Susquehanna County Highpoint Trip Report
Elk Hill
Date: November 16, 2007
Author: Dan Saxton
For a long time, I had desired to climb this peak, since it is the highest point
of all of northeastern PA and can be seen from my "home mountain," Sam's Point
in the Shawangunks of NY. This day, I got my chance. As I drove up Route 374
from I-81, I could see the peak of Elk Hill covered in snow and knew that it
would be a most interesting experience. The forecast was for snow squalls and I
was not disappointed in this, as it immediately began to snow once I parked the
car at the bottom of the "back way" gravel access road mentioned by Mike Schwartz.
The road still has the "Authorized Personnel Only" sign but the gate was open.
Apparently someone does live up the road on a separate driveway, about 200 yards
or so, but it seems there's no issue with private property. The hike went fast
and uneventfully and I was glad to have the road since I only had sneakers and
tramping through the deeper snow in the woods would have been too much.
It took about 30 minutes to reach the top and the whole way it was snowing.
Thankfully, among the buildings, I found an unfinished shed without a door and
took shelter for a while, hoping for the sky to clear. The snow stopped but the
clouds were still around, so I eventually went down. In better weather,
it might be possible to climb up one of the towers (several have ladders and no
fence surrounds them) and get a good view. Due to the snow-covered ground,
I didn't look for the BM but did see the witness post. The mountain was deserted
this day - that will change when the ski area opens!
Afterwards, I was still game to go for the Wayne County highpoint,
so off I went to Mount Ararat.