My wife Beth and I were in Virginia spending the Thanksgiving weekend with her folks, who live on a beautiful handful of acres just east of the tiny community of Millwood in Clarke County, located way up by the West Virginian border. We flew into Baltimore the night before and made the 100-mile drive to Millwood without incident, arriving about 10 p.m. local time. The next morning (today) we visited with her mom Carol and her stepdad Sandy, who was recovering from a spill he took just a few days earlier. After a couple of hours Beth and I left to go sightsee. This was my first time ever in these parts, and Beth was excited to show me around. We were able to work in some simple highpoint visits along the way. The Loudoun (pronounced "Loud-en"), Clarke and Fauquier (pronounced "Faw-keer") county highpoints are all located within a few miles of one another along the Blue Mountains, with good road access leading to all the various points.

From her folks' place in Millwood we backtracked into the town of Boyce and got gas and supplies at a service station on the corner of US-340 and US-50. This being Thanksgiving, and nothing open for miles, it was no surprise that the place was absolutely filled with people... getting gas, grub and last-minute supplies for the big meal. After a few minutes of dealing with the crush of people, we got driving... then realized we forgot some stuff, so we went right back to the gas station and the crowds for another go-round. Finally, we were ready to go. We went east along US-50 and followed the highway as it rose into the foothills. Now, the previous night we had driven in the dark so I saw nothing of the countryside. I just assumed there'd be some hills, trees and an eclectic blend of old homes, new mansions, ranches, farms and horse properties, using my stereotypical views of Virginia gained by occasional news and feature tidbits via the media. Well, all this was true, but still, I was very impressed by the unique beauty of the area. It is a land of low, gentle green hills, stately oaks, elms and poplars, old homes from the 19th century and new multi-million dollar mansions. Very beautiful. I especially liked the stone fencing seen on a lot of properties, in which no mortar is used and the stones are fitted together naturally, much like the stoneworks found in Wales and Scotland. Anyway, after a few minutes, and less than 10 miles, US-50 had nearly topped out just west of the town of Paris. Here, we found a local road on its north side called Blue Mountain Ridge Road (also known as VA-601) and followed it north about 3 miles, bringing us close to two small 1,920-foot contours that straddle the Loudoun-Clarke county line.

These two areas together comprise the Loudoun County highpoints, and half of Clarke County's four highpoint regions. A driveway leading to a big home crosses both contours, and we found this driveway from the main road, blocked by a grand wrought-iron gate and brick fencing. We also noted a "For Sale" sign, and Beth knew the realtor as being a high school classmate. Rather than deal with the gate, we drove an extra 500 feet and parked near a radio tower facility and bushwhacked through the short stretch of woods to re-gain this driveway. The first high area was marked by a tree with a big round white paint splotch on it, while the second area was nearer the house itself. We walked to the house and found no one home, although it is clearly inhabited. We tagged some rocks around the base of the house and tried to eye between the areas with little success (my hunch is the first area is higher). We noted the incredible views, too. Although the house itself was fairly small, it was well constructed and could easily fetch seven figures on the market. The weather was cool with a brisk wind blowing. We backtracked down VA-601 and back out to US-50.

From here we drove west down US-50 about 3 miles and turned south onto Howellville Road (VA-638), located just east of the Shenandoah River. After about 6 miles we drove through the town of Howellville, then stayed left at a junction (still on VA-638) and up into the hills, we passed through the community of Blue Mountain, and eventually came onto the crest of the range after 11.2 miles from US-50 (the road was being worked on and the last 3 miles or so were unpaved gravel). This spot put us very near the Fauquier County highpoint and the remaining two Clarke highpoint areas. We went right (south) first about 0.6 miles and pulled into a small service road on our left, from whence it was a very short stroll to the high area marking Fauquier's apex. We found a benchmark (BM Warren) and some plastic striping in the area. All this was within a bunch of radio towers. The views weren't very interesting and we only spent a couple minutes there. Getting back to our "reference" point back up the road, we then went north along a Fire Road. The road quality was much poorer, but our Chevy Impala rental handled it well. After about 1.4 miles, we came to a small track on our right that led to a small lookout platform. Near the bend in the access road we hiked into the woods a very short ways to get within the third of the four Clarke candidate areas. This is near where Clarke, Fauquier and Warren counties meet. The county line wasn't marked but using road junctions and bends as reference devises we were certainly very close. Besides, this area, in my mind, has the least likelihood of being Clarke's highest ground. We saw some deer, and heard some far-off gun shots... and hustled back the 100 feet or so back to our car. Yup, there were some hunters out and about. Another 0.2 miles north along the Fire Road brought us to the fourth, and most likeliest, highpoint area for Clarke County. This area is a distinct hill with a bare grassy top. The map shows a benchmark "Paris" herein, but all we found was a witness marker in the brush a few feet from the meadow margin. Nevertheless, the elevation reading of 1,935 (20-foot contours) makes this area a strong candidate for the Clarke highpoint. Satisfied, we returned to our car and drove back down to Beth's folks' house for a great Thanksgiving meal. These three highpoints total took just about 2 hours of our time and no more than a few hundred feet of walking.