Washington County High Point Trip Report

Date: February 17, 2002
Author: Fred Lobdell

We parked near the school bus barn that is near the northern end of the 560-foot contour and bushwhacked through the woods. There is no obviously higher area except for some mounds near the bus barn that are obviously manmade, probably piled up from when the area was graded for the school buses. My feeling is that the HP is near the northern end of the area, but I can't prove it.

The man inside the fence at the bus barn wanted to know what we were doing (we weren't attempting to get inside the fence at all) and said he was going to call the state police. About 15 minutes later as we were having lunch at a little pizza place on RI route 3 near the southeast corner of the HP area, a trooper pulled into the parking lot. He was there on a different matter, but one from our party went out and talked with him anyway. He had gotten the call, but wasn't very concerned about it. Perhaps the man at the bus barn has a local reputation.

However, the west side of the area is lined with private homes, whereas the east side has commercial properties and some vacant lots and areas along RI 3. It is our recommendation that future visitors to this HP park somewhere along RI 3 and bushwhack into this area from the east. This would seem to be the least intrusive way of accessing this area.