Polk County High Point Trip Report
On state line on Indian Mountain (1,680+ ft)
Date: April 8, 2000
Author: Fred Lobdell
The high point of Polk County lies on the Alabama state line about a half mile west of Shorty Mtn. A
copy of the pertinent portion of the Indian Mountain topographic map is almost essential to a successful
completion of this hike.
From the intersection of US 411 with GA 100 in the hamlet of Cave Spring, go south on 100 about a mile
to Jackson Chapel Rd. Turn right (south) on Jackson Chapel Rd. and go about 2 miles to a gated dirt road
going to the right (west). This gate bears a sign saying that the hunting rights to the land have been
leased to a hunting club, but as we were not hunting this didn't concern us.
Walk up the dirt road, keeping track of your twists and turns, for about 2.7 miles to a height of land at a
sharp hairpin turn to the right. Just a few paces past this point a rough dirt track, not shown on the
topographic map, ascends the hill to the west. This will take you to the 1,680-foot contour at the summit
of this hill. The high point is shown as being at the east edge of this highest contour, so you need to walk
the east ridge line back towards Georgia until you feel you've dropped at least one full contour. This
should assure that you passed over the high point of Polk County. The total hike and climb by this route,
for Polk County alone, is about a 6-mile round trip with about 800 feet of gain.
From this point it is a bushwhack of about one mile to Flagpole Mountain, the high point of Cherokee
County, AL. However, it was already 7 p.m. and we felt that we would be in serious danger being
overtaken by darkness if we embarked on a two-mile bushwhack followed by a 3-mile road walk at that
hour. David Olson would have been ashamed of us.