Despite its name, James City is a county, not a city, but named for the settlement of Jamestown, where the English first landed here way back in 16-something, only to be nearly wiped out by Indians and microbes. Even so, the settlement marked the first permanent English settlements in the new world, and look where we are today. We were traveling between Richmond and Williamsburg, and visiting easy county highpoints along the way, none that required too much effort. The weather was just nasty - temperatures around 100 and with the soupy humidity that sat on us like a wet, warm rag. Yuck. Earlier in the day we had visited the highpoints of Powhatan County and Richmond City, neither of which required more than some trivial walking along roads. Coming into Williamsburg, we looked at James City County's highpoints as a possibility.

There are six areas comprising the highpoint of James City County, all rising to about 140 feet elevation and all (except for one) along a busy local thoroughfare called Old Stage Road (also known as Barhamsville Road or Virginia state highway 30). We exited off of Interstate-64 and drove north a bit. The plan was to hit them in order from south to north, with the southernmost one being found on, of all things, a golf course. Reports said to drive in and 'park as best as possible' near the sixth tee, but there really wasn't anywhere to park without being partly in traffic, or probably being illegal, so we turned around back onto Old Stage Road and drove up about 3/4 of a mile to a gravel clearing along the road across from the J&M Country Store. At this point, Beth had a bout of common sense and decided that walking to six scattered 'highpoints' in this soupy, steamy heat wasn't a fun way to spend an afternoon, so she decided to stay in the car, put her feet up and relax with a book. I, of course, possess no such common sense, and off I went.

I followed the numbering scheme used by previous visitors (from the County Highpointers website), and visited each of the areas, numbered 1-6, going from south to north. From the car I walked back south the 3/4 mile to the golf course, where I worked my way up a small hill and onto the sixth tee, where no one was to be found, so I explored a bit, and checked out the nearby brushy areas just to be sure. I would say that the sixth tee itself probably was highest for this immediate region. As I walked back to the car, I visited areas 2, 3 and 4 along the way. Area number 2 is a small area on which sits an abandoned home, found on the east side of the road about 200 feet north of the golf course access road. The land was posted against trespassing, but standing at the chain gate put me inside the contour, and visually the place was not prominent at all, and rather uninviting. So I called it good at the gate. Area number 3 was another few hundred feet up the road, on the west side, in front of some homes. Grading probably reduced the natural highspots, so I called it good near a large tree in the front yard. Area number 4 was just beside where we parked, a small natural sections of woods that seems to have never been developed. The map has a spot elevation of 135 feet on the road here, with the 140-foot contour just to the east of the road. I walked up onto the grounds and looked around (I set the default topozone link to this fourth area). Since this put me back at the car, I revisited with Beth to see how she was doing. Depressed being married to a highpointer, she was doing alright all things considered.

Area number 5 was just a short walk north of the car in front of some homes near the junction with Holly Forks Road, so I decided to walk to that one as well, then back to the car. There is noticeable prominence here, but I doubt this area is a serious conteder for the highpoint - it's very small, and has been graded for home construction. The road actually dips here, giving the effect of greater visual prominence to this tiny blip. Just to be sure, I tagged the high ground, and kept my visit short.

The remaining sixth area is off the highway a bit, but easily accessed by a forest (logging?) road that leads literally right to the highest point. We drove to a small gravel road on the west side of the road to a gate, which put us far enough (maybe 60 feet) off the highway so as to give us some privacy. Beth stayed at the car while I walked to this remaining area. I hopped the chain 'gate' and walked the road about 1/4 mile, up and down some small rises, then took a right at a Y-junction. The road dipped, then gained, and at another Y-junction where the better road stayed left, I went right, hopped another chain-link 'gate' and stayed on this lesser road a few hundred feet as it bent to the right and surmounted the highest area. I walked past this area a bit to be sure, but it seemed to be the right place. Fortunately there was no forest-bashing necessary, and the undergrowth was very light. I immediately turned around and jogged back to the car, gone for maybe 20 minutes (and about a half-mile total hiking). I was absolutely soaked through with sweat. Disgusting. I changed into a dry shirt, toweled myself off and let the car's air-conditioning work its magic on me. Despite my care, I did manage to get two ticks attached to me. I didn't feel them, of course, but only found them after noticing one, then getting spooked and doing a full body check for any more. From here we drove just a few more miles to our hotel in Williamsburg where we both took refreshing showers. AFter a dinner, we visited the easy highpoint areas of Williamsburg City as the sun set for the day.

My feeling is that areas 1, 4 and 6 are the best of the six contenders, with area 4 being a nose ahead of the other two for county honors. It's large (relatively speaking) and undisturbed natural woods. The same is true for area 6. Area 1 in the golf course has natural woods nearby and probably wasn't altered too much. The other three areas are easily visited, but probably not realistic contenders.