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Clean-Up Tour, May & Sept., 2002 Dallam • Potter • Ochiltree • Hartley • Randall |
Dates Visited
Conditions
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I happened to be in the region ... twice ... during 2002, so I took advantage of these opportunities to visit and log the five remaining county highpoints that I had missed during my November 2000 run. In doing so, I "completed" the top five tiers of the northernmost Texas county highpoints, 15 in all.
I was on a week-long trip through New Mexico, Oklahoma and later, Colorado and Utah. Yesterday I had driven the long distance from my home, all the way into northeast New Mexico, where earlier today I had success on Sierra Grande, in Union County (NM). It was an easy short drive into the county seat at Clayton, then across the state line into Texas, entering at the scraggly oil town of Texline.
The Dallam County highpoint is north of Texline about four miles, following Shamburger Road (a graded dirt road) to a point just east of the highpoint. The land up here is rolling plains country, with the hills somewhat obvious to the eye. The highpoint itself is a simple hill about three-quarters of a mile west of Shamburger Road, in a fallow field used for grazing, presumably. Today, I saw nothing: no people, no critters and most importantly, no signs against trespassing.
I hopped the fence and jog-walked to the highpoint hill, walking across its top in a few directions until I was satisfied I had visited it properly. Then another jog-walk back to my truck, a total time gone of about 45 minutes. At some point a vehicle did drive up, stop, and I'm guessing the people watching me, wondering what I was up to. But they didn't linger, and once I was back to my truck, I just scooted out-a-there. So far today, things were going well! Next up, Potter County (and some thunderstorms)...
Potter County is a bit of a drive south of Texline, so it took me over an hour to get here from Texline via Dalhart, Channing and Vega, putting me on Interstate-40. I had tried to visit the Potter highpoint(s) back in 2000, but the roads were very muddy and I had a dinky rental car, so I backed out on that visit. Now with my truck, and presumably drier roads, I felt I had a better chance to properly visit Potter county's highest points.
In the little burg of Wildorado on I-40, I went north to the water tower, then east about three-ish miles, coming to a bend and a fence right at the Potter County line (I was in neighboring Oldham County for the approach). The highpoints are spread around a big pasture, three spots covering maybe a mile and a half of one-way distance from my truck. There were no signs on the gates, and nobody was around and no animals in the pasture, so I went for it.
The first area is easy to see since a fence runs right over its top (the county line itself), due north of my truck. I walked here first and tagged what I thought was the highest point. From here, I walked three-quarters of a mile east-southeast to a windmill and the second area as shown on the map. The third area is another half-mile east, is the largest of the areas and to my eye, probably is the highpoint. It's all hard-pack dirt and low scrub, nothing to look at. I made the walks quickly, and as I returned to my truck, noted some big storms building above me. This could get interesting.
From here I proceeded south into Armstrong County. It has six highpoint areas spread out over many miles. I drove to the first probable areas and just as quickly gave up when the storm that was building above me started to get meaner and meaner looking. KNowing the storms tend to move east, I though I may be able to outrun it, so I headed back to I-40 then east toward Oklahoma. Along the way (still on the side roads) I came upon some weather chasers, out with their fancy vehicles and apparati. They were studying this cell, too. When I asked if this may be a tornado-producer, they seemed uncertain. Interestingly, they all had German accents. Well, not that I didn't trust them, but I didn't want to stick around to find out. As it was, I made it into Oklahoma, all the while my rear-view mirror showing the blackness of this storm. I stayed the night in Elk City, where we had heavy rain, lightning and thunder, but no twisters.
I spent the next few days in Oklahoma, visiting highpoints there, before doubling back into Texas while driving up on the Okie panhandle. This brings me to Ochiltree County.
In 2000, I had failed on my attempt to visit the Ochiltree County highpoint due to muddy roads, so here I was again with my beefier truck to give it another try. The highpoint is a single 3,120-foot region in the extreme southwest corner, in the middle of a field. I had no problem repeating my drive from two years ago, amused to note that the big mud patch that stopped me in 2000 was still there. Evidently, it's perpetually muddy for those 30 feet or so. I skidded through it in my truck and parked due south of the highpoint region, and started the short walk.
To my luck there is a scant path/road that seems to lead right into the middle of this highpoint region, so I followed it until I felt happy about the visit... then turned back to my truck. The field consisted of big leafy plants of some sort, but I didn;t really need to get in among them thanks to the path.
From here I drove west some more and re-visited Hansford County, where I wanted to revisit a couple areas just to be doubly sure about properly claiming that county as done. After that, I headed off into Colorado and the rest of my trip.
In September 2002, the National Highpointers Convention was held near the Oklahoma state highpoint near Kenton. This gave me an opportunity to visit two more Texas counties in the region.
