Orleans County Highpoint Trip Report
Date: February 28, 2004
Author: Gene Daniell
This one is short but not much fun, the sort of high point that makes you wish they'd drawn the county line
to make something else inside it higher. From Exit 48 on the New York Thruway, follow NY 98 north.
At 2.0 miles beyond the crossing of the Orleans County line, Root Road enters on the left though the road sign
is on the right side of the highway. Follow Root Road for 3.2 miles, passing the cemetery where a state
historical marker tells you the man who wrote "Kum Ba Ya" is buried, then turn right on Eagle Harbor Road
for 0.8 mile, then left on Gray Road (road sign, once again, on the right) for 0.7 mile.
The hill is on the right (north), with a number of practical access lines, all posted, though I doubt you'd get
into much trouble for merely walking there. Gravel pits are generally posted due to being well-known
problem sites for wild parties, unauthorized target practice, etc.... The gravel mining operations seem to be
continuing (the contours of nearby hills and ridges suggest that they are all probably glacial gravel deposits,
a combination of drumlins and eskers), since there was a piece of heavy equipment on the site when I was there.
The highest points on the hilltop are clearly not natural. The highest natural ground seems to be just north
of the gravel piles at the north edge of the pit, but it would not be surprising if the whole southern contour
circle was mined away in the next year or two. The much smaller northern contour circle, just inside the woods,
seemed slightly lower to me.
If they truck all of this hill away, then we have a problem - there are at least three small hills in the area with
a 730-foot highest contour.