Wahkiakum County Highpoint Trip Report
BM Huckleberry (2,673 feet)
Date: November 1, 2004
Author: Adam Helman
A quick addendum to existing reports.
The lower gate at Camp 2
(NAD27 coordinates zone 10 (480058 E, 5129590 N))
was locked on a Monday during hunting season 2004 - specifically on November 1. A disgruntled hunter scrawled
on the dirty gate, "Go hunt your own county.", to which somebody replied, "F-CK NO!".
Imagine if county highpointers were limited to their own county of residence!
Since this is from where one would begin a summer hike
with plenty of daylight hours (and under blue skies) I did not make the attempt.
Furthermore the weather was quite blustery with a low cloud ceiling;
40 F temperatures and blowing rain.
In brief, only a fool would have set out under those conditions,
solo, on a twenty-two mile walk!
Bob Bolton informs me that the county is pronounced "Wa-kaya-kum",
the first syllable as in "want".
I had car-camped the previous night at the State Line County Park located eight miles
east of Cathlamet, on the south side of route 4 and right at tidewater by an arm of
the Columbia River. The campground host of this RV park allowed me to camp for free -
likely because I neither had an RV nor even set up a tent.
My entire county highpoints trip, including this aborted effort, is described in
this report.
Addendum
Paul Klenke, a newly minted Washington county highpointer, succeeded at Wahkiakum County on
Friday, November 12 - eleven days after my attempt. He reports that the lower gate was open,
and that he commenced a mountain bike ride from the upper gate, still locked, at 1,700 feet.
Given that both Paul's attempt and mine were on weekdays, it appears "hit or miss" whether
or not one will encounter a locked lower gate. Perhaps on the weekend the situation is different,
at least during the hunting season in late fall.
Please see Tom DeRoo's trip report for a clarification of exactly
when the lower gate was open for hunting season in fall 2004.