Coming in from Webster Parish, we headed east toward the town of Athens, from which we'd go northeast to Lake Claiborne State Park, a popular campsite and fishing spot in northern Louisiana, where we planned to have ourselves a campout. Along the way was the last of five parish highpoints we did for the day. Claiborne Parish's highpoint is a hill, but a narrow dirt road leads right to the top so no actual work was needed to bag this one. In Old Athens we went north past a church and cemetary about a mile, then east on Fire Tower Road about 3/10 of a mile, then northeast on the unnamed road to the top. No trouble at all! The top is a cleared area ringed by trees, and is obviously a local hangout for kids drinking beer. We stayed long enough to get a photo of me. This otherwise unremarkable spot is the second-highest parish highpoint in the state, after Bienville Parish's Driskill Mountain.

The camping at Lake Claiborne was very nice: modern campsites, not too crowded, very lovely views. It's a pretty big lake and popular for fishing, but when we were there the lake level was way down; walking out to the end of the pier I was just standing over mud. A friendly black kitty made friends with us that evening, which we spent mainly staring at our fire and checking out the stars. Very nice! The next day we looked at a couple more Louisiana Parish highpoints over in Caddo and Bossier Parishes, but a preponderence of hunters and some iffy-looking 'residences' suggested we steer clear of these for the time being. Then, the long drive across Texas...