Once again able to reap the small benefits of traveling on business trips for the last 6 years (free airfare, hotel and rental car points,) I decided to see if over a short weekend I could hit the four State Highpoints that I needed on the East Coast. Dad joined me as co-pilot and navigator and we met in Minneapolis to fly to Pittsburgh for the start of our journey.

Mt. Davis is the highest point in Pennsylvania at 3,213 ft. It lies in the Forbes State Forest which is a couple hours SE of the Pittsburgh area. We headed out at about 6:30am and were at the summit parking area about an hour later. After a quick run up the observation tower (with little views due to the fog) and a few photos, we were on the road to the MD State Highpoint just about an hour SW.

Mount Hood (11,239′) in Oregon is the last glaciated peak that I needed to climb in my State Highpoint quest. Since I had a bit of vacation that I wanted to use this summer, we decided to combine the climb with an Oregon Coast motorcycle tour with friends, Gary and Debbie who came up from Gilroy, CA.

Our original plan was to meet w/Timberline Mountain Guides for a gear check Monday morning and then make a partial climb up to Illumination Rock where we would set up camp. We were then going to make a very early morning summit attempt, return to camp, gather our gear and head down early Tuesday afternoon. The weather looked like it was not going to cooperate and our guide called us Sunday night and informed us that if we were going to make it to the summit, we needed to climb it Monday in one push.

We met at the office early Monday morning, did our gear check and proceeded up the mountain. Once we got to the Illumination Rock/Saddle area, we dumped our overnight gear and continued up. There were few parties on the mountain, which was nice. Mt. Hood is well known for horrible rock and ice fall danger so we were happy that there weren’t too many people ahead of us kicking down rocks. We did notice a dozen or so rocks whizzing down past us but nothing came very close.

Most of the terrain was fairly easy going with 2 pitches that were 50 – 55 degree slopes. It was only a couple hours up and a couple hours down total. The winds picked up while we were on the summit so it was a quick bite of lunch and then we headed down. Going down midday was nothing but mushy snow. We watched the clouds roll in as we stopped at our camp at Illumination Saddle and then the rains came during the night. When we woke up there was basically zero visibility. So, all in all, it was an excellent call by our guide to move the summit climb up.

Heading down was another slow slog as the temperatures had remained mild overnight and we ended up sloshing through soft, wet snow down to the lodge.

This makes State Highpoint #17 and there are only two more of the Western State “Big Boys” left- Gannett (WY) and Granite (MT). We are looking to hit those early fall before the weather turns.

After the “drive up” highpoint in Kansas, we were happy to be able to get out and hike a bit. The Oklahoma highpoint is Black Mesa at 4,973′, located in the Black Mesa Nature Preserve. Interesting facts about Black Mesa are that it is one of the largest mesas in the world, extending 40 miles into New Mexico and Colorado, and it is the point where the Rocky Mountains meet the short-grass prairie.

We camped in the Black Mesa State Park which was a short drive to the trailhead the next morning. We got up fairly early in anticipation of a non-shaded, desert hike and ended up being the first to the parking lot. The hike is a total of 8.4 miles and classified as moderately strenuous … not sure where that rating came from … It was an easy walk around the base of the mesa, a short climb to the top and then another walk along the top of the mesa to the summit marker. The total elevation gain for this highpoint is 775 feet!

Taking advantage of being in the general proximity during a week in Battle Creek, MI, I “conquered” the Indiana State Highpoint (Hoosier Hill) and the Ohio State Highpoint (Campbell Hill.) Nary a blip on the heart rate monitor was registered as I scrambled 10 feet from the car to each of the markers. Upcoming Mt Hood, Mt Humphrey’s, Wheeler Peak, Gannet and Granite will make up for it though!

After climbing Mt. Borah we were quite happy to find that the next state highpoint in our journey was essentially a 400ft climb up onto a butte.

White Butte is located near Amidon, ND and sits at 3,506 ft. The hardest part was trying to follow two sets of directions (paper and Garmin) to the actual trailhead. The butte is located on private property so we parked by the side of the dirt road, walked about a mile to the trail and then it only took about 20 minutes to make it to the top. Supposedly there are a lot of rattlesnakes there but we only saw one Mountain Short-Horned Lizard (cute but skittish!)

After the hike we drove down to Bowman, ND to visit with my Uncle Joe. The next morning we took a walk and enjoyed the sunflowers that were dotting the sides of the road before continuing our journey on to Alexandria, MN.

After getting about 4 hours of sleep, I left Asheville, NC and traveled up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Mt. Mitchell. As it was early there weren’t many people up and about however I could see that bicycling the Blue Ridge Parkway was pretty popular in the morning – as there are no shoulders on the road, I am sure the bicyclists wanted to get their miles in before the crazy drivers arrived.

