The two high areas in Morrison County are in Camp Ripley, one (with 2 small areas) near a benchmark and lookout tower at 46° 13' 39"N, 94° 27' 37"W, the other, larger contour, a half mile SE of the first point, at 46° 13' 12"N, 94° 26' 57"W. Both of these areas are in the firing range portion of the camp, but are not themselves in an impact area. I visited those points on September 25, 2004, as part of a 5-county day, my most productive to date.
Being on a military installation, planned routes can easily be disturbed by a locked gate. Such was the case with my experience in Camp Ripley. I had a couple of planned approaches in mind when deciding how to get there. One from the west via Morrison County Road 1, and the other from the main gate to the south. I ultimately went with the southern approach, which was good, because the western approach was blocked by an unmanned gate. Even so, I did not execute it as well as I could have, adding about 4 unnecessary miles to my hike.
I started out from my home in Anoka County about 6 AM, and entered Camp Ripley just before 8 AM. The main gate guard waved me on through. I stayed on that road, (which is a sort of West River Road for the Mississippi River), where its name changes a few times, being, for a while, the 47th Infantry Division Road, then the East Boundary Road. I turned left at the Lake Alott Road, intending to follow that all the way to the West Boundary Road, where I would either drive or hike up the lookout tower road to capture that candidate. However, I came to a locked gate 3 miles (straight-line distance) from the lookout tower, and parked.
There are several trails, some vehicle-friendly, some not, that can get to the high point areas.
I got as far as the gate for firing range 36. It was locked with a pad lock far enough across the road that it was not reasonable to go around it. At the time, it didn't occur to me to seek another route closer to the high point areas.
I got out of my truck and walked around the gate arm, and up the road. About 5 minutes into my hike, I realized that I did not bring my water, and about 10 minutes in, I thought about going back to my truck and look for other routes. I wish I had. This road was built over some small hills. Periodically posted on the south side of the road were signs warning of unexploded ordnance. I just stayed on the road, though, passing a baby's grave on the right, and a small training area.
Then I turned right onto a muddy, grassy, dirt road, depicted on the topographical map. That road wound through open area and woods all the way to West Boundary Road. I turned off to the right at a gate marked C9, which led directly over the 1st candidate HP contour. It was a little muddy and watery. It was also deceptively slippery. Parts that looked solid gave way. I lost my footing several times.
I had programmed my GPS to center in on the southern part of the large 1520' contour, but the high ground turned out to be on the north side within 5 feet of the trail road.
I tramped around the area on both sides of the trail road, hitting all the high ground in the area. I determined that a series of mounds just to the right of the trail were highest. There is no Geological marker nor Registration book. I left a two-rock stack on top of the highest mound. The ground falls off fast just to the north of the mounds.
I returned on the "C9" trail back to the main trail and turned right. I looked for the foot trail marked on the topographical map, but did not find it. It may have been overgrown. I continued on the trail, looking for a good place to bushwhack the few hundred feet to the lookout tower road, and actually found an unmarked trail going that way.
I stayed on it until it met up with the lookout tower road, which was little more than a woods trail, not the equivalent wide, structured trail that I had been on. There were several fallen, and half-fallen logs in the way. That road wound through the woods a little, ending right at the summit benchmark.
The benchmark and witness post were easy to see, just off the road. My GPS was showing me to proceed to the left up a small obvious hill, but without any remains of a lookout tower. I walked around the top of the hill and made a three-log cairn on top.
I stayed there a few minutes, and headed back. Then I realized that the steep, small hill closer to the benchmark was probably taller and needed to be scaled, too. I climbed up that, and found the remains of the lookout tower, just the steel corner pieces sticking out the ground and several piles of sand, which could be giant ant hills, but did not see any ants. I stepped on all the ground in that area, too.
I got back on the lookout tower trail road, turned left onto the main trail, and, from there retraced my steps to my truck. It was still there, and the gate was still locked, 3 hours 6 minutes after my hike started.
I stopped briefly to photograph the changing leaf colors:
I was anxious to get out of the Camp, and back on schedule, so I went back to East Boundary Road, and turned left at Pantano(?) Road, the next road to the north after Lake Alott Road. I was able to take that road all the way to West Boundary Road, where I encountered the lookout tower trail road intersection, just over one-half mile from the lookout tower high point (The beginning of the road was muddy, but could still be driven by a good mud-handling vehicle). I wish I had thought of this sooner and acted on it. I could have saved myself over an hour of hiking. From there, I turned around, hoping to exit the camp and get on Morrision County Road 1. I could see the external road, but could not drive to it, due to the locked gate. A pedestrian could make it through, but I didn't attempt it with a vehicle.
My next plan to get out involved taking West Boundary Road north to a hopeful intersection with CR 1, but I wasn't paying attention, and soon found myself driving east, just south of the Crow Wing River (the boundary between Crow Wing and Morrison counties), following that as it curved around to the south, becoming East Boundary Road. I consigned myself to the plan that I would just stay on that and exit out the main gate. This involved a large loss of latitude, meaning that I would have to go north again, once outside the main gate to pick up Mount Nebo, the Todd County High Point.
| Family Member | Count |
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| Mark | 30 |
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http://www.topozone.com
Minnesota Atlas & Gazeteer by Delorme, 3rd Edition, 2001.
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| Written by: | Mark Ness |
| Last Revised by: | Mark Ness |
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