Paulding County Highpoint Trip Report
Date: February 27, 2007
Author: John Hasch
Road mileages
0.0 - Leave work.
1.9 - Intersection of US 30/Doyle Road.
8.9 - Intersection of IN 101.
12.4 - State Line Road (Paulding CR 1).
I chose this as the first local CoHP for a variety of reasons. First, it is
near one of my workplaces. I grew up in New Haven IN, the reference point for
the mileage directions given here. Our family had often traveled US 30 east
into Ohio for a variety of reasons, so I knew this area well.
Finally, the presence of two nearby tri-county points would make this a
suitable spontaneous endeavor even at this late hour.
I followed Bob Schwab’s notes that clearly led me to this high point area.
In fact, I believe I saw Bob’s tire prints as I parked my car in the same general
area on the Indiana-Ohio state line road. As I got out of my car, I looked
toward the woods lying to the southeast. Although they were 1/4 to 1/2 mile away,
I could clearly make out some white-tailed deer that were coming out of
the western edge of the woods to glean some field corn. By my count, there were
17 of them. That’s quite a herd. I could not imagine where that many deer
could hide in this area that did not have any large woods.
It was a nice day and I decided to hike the entire distance to the farthest high
point and back. I locked the car and set off into Ohio. With my topo map as a
reference, I kept my eyes peeled for the highest land. Walking along the south
side of the eastbound lane, I soon spied the first high area near the fence line.
I left the highway to go over and physically set foot on it. I continued
to walk along the fence line as I watched the deer in the distant field.
Even though I was quite far away, I believe I am the one who spooked them all as I
saw their white tails hopping into the safety of the woods. When they were all gone,
I moved back out to the highway brim to avoid the difficulty of hiking in
the spongy snow.
I hiked past a fireworks building that was personally familiar to me, including
the tall 25-foot statue of Uncle Sam that stands as a sign above the building.
Indiana has a weird fireworks law. There are several classes of fireworks that
can be BOUGHT in Indiana but to do so you have to sign a statement saying the
purchase is for out-of-state use only. You can buy various kinds of fireworks
this way that are not legal to USE in Indiana. (Wink-wink, nod-nod).
Well, I have my own version of morality on this topic. Rather than sign a statement
that I clearly would not abide by (I have on occasion bought the fireworks in
Indiana and taken them to Michigan to shoot off), I choose to travel to Ohio,
buy the same fireworks at this very building, and transport them back to Indiana
to blow off there. Ohio does not require me to sign a statement saying they
will not be carried back to Indiana. The police do not bother you in Indiana as
long as you are only blowing off the fireworks on/near July 4th.
I continued hiking past the woods and located a small pond shown on the topo map.
I also spied another small high area but I did not walk over to it.
I was close enough to "bag" it. My hike took me 1 mile into Ohio to a turnaround
point just past a drainage ditch near the sign marking the Paulding and Van Wert
County line. This was clearly past the high ground shown on the topo map.
I crossed US 30 and began hiking west along the northern brim of the highway.
The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful. I passed a second, smaller
fireworks building on the north side of the highway. It was painted with wide,
alternating red-and-white stripes. Somewhere in the area of this small
fireworks building, I glanced across the field back towards the south side of
the woods where the deer had retreated. I noted several deer now moving into
the field to the south of the woods. I was now farther away than when I first
saw the herd but I paused to watch and count. This time, I saw 22 of the small,
running and hopping dots.
Although the topo map shows the high contour as being slightly off the highway,
the highway itself was where the highest contours were located and is the
obvious reason for the highway being placed there. Immediately off the north
side of the highway for the entire trip back, the fields were about 10 feet lower.
Ten feet was essentially the elevation gain for the entire trip except
for one brief diversion. To break the monotony, I took a brief side excursion
to climb a 20-foot hill made with the diggings from a local backyard pond.
To return to the highway, I hopped the right-of-way fence at a nice timber support
of the kind widely used by the Ohio Department of Transportation. These fences
are easy to cross because they are stretched tightly, have large square sections
for footing, and do not have barbed wire at the top.
I completed this leisurely 2-mile hike, arriving back at my car and driving off
to find the first nearby tri-county point.
Statistics
Time In, Out: 5:07 pm, 6:04 pm
Temperature: mid 30s
Wind: Breezy
Tools, aids: Pedometer, topo maps
Steps, distance hiked: 3,894 steps - about 2.02 miles