Category: High Points

Baxter State ParkMaineAugust  2012 We cross the Park boundary and continue to wind through the woods, passing the Visitors Center and pulling up at the southern entrance, the Togue Pond Gatehouse.  And now we sit.  Our first significant Maine traffic jam.  There are five cars in front of us.  What an enormous crowd, actually taking… Continue reading Togue Pond Gatehouse

Sassafras MountainSouth CarolinaMay  2013 A Highpointers bench has been placed here at the top of Sassafras Mountain, the high point of South Carolina, perfect for Lisa to lie down and take a nap, which she does. It’s a thing.  Whenever you get to the top, or to water, or to a broad flat rock on… Continue reading Black Throated Green

Caesars Head State ParkSouth CarolinaJune  2001 Stepping off the Appalachian Trail at the Fork Ridge Trailhead after summiting Clingmans Dome, we decide to take a drive to the place where 99% of the people who visit Clingmans Dome begin their summit hike.  This “trailhead” is three and a half miles to the end of the… Continue reading The Rescue

OklahomaMarch  2013 This area of the country has long been a hot spot for geologists and paleontologists who like to get down.  Y’know, they dig for remains of dinosaurs that date back to the Jurassic and Triassic periods, as long ago as 245 million years, give or take twenty minutes.  More than 18 tons of… Continue reading Paleontologists Get Down

White ButteNorth DakotaMay  2015 We sit in the car trying to decide whether to drive up the 1000-foot driveway to the house, or to walk.  Our indecision is based on the cold wind picking up and the cold rain falling down.  Nasty, unpleasant.  We wait.  We stop waiting.  We walk up the driveway. Richardson ground… Continue reading White Butte Trailhead

ArizonaJune  2013 Tomorrow we head on up to Flagstaff in preparation for hiking to Humphreys Peak, the highest point in Arizona.  Tonight we stay with Peggy, one of Lisa’s friends from freshman days, who lives just outside Phoenix.  The two of them catch up on old times.  Since I was a teenager, I’ve known that… Continue reading Dating

Clingmans DomeTennesseeMay  2013 After a good half day of hiking, Lisa and I have our sandwiches at Clingmans Dome, the highest point in Tennessee.  Reminds me of another time I was here.  I tell Lisa this story. In 1998, I was in the midst of a 10-day backpacking trip here in the Great Smoky Mountains. … Continue reading Roughin’ It

Mount WashingtonNew HampshireSeptember  1986 / August  2013 On the way to our summit hike of the Granite State, we stop at the Mount Washington Observatory Museum in North Conway, New Hampshire.  They tell us that this is the largest museum in the world devoted exclusively to the weather. Think about that.  Weather is pretty big. … Continue reading Mount Washington Blows Me Away

Mount WashingtonNew HampshireAugust  2013 What’s that, up there in the clouds…?  N’wait, it disappeared.  Oh, there it is again.  Hey, it’s a building.  It’s the hut.  Y’know what?  Let’s take a break, get out of this wind for a bit.  Figure this out. The Appalachian Mountain Club was founded in 1876.  Their mission was and… Continue reading Up Mount Washington

BayardWest VirginiaJune  2011 & May  2014 Ordinarily, on the way to Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia, we would drive right past the “Smallest Church in the Lower 48″ and the Maryland high point trailhead.  This is the route we took three years ago on our first summit trip to West Virginia.  Today… Continue reading The Railroad Stop