Lee County Highpoint Trip Report

Date: June 4, 2006
Author: Shannon Dillmore

Being in Sanford with a bit of extra time Sunday, I ambled on over to Lee County's highpoint. Fred Lobdell's directions are, as usual, excellent. However, the situation has changed a bit.

I found the dirt road mentioned in Fred's report (but it's off Eakes Road, not East Road - just a mix-up in names). Having just rained recently, the road was in bad shape and I didn't want to chance the sandy muck in my 2WD. So, I headed back to a gravel road about 0.1 mile east of the road. The gravel road is actually a driveway to a new home owned by - get this - a professional surveyor. The gravel driveway is signed as 333 Eakes Road. He and his wife just happened to drive by me, so I flagged them down. He absolutely knew that he lived on the high point of Lee County, and invited me up. I followed the couple up, and they graciously allowed me to poke around the high point near a clump of trees. They had planned to live on the high point and we had a pleasant conversation for about ten minutes. It turns out this couple is Darryl and Pam (I think) Eakes and Eakes road was named after his father, who was the recorder of deeds in the county awhile back.

They were very cordial and welcoming of future highpointers but obviously permission would be necessary as the point is very close to their house. They own a lot of surrounding land and seeing that I had my dog with me they suggested I take him down to a sandy bed they owned east of their property to let him run around a bit.