Robeson County Highpoint Trip Report
Date: February 18, 2016 & November 15, 2016
Author: Tom Layton
February 18, 2016 report
When Charlie Zerphey and I visited the six spots in Robeson County NC last year, I noticed that McGirt Gin Road crosses a slight ridge that was not shown on the USGS quad. Since then, Robeson County has added 2-foot contour maps to its GIS site, and it appears that this ridge may indeed be the highest point in Robeson County.
The new area is at 639 McGirt Gin Road and has a 242-foot contour, which is two full contours higher than any of the others. In fact, there are 242 contours on both sides of the road. There is a house on the high ground north of the road and an open field on the south side.
The USGS quad shows six 240-foot contours, but the new county map rules them out. The four areas along Dixon Road (COHP Areas 1, 2, 5, and 6) top out in the 238 contour. Area 4 on Johnny's Drive is 236 and Area 3 on Johnny Rd is 235. I'm glad we can rule out Areas 5 and 6, which were fenced and posted.
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November 15, 2016 report
Thank you, David Olson, for your work to maintain the COHP site.
You are correct (and I was errant) about Area 1 being easternmost. I've corrected that on my Peakbagger trip report.
Charlie Zerphey and I visited all six locations listed on COHP for Robeson on May 14, 2015.
Since that trip, I've found several NC counties (including Robeson) with 2-foot contours on their GIS websites. When I double-checked Robeson online, I found the two new areas--one of which I suspected when we were there. I have not been back to visit these, but I hope to do so in December, when Charlie and I try the last two counties he needs to complete NC.
I don't have field GPS readings, but marking them on the COHP CalTopo overlay, I get N34.83117 W79.32446 for the house north of McGirt Gin Road, and N34.82965 W79.32275 for the field south of the road. I'm not sure which datum is used here. The description of Tom Dunigan's HP fits the house north of the junction with Kalyn Road, though his coordinates don't match mine exactly.
Note that the 2-foot contour map I posted on Peakbagger is missing the 240 contour. The Robeson GIS site had options to overlay the 2-foot and 5-foot contours but not the 20-foot contours. So the map I posted goes from 238 to 242, skipping 240. This may keep Areas 1, 2, 5, and 6 within the margin of error, since they top out at 238 but might be 240.
Thanks again,
Tom Layton
Boone NC
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Formatter David Olson's comment: The LiDAR map is available at
Robeson NC LiDAR map