Putnam County Highpoint Trip Report

Date: October 12, 2008
Author: Ken Oeser

I could joke and say we have a landowner problem here. Looking for Lonnie Bays, we saw the King residence (where Mike Schwartz was given a drink after his hike) and pulled into the Young residence. He was carving apples on his back porch and told us Lonnie was sitting out next door and to come back for drinks after we finished our hike. Lonnie gave us permission, then proceeded to drive his ATV all the way to the top with us, putting his engine loud enough to drown out any birds that I might have found. Somehow we did manage to see a buck on the woods road before it switchbacked to the top and I heard some birds. I missed one yellowish bird, but did ID a vireo and a warbler. Saw several turkey feathers but no turkeys.

We took the straightforward ridge down and Lonnie took his ATV down the road. He warned us of the steep trail but it wasn't bad. He was waiting again at the bottom to talk some more, then by the side of the road as we were driving by him a couple of minutes later. We just couldn't get away and didn't have much time to play with. He said we could come back and camp on the highpoint and was wanting to drive us up the ridge on the other side of the road for the view but we still had 6 hours to drive. Needless to say, we didn't stop in for drinks with Mr. Young.