Sussex County Highpoint Trip Report
Date: September 12, 2006
Author: John Mitchler
During my quest to visit a winery in all 50 states, we went to the champagne
winery near Egg Harbor City, NJ, and then took the ferry from Cape May to DE to
visit the only winery in DE. I only have MT to do now.
Whilst in DE, we only had time for 1 cohp, so I figured I'd do Sussex since it
sounded like it had more problematic access, which it turned out to have.
I had a secret weapon, which I'll describe below in context.
Cape Henlopen one area
After lunch in the adjacent town of Lewes and visiting
the Lightship Overfalls there, we drove east on Cape Henlopen Drive to the state
park that occupies most of the cape. We paid the $8 entrance fee and were
guided by the reports of others. We climbed one of the WWII observation towers
for a view, and walked the paths to the east shore area to climb the highest dune.
Spooky Mike is correct; it is worthwhile to visit.
Whitesville three areas
We then drove down the coast on DE 1 to visit the
lighthouse in Fenwick Island near the DE-MD border. I zeroed the odometer at
the intersection of DE 1 & 54 (near the lighthouse), and drove west on DE 54.
At mile 19.3, we turned left (south) on DE 26/54. At mile 21.6, we turned right
(west) to continue on DE 54. At mile 23.0 we crossed Whitesville Road. At mile
23.5 we reached paved Whaleys Road and turned right (north) and drove 0.2 mile
to Cadd Lane and turned left (west).
We parked our car but it wasn't two seconds before people were out looking at us.
We approached the second trailer (#38780)?from the pavement, owned by
Chester "Chet" Billingsly whose grandparents were named Cadd. I spoke to him
about access to the highpoint west of there, which he owned. He was very
reluctant to allow me to visit that site and, in fact, refused permission.
Apparently this area is hot real estate and the land is under contract and he
can not allow others on the land. He must have asked me five times if I was
there to take soil samples. My guess is that sellers and buyers are fearful of
contaminated land. So after twenty minutes of this, my red-haired secret weapon
emerged from the passenger side of the car and began to chat with Chet.
We talked about his family, his recent injury, and his land, and soon enough Kathy
asked him to let me run over to the highpoint while she stayed and chatted some more.
Done deal. I'm off and running with map and compass and camera.
The larger HP area is covered in brutal green vine. I followed a lane
south/southwest to see the other knobs in a horse pasture which were easy to reach.
That land was not posted.
I have Chet's home and cell numbers and intend to get an update on the real
estate situation there. I wouldn't be surprised to hear in a few years that the
entire area is subdivided, which may obliterate the soft sandy highpoint there
(leaving only the horse farm knobs).
Whitesville one area west
We drove west on DE 54 (Line Road on the DE-MD boundary)
from Whaleys Road, and after 0.7 mile we passed Guy Ward Road on the left (south).
We set the odometer there and after 1.8 miles we reached a dirt
road on the right (north) which has a metal gate across it. This dirt road is
0.7 mile east of Melson Church Road and 4.9 miles east of US 13. While Kathy
sat in the car, I jogged the trail network in the hunting preserve and felt very
good about reaching the highest ground which seemed obvious. I had to bushwhack
a bit to ensure the land dropped off and I relied on topo features to
orient my search. I applied the Rule of Looking for Something
by walking farther than I thought I needed to do, just to confirm the lay of the land.