Lancaster County High Point Trip Report
200 feet southwest of the northern corner of county (1,180+ ft)
Date: July 13, 2002
Author: Daniel Case
If you find yourself in the Harrisburg area and have limited time to do one of its nearby CoHPs, I strongly
recommend this one as it is pretty much a gimme. You'll make up in the lack of hiking time what it takes
you getting there (and may I just note that US 422 is built-up enough between Hershey and Lebanon that
you'll find it takes you longer to get between them than the 10 miles on the road signs and the map would suggest.)
From Lebanon, take PA 897 (South Fifth Ave., not South Fifth Street) out of town through the villages of
Schaefferstown and Kleinfeltersville. As the Germanic names might tell you (assuming the noticeable
presence of bonneted Mennonite women and the odd Amish horse-drawn cart don't) you're coming into the
outer fringes of Pennsylvania Dutch country. A mile or so past the latter you'll finally cross into Lancaster County.
Note high area past farms to left - this seems to be known as Texter Mountain and is where the HP is.
A few miles into county, turn left on Peartown Road (SR 1023, I think). This saves you a couple of
miles as well as a sharp left turn onto Texter Mountain itself, not really the most efficient way to come from
this direction. At the four-way junction with Texter Mountain (SR 1027) turn left. This becomes about as
narrow as a two-lane blacktop can get as it winds its way uphill through some pleasantly wooded areas and
past farms. It doesn't really lend itself to being driven fast.
The SR designation ends at another four-way intersection where it crosses into Lebanon County.
A half-mile past this, however, you will see the sign for Ann Lind Stables on the right and there will be the Berks
County line marker at the roadside just downhill. I did not see anything in the nearby front lawn that looked
like a tri-county marker, although there were some possibilities but without walking into it, they could have
been lawn ornaments for all I know.
There is ample parking at the stables. Ms. Lind was not present and no one was at the house, but there was
noise from the nearby stables so I checked that out. I was led thus to an employee named Shannon, who had
no problem with me going into the (clearly height-of-land) back pasture. She just wanted to come along,
since some of the horses were there and she didn't want them to get nervous although they were generally
pretty docile. For this reason I strongly recommend getting permission when doing this one. She wasn't
quite sure what I was looking for, seeing as there is no marker for the high point itself (although she's well
aware of the lands straddling three counties. Ms. Lind apparently pays all her taxes to Lancaster County
since it's where her house is. But once she realized I wasn't looking for the tri-county marker, she said this
somewhat overgrown patch of pasture, which they have sometimes harvested for hay in the past but not at
the moment, was likely what I was looking for, and I was able to wander around enough to satisfy myself
that the high ground had been stepped on (of course, mindful of what else one might step on in a horse pasture).
Without having been able to review the map, I wasn't sure I had hit the right point due to uncertainty about
the location of the county corner. But upon later review I was reassured. You just have to remember that
the Lancaster county line runs roughly parallel to Texter Mountain Road (i.e., northeast-southwest) at this point,
and a little bit back from it, so this summit (so to speak) was about the right distance in the right direction.