Sumter County Highpoint Trip Report
Date: January 22, 2005
Author: Bill Jacobs
The northern two areas have undergone extensive changes due to the start of a
massive housing development. The project is in the grading stages so conditions
are likely to be fluid over the next few years.
Dirt roads for construction equipment in the southern of the two northern areas
(middle of the three areas) have turned a three-mile round trip hike, described
in Fred Lobdell's excellent report, into a drive-up. The only access I could
find into the construction site was an open gate along county CR 466A. Using a
GPS, I navigated through a labyrinth of dirt roads until reaching a knoll with a
utility building at the highest point and a large water tank nearby.
The northern area proved more troublesome. Low-hanging fog made line-of-sight difficult.
I parked probably a half mile from the contour. Hiking cross-country,
I passed over what appeared to be the excavations for a new golf course.
The low visibility caused the illusion that mounds in the distance seemed higher,
even when standing on the highpoint. Possibly, the developers have rearranged
the grading so that now there are some elevations higher than the natural highpoint.
As a reminder, always take a GPS fix when parking your car, especially with
reduced visibility. I don't consider myself navigationally-challenged but for a
while I felt like Moses wandering in the desert until stumbling on my incoming footprints.