Our Cass County, Minnesota Highpointing Page

Spider Lake Lookout Tower hill: 1610+ feet

 

Introduction

Cass County's High Point is located in Section 7 of Bungo Township. I visited there on May 27, 2005 after completing Crow Wing County.

 

Approaches to Cass County Trailhead

From the intersection of County Road 2 and State Highway 371, I drove west on C.R. 2 for 12.58 miles, overshooting my left turn onto Spider-McKinley Forest Road by 0.58 miles.
I drove south on the forest road for 1.7 miles and parked in the large parking lot, about 1/3 mile from the top.

 

Trails to the Spider lake Tower Hill

I made this a lot more difficult than it needed to be because I misinterpreted Mike Schwartz' trip report. At first, I parked at the parking lot and started walking.

Then I thought about it and decided that I needed to keep going on the road past the parking lot to an ORV road. I saw one at about the right distance, parked there, and started walking.

The path I was on seemed to go in the wrong direction from what I wanted, so I returned to my car, and continued driving on the road. I didn't realize it at the time, but I drove right past the road that Schwartz intended, and continued on the main road as it wound around, eventually going so far to the right that I knew it would never turn back, so I turned around and eventually parked by an ORV trail 0.19 mile from the top, and 0.2 mile past the correct turn.

 

The Trail

I started walking up this trail. As it got near the high point, it avoided the steep slope, even fencing it off. I continued around as it wound up and around, making a switchback or two. Finally, I got to the point where it actually forbade uphill travel. I hiked up at that point to the top.

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The Summit

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The Geological marker:

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The Climb Down

I found the access road and hiked down that to the main road, then 0.2 mile to my car. I spent about 20 minutes in extraneous route finding because I failed to find the quick route fast.

 

The Route Out

I returned to C.R. 2 and turned left.
I continued driving west on C.R. 2 for 2.1 miles, and turned right onto S.H. 64, on my way to Hubbard County.

 

Our Progress

Family Member Count
Mark 154

 

Other Ascents and Trip Reports

First Ascent: Bob Packard (Sep. 19, 2000)
Michael Schwartz (Oct. 20, 2001)
Erik Freil (Mar. 23, 2004)

 

Bibliography

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http://www.topozone.com

Minnesota Atlas & Gazeteer by Delorme, 3rd Edition, 2001.

 

File Name:
Written by: Mark Ness
Last Revised by:  Mark Ness
on: