Worth County Highpoint Trip Report
six unnamed field areas (1,350+ feet)
Date: March 20, 2005
Author: Mark Ness
I visited this county's 6 high points on Sunday, March 20, 2005.
It was 2 days after a heavy snowstorm that covered much of southern Minnesota and northern Iowa.
I came from the north on I-35. I took the Freeborn County Road 5 exit (exit 2)
while still in Minnesota, and turned right on C.R. 5 (gravel).
I continued west on C.R. 5 for 3.6 miles and turned left on C.R. 16 (paved).
I drove south on C.R. 16 for 2.5 miles and turned right on the State Line Road (510th Street).
I continued west on 510th Street for 0.55 miles and turned left on Dogwood Av,
a "Minimum Maintenance Road", with very little snow.
I drove on Dogwood for 0.75 miles and turned right on 500th St.
At 0.35 miles I parked on the road side, 272 feet from the middle of area 1.
area 1 (section 16 of Silver Lake township)
I arrived at the top of area 1 in 3 minutes. It is the smallest of the 6 areas.
Round trip back to my car took 5 minutes. From there I turned around, and then turned right on Dogwood Ave.
then right onto 485th St. I drove west on 485th St for 1 mile, where the road curved to the right onto Cardinal Ave.
at 0.52 mile it curved left (west) onto 490th St. after 0.45 mile, I turned left onto Bluebill Ave (paved).
I parked at 0.46 mile on the road between the radio tower and the house 4862, name on mailbox was Victor Knudtson.
After I got out of my car and was about to start photographing, and making my ascent,
a sheriff's vehicle stopped to talk. I told him my purpose, and he went on his way.
It was my only encounter with law enforcement the whole trip.
area 2 (section 20 of Silver Lake township)
Area 2 covers both sides of the road for some distance. I started on the eastern half first.
The high point of the eastern half is about 100 feet SE of the tower.
I then crossed over to the western half. The witness post for the benchmark is at the edge
of the farmplace where the roadside ditch embankment ends.
I looked toward the west and saw a hill 100 feet west of the WP.
I went there, but the WP was higher. I didn't see the BM.
I returned to my car after 18 minutes, including a 2 minute talk with the sheriff.
I continued south on Bluebill for 7.42 miles, where I turned left onto Main Street in Joice.
At 0.3 mile, I turned left onto Front.
At 0.15 mile, I turned right onto Lake
At 0.75 mile, I turned right onto 420th St.
At 2.8 mile, I parked on the road near area 4.
area 4 (section 24 of Bristol township)
I started a direct uphill approach, but it was too steep and slippery,
so I backtracked west and headed uphill where it was less steep.
The snow was knee-deep there and 1 foot deep on the uphill climb.
I arrived on top of area 4 in 6 minutes.
I continued hiking toward area 3, where the snow was up to 1 foot deep.
area 3 (section 24)
I arrived at area 3 in 8 minutes
I crossed back over area 4 on my way to the southern hills. I crossed a fence.
The field on the way to area 5 was covered in shallow snow.
area 5
I arrived at area 5 17 minues after summiting area 3.
It seemed about as high as areas 3 and 4, and higher than area 6.
Even though area 6 appeared lower, I continued toward there anyway.
area 6
It took me 10 minutes to cross to area 6. It did seem lower than area 5.
I would recommend that future highpointers could skip area 6.
Round trip for these 4 areas was 56 minutes.
Total time for this county was 2 hours.