Tom Green County High Point Trip Report

Date: May 27, 2000
Author: David Olson

To do Tom Green county, we drove out to Coon Dive Draw. The roads do not correspond to the map but are not hard to understand. Just south of the county line on state highway 163 we turned east on to Probandt Ranch oil service road. The road goes straight east to the major north-south drainage just west of the (three) HP areas. We drove up to the radio tower. This is on or close to the highest point on the southwest of the three HP areas. We initially mistook this for the northwest HP area and wasted time seeking southward. Back at the radio tower, go northeast 0.10 miles and turn east or southeast on another road. Go through the gate and drive on the deteriorating road across the wash, then up to a fence. Turn left (north) and hike up hill. This is the south end of the east-of-the-three HP areas. Bob's level indicated little value in hiking much further north. Go back to the radio tower and head north toward the windmill 0.8 miles away. That is the northwest-of-the-three HP areas. The highest point in the area seems to be 150' south of the road. Retrace your route and head out toward the highway. Near the logical place for the west area look for a gate in the fence in a severely overgrown area. Stop here, go through the gate, find an old road and hike north along the old road for at least 0.5 miles. It is tough to identify the exact highpoint in this area, so bring your GPS and have the HP area's GPS coordinates in hand. We had not, so we can only wave our hands and say that we were near the HP in this area.

For part two, we sought to go to the Hay Hollow (two) HP areas in Tom Green county. Fault DeLorme for not marking private roads and gates. The road paralleling the Middle Concho River, 'Bacon Rind Road', is gated at highway 163. We went the long way around, bush-camping overnight along the way. In the morning we found that the roads here do not seem to relate at all to the map. We asked at the Cope Ranch and had a good conversation with Cathryn Cope Kessler [864 Cope Rd./ Big Lake TX 76932, 915- 884-6852]. She showed us a monument that she said was the southwest corner of Sterling county, monument 25?. A look at topozone afterwards casts doubt on that. She told us that the country we were interested in belonged to a Mr. Suggs, who has leased it out to a Mr. Gruver (spelling?), who has locked all the gates onto that property. We had good reason to believe that if we went looking for those two HP areas we would not find them, waste a lot of time and possibly get lost, so we did not make any further attempt. When you go do these two HP areas get 1) good maps, 2) GPS coordinates for the HP areas, 3) satellite photos of the area, 4) a rabbit's foot for good luck.