"Judson Hills" 4,935' (Morgan County Highpoint)
After getting lucky on the phone with three private highpoint owners, I set out to fill in the Northeast Corner of the State. To simplify things, I uploaded waypoints into my GPS. I set out for Judson Hills first, and arrived at 9:45 a.m. The fenceline and road were very straight-forward, and soon the final bluff was visible. The only problem here was finding a way to get under the fence with all the tumbleweeds everywhere. The two benchmarks were easy to spot, and I wandered the ground to make sure I was on the highest spot. The drive out was quick, and I was headed to off Nebraska.
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"State Line Bluffs" 4,940' (Logan County Highpoint)
At the missile silo after driving thorugh the State Line, I was a little confused because my bearing was almost straight west from the GPS coordinates. I couldn't find any other gate or 'two lane' so I went through and followed the tracks to a cattle trough, whereupon I followed a cattle trail to the top of the bluffs. I was headed straight east toward the highest point - no need to hike 1/2 a mile north. I soon found the fence to crawl under and I could see the cairned rise just ahead. It was cloudy for the duration of this hike for some reason. I stopped at the Cheyenne County highpoint of Nebraska en route to Sedgwick - not a short piece of driving.
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"Sand Hills" 4,120' (Sedwick County Highpoint)
The drive down to 385/I-76 didn't take too long, but daylight was withering away and I had to hurry to make it to Hwy 59. Just as the sun was setting, I started out the sandy hike to the high fenceposts. I had a hard time figuring out how to get beyond the fences by the barn, as there was no gate and the barbed wire rows went to the ground. I jogged over the rises and found the spot that affords a familiar view to the south (like the photo in the book). A quick jog out and I drove south on CR3 to find CR1 in the dark outside of Haxtun.
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"County Line Rise" 4,120' (Phillips County Highpoint)
After the second try, I made the correct left turn. The drive went quickly, and I was glad to have plugged in the coordinates on my GPS, as in the dark my odometer by itself may not have been accurate enough to prevent me from having to walk more than .1 miles - ouch. The ground's rise was imperceptible indeed, so I walked about a hundred yards within the vicinity of the waypoint on my GPS. It was 5:30 p.m., and time to head home to finish off my winter vacation before heading to work.
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