Cherokee County High Point Trip Report
Date: March 22, 2002
Author: Bill Jacobs
Cherokee is your typical Texas CoHP: private property, hospitable landowners, a vigilant canine, and an
omni-present array of barbed-wire fences.
From H17, about a mile south of Rusk, turn left (east) onto FR343. Travel a mere 0.7 mile, passing the
"Rusk Riding Club" and the politically incorrect "Cherokee Coon Hunters Association" signs on the left, to a
mail box lettered with the name "Ball". Turn onto to the dirt lane to the left where you will find a home,
on the 750' contour, and a mongrel deserving of respect. Fortunately, a lady came out of the house and
cordially invited me to continue to the two high areas just ahead. She was not the property owner but was
reassuring that the owner would have no objection. You can drive through the pasture land directly to the
top of the first area.
The second area is further to the northeast and requires, depending on your route, crossing two or three
Texas fences as well as outsmarting a herd of bovines.
Crossing three fences twice affords the opportunity to employ my preferred method of Texas fence jumping,
bellying under the lowest rung. This is the most demeaning but the least hazardous of options, if there is
enough room. It does have its disadvantages: you tend to muddy up the garbs, you become a magnet for thorns,
and when you pop your snout up on the other side, you may come eyeball to eyeball with a sidewinder.
However it is superior to stretching apart two strands and suffering the prospects of impaling yourself,
especially if you are solo or your spouse is holding apart the strands and you are not on the best of terms.
In any event each fence passing is a vivid reminder of: I need to update my tetanus shot.