Herkimer County High Point Trip Report
four points on summit (822+ meters) 1/2 mile south of Little Deer Lake (2,697+ ft)
Date: May 10, 2002
Author: Michael Schwartz
See previous reports for approach. I second previous suggestions about not doing this one alone.
Leave early and don't push the daylight. GPS is strongly recommended, both for navigation and to positively
identify which of the many bumps at the summit area are the highpoints.
Fred Lobdell's report and route work fine.
I did this hike with Bob Packard, who was not positive he had reached the true summit in May 2001.
When we used GPS to positively identify spot elevation 781 meters about 1/2 mile west of the summit, Bob knew
it was not the same pinnacle he described in his trip report. He concluded he had probably gotten onto the
next major ridge to the south of the summit ridge and had not reached the true summit.
He will address this separately,
and this provides a hint as to how tricky navigation is in this area. Bob and I contoured around
to the north of hill of 744-meters elevation on the hike in, using a faint woods road, but on the return we
never found the road and got disoriented. We eventually found the end (beginning) of the woods road west
of the hill, but only after 45 minutes of ugly bushwhacking. It might be simpler to go over the top of the hill
and avoid the ambiguous routes around it. Bob's comments about keeping ones wits are very true, and
would be even more so in marginal weather.