Douglas County High Point Trip Report

two areas on Badger Mtn (4,254 ft and 4,240+ ft)

Date: May 6, 2001
Authors: Trapper Robbins and Roxanne Everett

We drove paved Badger Mountain Road, S from Waterville to the 5-way junction near several radio towers (near the 4143' BM). From this point and the next 1+ miles S, there are numerous dirt roads heading SW up Badger Mountain. These roads are signed as private and trespassing is illegal. Homes, shacks, and trailers are scattered up on Badger Mountain and driving up appears to be tolerated or at least hard to detect (this was confirmed by some residents we talked to). Use your own judgment.

We were able to navigate the random collection of dirt roads up to the area near point 4254'. We easily found the SKI BM (two markers) and wandered this large flat sage hilltop to ensure HP encounter.

Then we continued driving about 2/3 mile W crossing the high-tension power lines to the 2nd HP candidate that Andy Martin discovered earlier this year. A dirt road leads close to this HP, but the last portion is inside a negatively signed fence with a big empty barn and an old camper. Using our plastic level from the top, we could not determine whether this HP (4240'+) is higher than point 4254' or not.

Just for fun, we drove SE to the radio tower installation on hill 4243'. Our level showed this hill as being clearly lower than the other two areas.

Note: The dirt roads we took are generally passable by passenger car, though there were a few sections where extra clearance is advised (we have a Subaru Outback and did fine). There are a bunch of dirt roads up here and we're not sure if we necessarily took the "best" route or not.