Montgomery County Highpoint Trip Report

Date: June 24, 2006
Author: Clifford Young

I used the same western approach as Dan Case and others. I had preprogrammed my GPS with the highpoints. For the southern area along the Herkimer County line, I followed the road around the corner to the south and left it as made the turn back to the east. Following my GPS to the southwest put me just about at the top of the "G" in Montgomery. The land is fairly flat once above the 1500 foot contour, sloping slightly to the east. As my GPS got down to <100 feet I came across an arrow-straight ditch running in the general direction of the county line. At the point I came upon it, the ditch was 6 to 8 feet deep and 5 or six feet across. It was not a ditch but some sort of fault line. I followed it to the south to the point where it started to go downhill. In this area it had gotten narrower and I crossed to the western side. Following the fault line north, it continued on, in one place being only about 18 inches wide but 18 or 20 feet deep. As I continued north it slowly disappeared into the surrounding terrain. There were many side fissures running to the west, usually only a foot or so deep but hidden in the undergrowth. This, combined with the hobblebush, made for a fairly nasty bushwhack back to the road.