Ozaukee County High Point Trip Report

Date: April 20, 2002
Authors: John Mitchler and Wendy Hecht

Located in southeastern Wisconsin north of Milwuakee, this county requires two easy walks on small hills; one in a field and one at a shooting range, and has a high fun rating. Visit Maxwell's sports bar in Cedarburg after your hikes. We used two trip reports; Jobe Wymore has excellent road logs and Jon Mann has excellent field observations.

The six candidate areas for this county's highpoint are a combination of two sources; Fred Lobdell (see older version of Andy Martin's book) and Dr. Judziewicz of the University of Wisconsin (click here).

Of these six areas, only two are candidates and must be visited. They are 1 and 3. Jobe's report only mentions 4 areas and his 4 = 6 below.

The six areas are (using Jon's numbering south to north):

1) 29-10n-11e Five Corners quad, on both lists, west of Cedarburg (crop field)
2) 30-11n-21e Newburg quad, west of Cedarburg Bog (gravel hill)
3) 7-11n-21e Newburg quad, east of Newburg (Saukville Rifle and Pistol Club)
4) 16-11n-21e Port Washington quad, southeast of Daly Lake (gravel hill)
5) 16-11n-21e Port Washington quad, southeast of Daly Lake (gravel hill)
6) 3-12n-21e Random Lake quad, south of Random Lake (gravel hill)

My field observations:

1) Easy stroll west along a wood fence line to an obvious rise in the crop field.

2) Along a county road, this hill has been gravelled to death and only a remnant edge remains.

3) This is a wooded hill that lies at a dead end road, on the north side of the Saukville Rifle and Pistol Club. We drove onto the grounds amid the sharp ping of small caliber pistol, the angry report of skeet shotguns, and the roar of large bore hand canons. There are two ranges, one on either side of the north-south road. The HP hill has been gouged on the east side for material to create grounds for the shooting club. The gouge is fresh and is actively eroding, carrying fresh rock onto the mowed grounds.

With so much lead in the air, we ducked inside the large metal shed which serves as the bar for club members. We quickly befriended Steve, the groundskeeper since 1980. He chatted with the shooters on the west side range and within a half hour they ceased firing, long enough for us to ascend the hill. Steve got so excited about the whole affair that he joined us. In all his time as groundskeeper this is the first time he had climbed the hill. For celebration, he smoked a cigarette at the summit.

It is very difficult to tell if the small 980-foot summit contour has been completely mined away. Jon Mann suggests it has, but I couldn't find evidence of that. Jobe Wymore believes the contour is still there, but if so it is even smaller than before. I conclude that you need to visit this spot to truly cover your bases. Alternatively, you could wait a decade and let erosion take its toll. On the other hand, area #1 in the field is also eroding due to plowing. Who knows where the true HP is. For this reason, visit both.

Shooting at the Saukville Rifle and Pistol Club commences at 9am daily and lasts until dusk. Call (262) 675-6977 or visit their website. In fact, go to here and look at the HP hill. This photo is looking toward the west-northwest and the HP area is at the extreme left.