Culpeper County Highpoint Trip Report

Date: April 24, 2006
Author: Mike Schwartz

I followed Don Desrosiers' lead, walked up the access road, and tried the Davenport Loop Trail. I found one wooden bridge on the old woods road, then lost it completely and had to improvise a route to the highpoint ridge. I tried his return route over the summit but never found the faint road for the descent and ended up heading more south than east. I ended up passing the small pond just east of the county line, way southeast of the highpoint, and passed the house shown on the topo just southeast of the pond. I walked out on the gravel road shown on the topo to the junction at spot elevation 346, then walked uphill to the curve at the road where the access road begins at a gate. I had parked my car around the curve at the gates to a prayer center.

I spent a lot of time up and down looking for faint trails and, if I had it to do over again, would simply bushwhack steeply up the highpoint ridge from the vicinity of the house. At the beginning of the Davenport Loop, I was only about 1/3 of a mile from the highpoint and it would have been simpler to do the direct bushwhack. The maze of trails is too confusing and unfortunately none of the better ones seem to originate near the house.