Hardwear Sessions

From Lake Placid we made the long drive down to High Point, New Jersey. By now we were in thick of the holiday return traffic to NYC. There might not be anything more amusing then being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic with a bunch of New Yorkers. They love to beat on their steering wheels and cuss at invisible people. Makes you wonder what they were like before their relaxing three day weekend. Never mind, I've been to New York, I know what they are like.

We made the New Jersey highpoint, creatively called High Point (1803 ft), as the sun was setting on a very muggy day. At times it was above 90 degrees...in October, something you don't get in Portland. On the top of New Jersey, in the Kittatinny Mountains, there is a nice monument that looks like a shorter version of the Washington Monument. We had nice views of the Pocono Mountains toward the west and the Catskill Mountains to the north. It was a tough walk in my flip-flops from the car up the 100 yard paved road to the summit. I think Brian was struggling a bit in his shorts and t-shirt too.

Shortly there after, we lost our sunlight and began the drive across southern Pennsylvania. I don't know what was more fulfilling, driving through Scranton (big fans of The Office), or watching Brian stretching out the window to get a whiff of chocolate as we passed through Hersey. I had him convinced he'd smell something. The Pennsylvania high point, Mt. Davis (3213ft), is located at the top of a 30 mile long ridge line called Negro Mountain. We thought that was a bit strange. It was probably about midnight when we got there. From the observation tower we saw a whole lot of nothing, it was dark.

It's a short drive from Mt. Davis to Backbone Mountain in Maryland (3360ft). That's the only thing straight forward about that one at night. The only way you know you've arrived at the trailhead is a large HP written in red on the back of a highway sign. That isn't the easiest thing to find in the dark. We were running up and down the highway with our headlamps on searching for a trail. By 2 am we were in the woods on an old coal mining road surrounding by the glowing green eyes on dozens of deer. I have never seen so many deer in one place. We had no idea where we were. Finally we wandered into a pillar marking the highpoint.

There isn't much to say about Spruce Knob in West Virginia (4861ft). It was around 4 am when we got there and totally dark. We took a little jog up the trail that led to the observation tower and snapped some photos of a whole lot of nothing before jumping back in the car to get on our way. In West Virginia I had my first experience filling up at a gas station where the cashier was dressed in scrubs and handing out medical advice to the customers. It was a little twilight zone-ish at 5:30 in the morning.

At some point we crossed into Virginia on our way to Delaware, but I was passed out and missed the sunrise over the countryside. I did wake up in time to experience the morning rush hour through the DC/Baltimore area. I don't think I've mentioned that by this point we had probably paid a million dollars in tolls. It felt like we were paying a toll every hour on the hour. When we finally reached Delaware both Brian and I were shocked. Neither of us were convinced that Delaware actually existed. We don't know anyone from Delaware and no one ever mentioned going there. We are pleased to report that it does in fact exist. However it is as flat as a pancake. Ebright Azimuth is the highpoint at 448 feet above sea level. I was sort of embarrassed to be walking up and down the sidewalk looking for the geological survey marker as cars drove up and down the street next to us. We found it though tucked in the mowed grass right next to the trailer park. It's the only summit marker I've run into so far that could have been mistaken for a sprinkler head. Since our visit we found out that we missed the opportunity to meet Doreen, the neighbor lady, who takes pictures of all the high pointers and has them sign her log. Maybe next time Doreen.

Mt Frissel (2380ft) turned out to be our worst nightmare. By the time we reached Salisbury, Connecticut we had a few hours of sunlight left. Frissel is one of a couple of highpoints that sits on the side of a larger mountain in another state. In this case it was Bear Mountain on the state line of Massachusetts. We ended up on the wrong trail and reached the summit of Bear Mountain shortly thereafter totally confused. For the next 30 mins we ran up and down the trail looking for some sort of clue that would lead us to the highpoint but we never found it and had to give up. We found out back in Portland that we were never on the right trail. Bummer, hopefully we will get a chance to go back before too long.

Disappointment continued in Massachusetts where we found the access road to Mt. Greylock (3491ft) closed for construction. We knew about the construction, but were optimistic about a quick route up on foot. There was a route, but it was longer then anticipated and just as we were considering it a huge thunderstorm rolled in. During the lighting and downpour we decided to bag it. We have to go back for Connecticut, we might as well do Mass at same time. It was about 9:30pm when we left western Mass on our way to Rhode Island. We were definitely running on fumes. In fact I was a little tired of high pointing by that point. It's that evitable point on any road trip where the luster has worn off. We couldn't get done fast enough.

Fortunately, Jerimoth Hill (812 ft) in Rhode Island is literally right off the highway. All we had to do is park on the side of the road, run up a trail in the rain, take a quick pic, and then run back. At 11pm we were on our last leg of the trip back to Boston. By 12:30 am we were back at my sister-in-law's apartment getting cleaned up and packed for the airport. Around 2:30 am I finally had a chance to sleep and at 4 am we were on our way to the Airport.

In the end we drove 2500 miles in 4.5 days, drove through 13 states and high pointed 10 of them. We will have to go back and get Massachusetts and Connecticut some day...when we can afford another plane ticket. Since starting our little project this last August, we now have 13 states complete (26%). Besides these ten, we've done Mt. Rainier in WA, Mt. Hood in OR, and Borah Peak in ID. I'm not sure which ones we will do next.

Do you have suggestions for Ryan's next high point? Leave Ryan a comment! Maybe he'll follow your advice...