Hartley county's highpoint defeated me earlier this year (May) when I came in from what looked like a reasonable road net from the New Mexico side, as the highpoint is no more than a short stroll inside the Texas state line along the New Mexican border. However, I could get no closer than three air-miles to the highpoint from the New Mexico side and even then wasn't sure if the maze of sketchy roads on the map were accurate. Not wanting to get hopelessly lost and knowing I'd be back in September for the Highpointers Convention, I gave up and intended to try again at that time.
The convention was a lot of fun, and today (Sunday the 22nd), everyone was heading home. My flight was not until late in the day, leaving some time open for some explorations. I teamed with Roy Wallen and Bob Packard, and the three of us headed south to have a go with the Hartley County highpoint. We got ourselves to the junction of highways FM-296 and TX-102 in the extreme southwest corner of Dallam County and right smack on the New Mexico state line. We convoyed south along a dirt road another four miles to a corner in the middle of nowhere, the street signs reading South Sedan and Pipas Roads. We were going to pile into Roy's SUV for the remaining couple of miles of bad sandy road to get near the highpoint. At this point a local rolled up in his truck, curious what we were up to. His name was Bob S.
We told the man the truth, funny as it may sound to some people. He was very friendly and explained he lived at then house about a mile south of here, and that the roads were public right-of-way. He even gave us some suggestions where to park, where to walk, things like that. He was very nice and helpful, and a wealth of information. He called the place "No Man's Land", an apt description, but notably so since the land here, a one-eighth mile swath of land running along the whole TX-NM border, was never surveyed "properly" and it was not clear if it belonged to Texas or New Mexico. It went to Texas (probably a coin flip ... I am curious myself). Swell guy.
We eventually slid and bashed our way to where the road petered out at a fence and gate, and started the walk south. The road actually dog-legged into New Mexico at the fence, and Bob P. and I decided to walk the road, while Roy stuck to the fence ... until he nearly got spooked out of his skin by a coiled, hissing rattlesnake. I could even hear the rattle from 30 feet away! Roy wisely joined us on the road. We crossed a stock pond and trended east into Texas, placing us at or near the Hartley highpoint. Interestingly we could sense a good rise, and there was nothing in all directions other than low, scrub-covered dunes (or "blow sand", as Bob S. called them). Very remote!
The hike back out went well, and once back to our vehicles, we bid Roy goodbye as he headed back to California. Meanwhile, Bob P. and I teamed up for one more, in nearby Randall County.
After bagging the Hartley County highpoint earlier in the day, Bob Packard and I drove the 90 miles or so south along the lonely but pretty stretch of highway US-385 from Dalhart through Channing, Vega and on to Hereford. Much of the stretch between Channing and Vega, about 35 miles or so, was through the expansive river basin and badlands of the Canadian River. Plenty of rolling, tree-covered hills and pretty vistas. The stretch from Vega to Hereford, on the other hand, was the more typical plane-flat countryside I'm used to up here. We arrived in Hereford about 3 p.m. and took FM-1259 southeast out of town and some local roads to a point just south of the Randall county highpoint. We had to make an educated guess; it is totally flat out here and the only points of reference were some windmills and various fence lines. We parked due south of a windmill at elevation 3,888 ft. I had been here in November 2000, but felt uncomfortable trying this highpoint at the time as about 2 or 3 vehicles came rumbling down this remote road while I was parked, scanning the area. I figured I might draw suspicion so I moved on. With Bob around, and apparently no one else for miles on this Sunday afternoon, I felt a little more comfortable.
So we got started in. We scaled the fence then started walking due north about a half-mile to this windmill, which is on the Happy Hereford Ranch. We could see cattle about a mile east, and the area was dotted with mounds of cattle poop, cactus, bones and vermin holes. However, there was no scrub to speak of; the cattle have apparently eaten or trampled any living thing for miles. Nothing higher than an inch grows here, else it gets eaten. Once we reached the windmill we proceeded at a north-northwest bearing to get within the lone 3,890-foot contour that pokes into Randall county from neighboring Deaf Smith county. After another quarter-mile or so we felt we were within the contour area. Bob took bearings from our first windmill, now to our SSE, and another windmill at elevation 3,879 feet to our NNE, and verified we were very likely to definitely within the contour. A fence line to our west is well inside Deaf Smith county, so we stayed away from it. After some very minor pacing, and a wind-sprint from Bob, we decided to call Randall good and start on our way out. Back at the road we parted ways: Bob east a little more to Swisher's highpoint, and me back to Amarillo to clean up and fly home, a nice culmination to a great weekend of highpointing, driving and meeting tons of new people. I ended up putting 1,031 miles on my rental Ford Ranger truck - it had had 3 miles on it when I picked it up!
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(c) 2000, 2011 Scott Surgent. For entertainment purposes only. This report is not meant to replace maps, compass, gps and other common sense hiking/navigation items. Neither I nor the webhost can be held responsible for unfortunate situations that may arise based on these trip reports. Conditions (physical and legal) change over time! Some of these hikes are major mountaineering or backpacking endeavors that require skill, proper gear, proper fitness and general experience. |