Washington County Highpoint Trip Report

Date: November 22, 2011
Author: Mick Dunn

This update is intended to be used in conjunction with the excellent prior submissions by Schweiker and Schwartz more than a decade ago.

Drive: The last segment of dirt road, heading east from 45-00-0, was easily traveled by my Nissan Versa the entire 1.6 miles to it's end at elevation 867 feet as shown on the map.

Hike: The entire route is now flagged by pink surveyor's tape all the way to the summit which is adorned with a wooden sign nailed to a large tree that reads "PLEASANT MTN. 1374 FT". The sign faces SE which is not likely to be the way in which you approach it.

My visit was during the fall so all the leaves were down and the summit knoll was quite obvious with no competition for high ground around. The northern point that exceeds 1370 feet on the map measured lower on my altimeter and did indeed seem lower to my mind. I don't know if the flagging was done legally or not but it makes this very open woods ascent quite easy although there are a few areas where no flagging is visible and good sense must be used to get to the next flagged stretch.

While the tape is new enough that it remains bright, it is old enough to be brittle and it may be in the beginning stage of disappearing to the ground. Also, the cairn mentioned by Schweiker and Schwartz is now gone.

This route is 1.5 miles round trip with 500 feet of elevation gain and should take about an hour to complete.

Photo #1 shows the Pleasant Mountain summit area and sign.
Photo #2 shows a close-up of the summit sign.