Mt Mitchell (elev. 6684′) lies in the Mt. Mitchell State park in the Pisgah National Forest. It is part of the Black Mountain Range which is the tallest range in the east, having 9 peaks over 6,000′ tall. Mt. Mitchell is the highest peak east of the Mississippi river. The primary route is a drive-up and it is about a 0.1 mile round trip. Luckily I didn’t need oxygen on this one …

Not realizing how popular hiking is in upstate New York, it was very fortunate that I decided to hit the trail to Mt. Marcy (summit at 5,344′) at a little after 6:00am. I took the Van Hoevenburg Trail from the Adirondak Loj (nope – I didn’t misspell that!) and encountered at least 30 people either heading up at the same time or already coming down from the summit. The trail is 14.8 miles roundtrip and 3200′ elevation gain so not too steep. My main goal was to get up and off the summit before it got too hot and to avoid being caught in any afternoon thunderstorms that were predicted to roll through the area.

The trail was well marked and easy to follow. It first started out in a very dense, lush green forest, similar to the Pacific Northwest. As I approached the summit, the trees started to disappear as I entered the sub -alpine and alpine tree zones. Once on top I had a chance to talk to the “summit steward.” She was very helpful and mentioned that based on recent history, there would be several hundred people on the summit by early afternoon. I spent a few minutes to grab a snack and dry out my socks, then it was time to head down. Once I got back to the parking lot I was amazed to see that all 5 sections of the lot were completed full and closed to hikers … good I got in early!

An astute blog reader asked me this morning about the signs that appear at the trail register to Mt. Marcy and at the summit. The photos may be a little hard to read but the explanation is that Mount Marcy is home to a rare ecological zone of endangered Arctic Alpine plants. While the Adirondack Park is over 6-million acres, only about 85 acres in total can be claimed as home to the rare alpine zone vegetation that is being protected. So, at the trailhead you are asked to pick up a rock and take it with you to the summit. There, you drop it off in a pile which will be used to try and further protect the vegetation from hikers randomly walking over all the plants by establishing visible trails, bordered by the rocks. Great Question – thanks Mom!!

We had a couple of options to climb New Mexico’s Highpoint, Wheeler Peak (13, 161 ft.) We ended up taking the Bull of the Woods trail up and the Williams Lake trail down. Because we didn’t end up at the same trailhead, the only bad thing was that we had to walk down the road for 2 miles back to our car. The Bull of the Woods trail was about 8 miles up and the Williams Lake trail was substantially shorter but in the end we put on over 13 miles for this climb. The weather was sort of dicey and as we got closer to the summit we thought we might have to turn around due to storms. But, in the end the storms blew over and we were happy that we decided to proceed. We met two men on the trail that had driven from PA to climb Wheeler Peak and after a few minutes of discussion, they turned around. Too bad that they didn’t stick with it as the weather eventually cooperated…

Joel and I were both pretty tired but we got the car loaded back up and then drove several hundred miles into New Mexico to get closer to Mt. Humphrey’s in AZ which was our next “target.”

Traveling from New Jersey to the Boston area and then on to Montreal Canada afforded me the opportunity to take a quick detour to New Jersey’s highpoint, aptly named High Point. The elevation is 1803′ with a paved road almost to the top. Once on top, it was windy, cold and icy as the area had gotten a couple inches of snow the evening before. Crystal clear skies and 180 degree view from the top made for an enjoyable detour.

My confidence was a little shaken from the hike the day before up Mt. Mansfield. As I approached the Pinkham Notch Trailhead for my climb up Mt. Washington (New Hampshire’s highpoint at 6,288′) I decided to take a novel approach to this hike … instead of sweaty, uncomfortable feet in my leather hiking boots, I would try to make the slog up to this summit a little more enjoyable and I hiked up in tennis shoes. I had been up to the top of Mt. Washington on a motorcycle many years ago and all I remembered was how steep the road was and I was not really looking forward to this hike. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised … the trail was great, weather beautiful and I got up and back down before the thunder and lightening hit …. not sure about the other 40 people that were still on their way up …

The Tuckerman Ravine Trail is basically an 8.6 mile round trip up an old dirt road then onto a rocky trail as you approach the summit. The trial was well marked and once out of the trees there were numerous cairns and signs to the top. The weather was calm and sunny and I spent about an hour wandering around looking at the exhibits, waiting for the cog train to show up.

The biggest bonus on this hike was that on the way down my feet felt GREAT! We have friends that usually do their hiking in lightweight approach shoes and I could never bring myself to give up the support of the good old leather hiking boots. I think I am now a convert … I now need to think seriously about our 25 mile approach hike to Gannett Peak in September  – I see a trip to REI in my future!