Lakewood Park (Britton Hill), Florida 10-24-04

[highpointersclub]

[Ed: Imported from Americas Roof ‘Summit Trip Reports’ forum]

[By: Jerry Bresnahan on November 3 2004 at 7:36 PM]

[Link: http://www.network54.com/Forum/198362/message/1099528560/Lakewood+Park+%28Britton+Hill%29%2C+Florida++10-24-04]

I stopped at Lakewood Park (Britton Hill), the Highpoint of Florida at 345 feet, on Sunday, October 24th, 2004. It was my 28th state highpoint.

After spending a month in Florida I decided to see if I could add Florida to my list of completed highpoints on my drive home. Although I was slightly unprepared, in that I left my ice axe and crampons at home, I felt that I was ready to meet the challenge of Britton Hill. From Florala, AL I drove east on SR 54, following the directions provided in the Winger’s guidebook Highpoint Adventures. After driving 1 mile I turned right. As I drove south onto Florida SR 285 I noticed several large potholes in the roadway. The one in the southbound lane just north of the FL/AL state line was large enough to swallow a small vehicle. Approximately 1 mile south of SR 54 I noticed what appeared to be a park on my right. I probably would have missed it if I weren’t looking for it. The Lakewood Park sign, alongside the roadway, was barely readable. It apparently had been blown over by Hurricane Ivan, or Charley or Jeanne.

I arrived at Lakewood Park at 4:10PM. It was clear and the temperature on my car thermometer read 85 humid degrees when I parked my car. I walked to the granite marker, which appeared to be in good shape. Unfortunately I cannot say the same about the restrooms. Both restrooms were severely damaged by vandalism. The overhead lights in the ladies room were broken and pieces of glass covered the floor. The toilet was clogged and did not flush. The men’s room was in worse shape. In fact the commode and everything else had been completely removed. I don’t recall seeing a sink in either restroom. Surprisingly the bulletin board was in reasonably good condition. However as I stood there reading the newspaper articles about the highpoint, and the highpointers club pamphlet, I was attacked by one of the local mosquitoes. Luckily she was the only one. I believe this was the first time I encountered any mosquitoes at an actual highpoint. I’ve been lucky. Most of my highpointing has been done in the spring or fall.

I spent about 15 minutes at Lakewood Park before heading north to Montgomery, AL. I spent the night at the Motel 6 and headed to Woodall Mountain, MS the following day.

[Author]

Posts