Wayne County High Point Trip Report
Date: November 16, 2002
Authors: Dave Covill, Rick Hartman, and Don Holmes
This is a classic. There is a 14-foot (+/-) boulder on the summit, with relatively smooth sides.
I would call it Class 4 climbing.
Reach it from Piedmont by going north on 49 to the intersection of 34, then east on 34 for exactly 2.4 miles
as Hans Haustein noted, to a paved left turn. Pull in here, and drive as far as you can. The rough road goes
OK for several tenths, then steepens as you ascend Clark Peak. I stopped about 1/3 of the way up at a 1-
foot high outcrop across the road. It did not appear prudent to try it, but after inspecting the whole road on
the way up and down, it wasn't that bad, and I'm sure my Isuzu Rodeo could have made it all the way up to
the top.
When you reach the summit area, go northwest past the radio building and a tower to the highest boulder,
which leveled about 3 feet higher than all others. We scouted the imposing north face, tried the west
buttress with it's convenient but too-short diagonal crack system, the sheer south wall with it's ruined log
staircase, as it were, and finally settled upon the east ridge route. We tied a rope to a tree on the west side
and threw it over the top to the east side. I climbed up without use of the rope, although it was close at
hand if I had needed to grab it. I tied hand loops into at 2-foot intervals, then proceeded to down-climb
using it.
There was a nice register pipe from Hans on top. Others had signed in. Forget who. Don and Rick hauled
themselves up after Dave descended. Be careful, as a fall would be painful.
The ground is not even, and is rocky. A 50-foot, 7 - 8 mm rope would be sufficient.