One of my eccentricities involves a goal to visit as many state high points as I can (it used to be to visit all of them, but Mt. Denali in Alaska is no longer a reasonable possibility and several other high points are looking less attractive as I get older).
Ebright Azimuth, the high point in the State of Delaware, pushes this goal to a point of ridiculousness. It is on a residential street in a neighborhood that is anything, but hilly. Hiking up a nice mountain is one thing, but driving to a residential area is another. However, I've done many other ridiculous things in my life, why not add one more?
The high point is about 6.5 miles from downtown Wilmington, Delaware and just a few hundred feet from the Pennsylvania state line. It is located at a "T" intersection where Ramblewood Drive, an entrance into the Dartmouth Woods Development, intersects Ebright Road. Concord High School, in Delaware, is southwest about a quarter mile on Ebright Road. So the name Ebright Azimuth obviously uses Ebright Road for one term and azimuth, the second term, is a concept in mapping where tangential planes use a central tangent point.
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| This photo is taken from Ramblewood Drive looking out onto Ebright Road. The bench and the blue sign are the nod to the state high point. |
The high point has an elevation of 447.85 feet, the second lowest state high point after Florida. What makes it even more ridiculous is that it is not even the high point in Delaware. A mobile home park about 300 yards west of Ebright Road has a point at least two feet higher, and another private road nearby has a point slightly higher, but they are on private property, and the State of Delaware only wants the public to visit this spot out of concern for those private property owners. The Highpointers Club, yes, there is such a thing, provides that those who visit this spot qualify for having visited the high point in the state of Delaware. So this compromise is a way of satisfying crazy people like me who want to visit the high point, making what is already ridiculous into something sublimely ridiculous. And yes, I did consider trying to research and find the true high point and finally put a brake on it. There are other better ways of spending my time.
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| Judy shivers in a cold wind. The sun belies the cold. |
Some highs are better than others :).
ReplyDeleteActually, I'll take this high point over one that requires an hour or two of driving up a narrow, winding road and followed by hours of hiking. This is my kind of summit.
ReplyDeleteYeah, even better if there was a shopping mall right behind it.
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