It was probably about 3 p.m. in the afternoon when I drove into the town of Big Springs after coming up from the Perkins County highpoint from the south. I filled up the vehicle with gas and took a quick lunch break at a local Subway sammy shop. I'd visited seven counties thus far today, and really only had to break a sweat on three of them. The weather had been kind of a mist/fog mix all day; it couldn't decide whether it wanted to rain or not. It just sort of hung over everywhere. In any case, the Keith County highpoints weren't too far north of here. From the town I went north a little bit on US-138 to US-30, turned left, then almost immediately turned right onto a county road called Day Road, if I recall correctly. About a dozen miles to the north later, Day Road met up with US-26. I went right about a mile and crossed into Keith County. Two areas just north of the highway reach 3,900 feet and together viw for the highpoint honors. I parked along the highway near the eastern area and walked up a path to a vacant farm field and out to the edge of the bluffs. The highest parts seemed to be nearest the edges. I had to squeeze through a fence toward the end. To the northwest about a half-mile I could see the other area along a small hilly ridge. I walked back out to my vehicle and went to get to that other area.

At first I just parked due south of the area but the fencing was pretty solid and although I could have squeezed through the barbed-wire strands, I opted to explore the fence to see if there was a weak spot. I found an opening at a scant two-track road about 200 paces to the east. There was a small "no trespassing" sign near the opening, but I went in anyway. The road drops quickly into a small valley. After about 200 feet of walking, I veered left and started up the rather steep hillsides. I surmounted a small hill and could see the objective area still a few hundred yards distant. I had to descend steeply again, then ascend steeply up the proper hill to claim the other highpoint area. All went well and it was rather pretty, except in areas where people had dumped large amounts of trash as sort of an illegal dump. This is an area of hills, bluffs and breaks that overlook Lake McConaughy, which is a dammed, man-made lake on the North Platte River. The fogginess didn't allow for any views, unfortunately.

On the hike out I decided to beeline to the road, hop the fence then walk back to my vehicle instead of going to the little two-track road I came in on. I tried to literally hop the fence but got off balance and fell rather hard on the other side, conking my head on the ground. Fortunately I didn't knock myself out but I was genuinely concerned about having given myself a concussion, perhaps. Aside from a headache I seemed to be fine. Over the next few days the back of my neck and my jowl muscles all ached pretty bad, probably from taking the brunt of the fall. I still could do math problems and still wanted to do more highpoints so I guess I was okay. Next: Deuel County.