7 miles south of the state line, the farmhouse front yard, parking is a little difficult. You'll have to block a driveway across the road for a little bit. However, I could see the east area in the above paragraph from here and it definitely seemed higher.

Heading back to Norrisville and turning left (east) onto MD 136 will set you on course for the Cecil HP, and the possibly man-made BM in the quarry near Whiteford. It's at a ridgecrest, fairly accessible and indeed looks like it could be the true highest point if natural. However, I skipped it today as the weather was just too hot to go bouldering around a quarry, not with another county and a couple of hundred miles of driving to do yet.