Orleans County High Point Trip Report

2 areas 1 mile NW of West Barre (740+ ft)

Date: October 28, 2000
Author: Dan Case

Easiest way to get here is from NY 98, Exit 48 on the Thruway. Follow north into Orleans County.

After crossing Oak Orchard Creek, look for a Root Road on the left. Take this several miles, past West Barre Cemetery where a state historical marker tells you the man who wrote "Kum Ba Ya" is buried, to Eagle Harbor Road going off to the right. You should be able to see the HP bump to the north.

Turn onto Eagle Harbor and follow to Gray Road on the left. Turn onto that.

Go past the obvious crest in the road and dirt road running up to part of the Lofthouse gravel pit described by Fallesen to where he puts the closest road: at the Barre Sportsmen's Club. There was no one around this particular day but that could be different during hunting season (throughout much of the state at this time of year, people's bounds are sprouting fresh posting on practically every other tree, a very conservative interpretation of the forty rods the law requires). There is plenty of parking on the roadside.

Across from the club a phone line runs across the road and two paths enter the back of the Lofthouse gravel-mining property (main offices on Eagle Harbor). You want the right-hand one, which doesn't lead right into a little kettle hole but instead up into an unused field.

The high point is in the woods behind it, about 0.15 miles from the road according to Fallesen. I only found one high spot, a berm next to the big tree on the highest ground probably left over from some of the excavating the Lofthouses did. It was several feet high and, I think, covered everything in both contours. Another visitor, however, might penetrate the woods more deeply and see how much qualification was necessary.

Note one correction to Fallesen's book, he describes the club as being 0.5 miles east of Eagle Harbor and 0.3 miles west of Gray. In fact, those are two separate points - he got the directions mixed up.