50 State Highpoints

Over the last six months, I've put a decent amount of thought into my future in hiking. While I haven't done much so far (due to weather, injury, track schedule), I've decided that I want to hike as much as I can moving forward and have the set the goal of reaching the top of every state highpoint in the united states. This will obviously be a long and exhausting process. The majority of these probably aren't particularly difficult but figuring out the logistics and travel aspects will be costly and time consuming. And of few them- especially Mountain Rainier and Denali will be extremely difficult and require extensive knowledge/training in the area of mountain climbing. I have no idea whether or not I will be able to fully complete this nor when I would be able to do it. I'd like to finish maybe before I turn 35 so I can move onto the next goal (assuming I'm still interested)- hiking the seven summits (With the completion of Denali, I would already have one done). This probably seems ridiculous considering I have no background in hiking, but with an increased freedom/open schedule this summer I'm planning on making a big step forward. For these 50, I want to do them as cheaply and quickly as possible to save time/money. I have created the following groups below in what would be most convenient.

Click here for a full list of the 50 high points.

Group 1- Northeast/New England (7)

Rhode Island (Completed, 3/9/2018)
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Vermont
New Hampshire
New York
New Jersey

Deadline: End of summer
Thoughts: This should be the first part of this journey. All of the ones listed above I could potentially do in a day, with New York, New Hampshire and Vermont probably better for a day and half. My goal is to complete these 7 by the end of the summer. I've already completed the easiest, RI. CT and NJ are both very short hikes (maybe less than 3 miles round trip) and about a 3 hour ride, so that likely wouldn't be difficult. MA I'm actually planning on doing tomorrow and while that is a longer of a hike, it's still close enough to be a day trip. The next three are all a little harder because they are higher elevation, longer/more strenuous hikes and further driving distance. However, all should be doable as long as I plan them out well. The only factor here would be amount of free time.

Group 2- Atlantic Coast (12)

Maine
Delaware
Pennsylvania
Maryland
West Virginia
Virginia
Kentucky
North Carolina
Tennessee
South Carolina
Georgia
Alabama

Deadline: By 2020ish
Thoughts: Maine is the clear outlier here. Mount Katadhin is pretty far up into Maine, so far North and rural that it would likely take 3 days to complete to this one. The others are surprisingly pretty much grouped in a line because of their position on the Appalachian range, meaning none are actually really far apart. I'd potentially do this as a two-week road trip, trying to hit one a day (probably camping at night). The elevation and distances seems pretty similar to New England mountains, where most range from 3K-6K feet (except Delaware, which is apparently on a sidewalk). These would likely be tiring day hikes but certainly no harder than most of the mountains in group one. Alabama's is the only one that not conveniently in the same path but isn't too far out of the way. There are some that I could hit while I was down there but would add a significant drive to get them, which leads me to...

Group 2A- South (7)

Florida
Mississippi
Louisiana
Arkansas
Missouri
Indiana
Ohio

Deadline: 2020/2021
Thoughts: These are actually mostly a pain to get as most are low elevation, meaning the hikes are either lame or nonexistent but they're not super close to each other so it would mean long drives with little reward. I call this 2A because it would likely be best to add this on to the road trip so I wouldn't have to make another trip, but this would add on maybe an entire week to the trip.

Group 3- Great Lakes (5)

Michigan
Wisconsin
Illinois
Iowa
Minnesota

Deadline: ? (Maybe around 2024)
Thoughts: Like 2A, these are all low elevation and not near each other so this would probably be pretty boring. This would likely be a fly out and figure out transportation to each, but still probably a summer trip with camping at night to save money. This will be a step up in cost as I would then have to pay for flights and I'll likely be working on a medical degree so I probably won't have much money to spare. After this one, the years are big question marks as I have no idea what life will be like then or whether I can afford these trips at all.

Group 4- West/Mid-West (11)

New Mexico
Oklahoma
Kansas
Colorado
Nebraska
South Dakota
North Dakota
Montana
Idaho
Wyoming
Utah

Deadline: ?
Thoughts: This would be a long and expensive trip. I'd probably fly out to maybe Denver and get a rental car, but this could take up to a month to complete. There's a few that are probably still lame (Kansas, Nebraska) but most of these would be a huge step and getting into decent elevation/longer, more gear oriented hikes. I don't think any are impossible without extensive training but WY, MT, ID, and CO are likely significantly more difficult. Hopefully I could do this around 2026-2030 and be mostly done with these.

Group 5- West Coast (3)

Arizona
Nevada
California

Deadline: ?
Thoughts: This would probably be similar to group 5, much higher elevations and harder, longer hikes but with significantly less to do, this would hopefully only take a week. Maybe 2 years after 5 would be sufficient because the majority of the cost would fall in transportation.

Group 4A/5A- Texas (1)

Texas

Deadline: ?
Thoughts: I put this as a potential add-on to group 4/5 because of the possible cost of taking an extra trip just to get this one high point in. It's not really that close to the high points of other groups, but could be potentially added on with a few extra days. Not sure if it would be better to do as one trip or an add-on.

Group 6- Pacific Northwest (2)

Oregon
Washington

Deadline: ?
Thoughts: This would stepping into new territory with Mount Rainier. Even though it's lesser elevation than some other peaks, because of the completely snow covered upper half this is less of a hike and more of a climb. I don't know exactly what it will take, but likely special training and definitely special gear. Hopefully this trip wouldn't be more than a week and a half but I have no idea. Mount Hood would probably be a strenuous day hike, but nothing more.

Group 7- Hawaii (1)

Hawaii

Deadline: ?
Thoughts: There is literally an auto to the summit of Mauna Kea, meaning whatever trail I take, the hike wouldn't be any worse than what came before it. If I wanted to save time, this could be a three day trip. The only potential problem is a high cost in transportation.

Group 8- Alaska (1)

Alaska

Deadline: 2035?
Thoughts: This summit alone would probably be harder than the combination of the 49 summits that came before, given that it stands about 20K feet high and is the highest point in all of North America. I have no idea what this would require of me, but certainly knowledge of real mountain climbing equipment and just real mountain climbing procedures in general. Maybe a month total of acclimation/training. Probably best to hire a professional for help.

At these dates are when I think I could possibly finish them, but it could obviously take much longer. Except for maybe 10 of them, I think I'm in good enough shape to do them now. It will be just the number and location of them that will cause problems, a huge time and money burner that I won't necessarily have. This is the goal/hiking project moving forward. I will obviously do many other unrelated hikes along the way but this is the plan I have right now for completing them. I'm pretty excited for these, but also a little scared I may have set a goal that I could completely fail on. If this doesn't work out, perhaps this can be a retirement goal but I want to do this while I'm still young/fit. It's weird planning something out that I could potentially finish in 40 years from now but this would be an amazing achievement if completed. I hope to capture video and strava footage, as well as making a brief blog description/write-up as I go through each one. I don't actually have video for Jerimoth hill so that post any not appear for a while (I'll have to go back).

I hoped you enjoyed the post and will follow me through this journey (although who knows the future of this blog) on strava, blog and youtube. This is essentially a life goal that I'm putting out there. Hopefully, I don't lose interest or motivation. More special/different posts coming up soon, tired of just writing/reading weekly logs.