Texas county, in Oklahoma's panhandle, would mark my final Oklahoma highpoint and a very successful tour of the state's northwest reaches. I came up from the state of Texas, where I'd just worked on two counties down there, and drove into Guymon, the county seat of Texas county, Oklahoma. Got that? While In Guymon I found an auto-parts store and got a new air-filter for my truck, which badly needed one after all the dirt roads I'd been driving.

From Guymon it was about 60 miles to the town of Elkhart, Kansas, which actually sits close to the Texas county highpoint. From Elkhart I went southwest on US-56 about 4 miles to County Road 4, and another mile due west on CR-4 to a rise on the road, where I parked. Sitting incongruously on this road was an abandoned ice-cream truck, for some reason.

The hike to the benchmark was through knee-high grass clumps. The benchmark witness post stood out above the grass and made a good bearing device. I just walked to it, whapping the grass with my trekking pole to scare off any snakes. The benchmark was gone; a hole where it once sat now occupied the space. Nevertheless, it was pretty apparent I'd found the highest area, even in this flattish land. The hike took about 20 minutes, covered about a half-mile and about 20 feet of gain. Not too bad for these here parts.

Second visit, 9/20/02: The last of five counties done this day with 20 of my closest friends on this county highpoint tour. It was getting late in the day and we came in from the nearby Morton, Kansas, highpoints. We all made the hike then posed for photos. The grass had really grown since I was here last.

Names of the people in the photo at left: From left, standing: Corrinne Johnson, Luke Plumley, Ken Akerman, Fred Dale, Roy Wallen, Gerry Roach (Seven Summits Completer, by the way), Dave Covill, Ken Jones, Scott Surgent (me), Karl Heller, Bob Packard, Jerry Wagener, Ron Tagliapietra, Bill Schuler. From left, kneeling: Al Peters, Jennifer Roach, David Olson.