We entered into Carroll County via the town of Lineboro after visiting the nearby Baltimore County highpoint a few miles back. I noted we’d be passing within a few miles of the Carroll County highpoint, a small hill located in the community of Wentz about five miles north of the city of Manchester. I had not planned necessarily for this county highpoint on this visit, but I had the map and asked Beth if we could go scout it for a future visit. She was game and provided excellent navigation help with the topo while I drove.

Slightly north of Wentz we continued up highway MD-30 up a hill and found little Harvey Yingling Road on our west, which seemed to get close to the highpoint area, so we drove in to check it out. Immediately I saw we might get lucky: past reports described fields of corn or other crops between the road and the highpoint hill, but today, the field was fallow. We drove to a high spot on the road near some nice homes, but far enough away so as not to be in their front yards. The challenge now was the rain and the mud, and the fact I had no shoes yet, just my sandals. We usually mail ourselves our hiking stuff (to us, care of Beth's folks) a few days before we leave so as not to have to check them in at the airport. So I had no access to my shoes. The lure of the highpoint was too much to ignore, and I figured I’d better take advantage of this opportunity to visit it while the fields were empty. Beth, using sound judgment, decided to stay in the car and play lookout.

In shorts and sandals, probably looking like a complete idiot, I walked onto a muddy “road” that seems to separate two fields and at first did pretty well. The ground was mostly solid and still covered in clumps of vegetation and corn detritus and as long as I stayed on these clumps I could avoid the worst of the mud. I walked about 300 feet up this road toward a patch of woods, then left along its boundary up toward the obvious highpoint area underneath some power lines. The actual highpoint itself is a small hill, still covered in natural brambly vegetation. This proved to be tricky. I carefully stepped into this bramble patch and the thick brush, not sure what I would find. The map shows a benchmark, but in my short visit here I didn’t find it, and the rain, mud and brush wasn’t exactly motivating me to stick around longer than I had to. There was also my usual fear of snakes to consider.

After I spent maybe two or three minutes poking around in the bramble-patch, I called it good and turned around for the short hike back to the car. Alas, I did not entirely avoid the worst of the mud, and my sandals and feet were covered. I did my best to clean it off, but the sandals were a goner. They weren't expensive and I had got my money's worth, so as a treat to ourselves, we drove into town to a mall and got ourselves a new pair of shoes/sandals each. Me, because I really needed something to wear. Beth, because she really likes shoes.

From here we drove on to Beth’s folks place in Millwood, Virginia. The rain stayed steady and actually lessened as we got into Virginia, but the rivers – the Potomac and the Shenandoah – were swollen and rushing like crazy with all the rain. Impressive sights as we passed over them on US-340.