Tyler County Highpoint Trip Report

three unnamed areas (1,500+ feet)

Date: May 13, 2009
Author: Fred Lobdell

I followed Mike Schwartz's trip report which was quite accurate as usual. For the area "northeast of McElroy", I drove the short distance from the fork to the road crest, but I probably shouldn't have. Parking is not great at the fork, but finding a place to park and to turn around was even worse on the road.

The hike itself, while steep, was not especially difficult.

As Mike noted, parking was ample for the hike to the other two areas. The dirt road to the ridge crest passes north of the summit of the first knob, so I had to reverse my course from the road to get to the high ground. From here, I found my compass to be more useful than my GPS unit, as each of the connecting ridges between the subsidiary knobs was at a different compass bearing from the others.

Just before the steep ascent to the final knob (and the second of the two HP areas on this hike) I crossed a new, good-quality gravel road. I don't know where this road comes from or goes to, but if it could be accessed it would make one longer hike into two relatively short hikes.

On my return journey I was scolded by a turkey hen who led me away from her 3-inch long poults. I also saw two veerys and a hermit thrush.