State Highpoint Number Fourteen:
ILLINOIS (14)
Date: Thursday, September 7, 2000
Peak: Charles Mound
Height: 1,235 feet
Vertical Climb: 75 feet
Round-trip Mileage: 0.4 miles
Peak Class: #1
Height Rank: #45 of 50
Difficulty Rank: #32 of 50
I woke up a couple of times during the night and finally woke for good around 6:30. It was cold in the truck but not enough to get out the sleeping bag. Definitely needed the blanket though and wore sweat pants. I got up, packed the truck and headed out around 7:45. Drove north through winding, tree-shaded road along the Mississippi River.
Galena was a neat, old town built on sharp hills and full of old red brick homes. Passed by the site of President U.S. Grant’s boyhood home and stopped at the tourist information center and got directions to Charles Mound. The lady there gave me a good local map and directions.
Stopped at the post office in Scales Mound and the woman there was real secretive about the Wuebell’s address. She did direct me back into town to their accounting office but it was closed. I walked across the street to the Sinclair filling station and asked for a pay phone and the woman there was really uncooperative. She didn’t have pay phone and told me there wasn’t one in town. I asked to use hers and she hesitantly agreed but the Wuebell’s weren’t home. When I went back to the post office, I told th
e woman there that I had e-mail permission and then she gave me directions out to the farm.
Followed the old Stagecoach Road and I found it easily enough and drove up to the entrance of the farm. The gate was open so I continued on in and drove up a gravel road to an old abandoned farmhouse where the sign said “Highpointers Park Here.” I parked, got my camera gear together, and left my highpointer card on my windshield at almost exactly noon. I made the short quarter-mile walk up to the highpoint which the Wuebell’s had marked with a sign. I took some pictures and then went over to two lawn chairs and signed the register and took a picture of the geodetic survey marker. After checking the scenic view one last time, I returned to the truck and took one picture of the highpointers sign. It was my fourteenth high point and a really enjoyable one once I had located it.
Date: Thursday, September 7, 2000
Peak: Charles Mound
Height: 1,235 feet
Vertical Climb: 75 feet
Round-trip Mileage: 0.4 miles
Peak Class: #1
Height Rank: #45 of 50
Difficulty Rank: #32 of 50
In September of 2000, on the first anniversary of my Texas climb, I drove up to the northern United States and did some more climbs. My first state was Illinois and I camped in the camper shell of my pickup truck the night before.
I woke up a couple of times during the night and finally woke for good around 6:30. It was cold in the truck but not enough to get out the sleeping bag. Definitely needed the blanket though and wore sweat pants. I got up, packed the truck and headed out around 7:45. Drove north through winding, tree-shaded road along the Mississippi River.
Galena was a neat, old town built on sharp hills and full of old red brick homes. Passed by the site of President U.S. Grant’s boyhood home and stopped at the tourist information center and got directions to Charles Mound. The lady there gave me a good local map and directions.
Stopped at the post office in Scales Mound and the woman there was real secretive about the Wuebell’s address. She did direct me back into town to their accounting office but it was closed. I walked across the street to the Sinclair filling station and asked for a pay phone and the woman there was really uncooperative. She didn’t have pay phone and told me there wasn’t one in town. I asked to use hers and she hesitantly agreed but the Wuebell’s weren’t home. When I went back to the post office, I told th
e woman there that I had e-mail permission and then she gave me directions out to the farm.
Followed the old Stagecoach Road and I found it easily enough and drove up to the entrance of the farm. The gate was open so I continued on in and drove up a gravel road to an old abandoned farmhouse where the sign said “Highpointers Park Here.” I parked, got my camera gear together, and left my highpointer card on my windshield at almost exactly noon. I made the short quarter-mile walk up to the highpoint which the Wuebell’s had marked with a sign. I took some pictures and then went over to two lawn chairs and signed the register and took a picture of the geodetic survey marker. After checking the scenic view one last time, I returned to the truck and took one picture of the highpointers sign. It was my fourteenth high point and a really enjoyable one once I had located it.
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