The Isanti County High Point, identified by a witness marker and benchmark, is located at 45° 25' 09"N, 93° 29' 11"W, in Stanford Township, Section 20. Its elevation is 1111 feet above sea level. I climbed it with my daughter, Krystyn, and her dog Shads on October 19, 2003, an unusually warm October day, and a productive one, in that we also climbed the trip two-fer, Anoka County. For each of us it was our 2nd Minnesota COHP.
We originally planned to climb these the day before, but I had misprogrammed my GPS and didn't want to go searching without it.
The two easiest approaches are from the farmplace driveway to the east, and from Tiger Street to the west. We noticed that the farmplace had "Private Road" and "No Trespassing" signs at the end of the driveway, so opted to follow Bob Packard's route.
On Saturday, the 18th, we started from the western intersection of Isanti County Roads 7 & 8, just south of Crown, drove 1 mile West on County Road 8, then 1 mile south on Llama Street (County Road 51), then 1/2 mile west on 253rd Avenue, then all the way south (about 1 mile) on Tiger Street NW to the locked chain fence on the Anoka-Isanti County Line. It was then that I realized that my GPS showed 4 miles to the Barrett Benchmark, when it should have been less than half a mile. Later I discovered that I had preset the latitute 4 minutes to the north. It was a restless night as I planned to try again on Sunday.
Then on Sunday afternoon, we came from the east, from Saint Francis. This time, I was hoping for a road taking us to the Anoka County High Point first, but did not see the road, so we followed the County Line road west, then northwest, where we saw the signs at the farmplace, then north to 253rd, then we turned left on 253rd, from there retracing our steps from the previous day. This time we stopped about 0.6 miles south on Tiger, about where the road became non-maintained, which, according to my corrected GPS, was the point on the road closest to it.
There are no trails, as such, it is a walk through Sumac and other wild plants, then into the woods, then uphill.
We parked off road at a widened spot on the shoulder:
Backtracking about 50 feet, we came to the edge of this long, narrow group of closely packed trees. This is where we started walking, to the right of that red tree. The fence there by the road is so low, that it is easily stepped over, even for Shads.
It's about 500 feet through Sumac, and other wild plants, which, if wet, would make a good swamp. This was an unusually dry summer and fall, so we walked through on dry ground.
At the woods' edge is a fence line, with only the posts remaining. Once inside the woods, there was a number of rolling hills, fairly steep, which we hiked around, the highest being a little to the left.
The Geological marker is just in front of the Survey Marker:
Despite the thick leaf coverage over most of the ground to this point, the marker was not covered.
I did not see a Registration book, nor did I expect one, given the privacy wishes of the owner.
We followed the same route out, winding through the woods and open area back to the car.
This being a trip two-fer, we drove straight to the Anoka County High Point trailhead.
| Family Member | COHP Count |
|---|---|
| Mark | 6 |
| Tammy | 3 |
| Krystyn | 4 |
| Matthew | 3 |
| Faith | 3 |
| Mark II | 2 |
| Shads | 4 |
| Zeke | 2 |
Bob Packard (May 22, 2001) This was the first ascent of Isanti County.
Bob Schwab
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| File Name: | |
| Written by: | Mark Ness |
| Last Revised by: | Mark Ness |
| on: |