Lee County High Point Trip Report
Date: December 29, 2000
Author: David Olson
I checked the unimproved road extending east-west from Mt. Hope Church (gone) to the HP. It is posted
"No Trespassing". I then drove north on county 217 (locally called the Mulehead Road) and parked 1
mile NNW of the HP, where the unimproved road is "road closed" gated, with signs = "foot traffic invited"
and "walk-in turkey hunting". I didn't note the trail number. I hiked the old unimproved road SSE
toward the HP. At 0.5 mile it is getting rather overgrown. I came to a T-junction, thought I was at the
HP, and hiked west looking for the cemetery, etc., to confirm it. I did not find them and concluded that I
was really 0.2 miles north of the HP. I took the other path and came to the real HP T-junction. It is
marked with two round-metal signs, reading "Sawmill Rode" and "Hudson Reese". There is an old
decrepit building south of the junction, the old sawmill. I hiked west again and found the cemetery. As I
hiked back to the HP a hunter on an ATV overtook me. He took me to task, not for trespassing (the HP is
on hunting club property) but for not wearing blaze orange and stupidity of being in the woods during
hunting season. After talking with him for several minutes I excused myself to go the 100 ft. to actually
get the HP. I did get it, but if I had been more free I would have spent another three minutes Lobdellizing
the HP more thoroughly. Then another hunter walked out to their clubhouse and gave me a ride the long
way back to my car. He said that "if a game warden had found you he would have given you a ticket.
State law says you've gotten to wear blaze orange in the woods during hunting season." And "you can
come back during the summer and hike it no problem." A third hunter, when told that the sawmill
(actually 200 ft west of the sawmill) is the highest hill in Lee county, said "I'll be darned" and "If the
county line were further north it would be the highest hill in Phillips county too."