Back in 2017, when I began to drive on my own, I started to think about getting in some hiking adventures. The views and the terrain of the mountains of the Northeast seemed like something that needed to be experienced, and after completing a few I was instantly hooked and left wanting more. I found out about the 50 high points and while extremely ambitious, it seemed like just the motivation I needed to tackle travel and hiking in a way I never had before. My original plan was to hike 5 of 6 New England highpoints- RI,CT,MA,NH,VT while also getting NY and NJ. The logistics of getting to Mt. Katahdin (ME) seemed far too difficult and would likely have to wait.
About six months after initially setting this goal to get all 50 state high points, I had not only gotten the 7 I had set to conquer, but had the addition of a Mt. Katahdin summit. I additionally completed some great bonus hikes, including Breakneck Ridge, Mt. Tom, several peaks in Acadia National Park and the biggest and most epic adventure I've been on, the Presidential Traverse. There were difficult times along the way, but overall I went on a lot of really fun adventures. 2018, in many ways, was a disappointment, but in hiking it was a massive success.
Here is the full list of notable hikes/mountain runs/high points I completed in 2018:
*Note that Talcott Mountain is not actually a mountain, rather just the highest point in a ridge.
This post will be focused on high points. As you can see above, I completed my last high point in August so you may be wondering why this post is coming so late. I had two items of evidence I wanted to have for highpoints- a gps track (strava activity) and footage (youtube videos). The second part I really procrastinated on doing (video editing) as I had many hours to sort through to make these finished videos. I got the first two up and running fairly quickly but I didn't touch the rest until December and generally completed a video once every 2-3 weeks. After publishing my final video about a month ago, I finally am ready to create a recap of this post. I'll embed my videos in the post, note that most of them are made to showcase the views and terrain of the hike and not be entertaining. The first bunch are either shaky or poor quality, the second half is much better.
Basically for this post, I will be going through each highpoint and giving a write-up with details on what happened and how I felt during the hikes as well as listing things I did or did not like. I'll give each a relative summary for both difficulty and enjoyment and rank them at the end. I'll also put a link to my strava activity with some statistics at the beginning of each.
High Point #1: Jerimoth Hill, Rhode Island (812 feet)
Friday, March 9th, 2018 (12:10 PM)Strava Activity- .4 miles, 14 minutes, 0ft elevation gain
I begun my high point journey over a year ago. Jerimoth hill is essentially a walk in a park with a 10 minute round trip experience from the start point. It's literally an easy and short walk and with no real challenge to it comes no real reward. At this time, I had enjoyed going on a fall hike with track friends Sam and Sebastian and was looking to follow it up as many other plans had fallen apart. That date had ended up being a free date and whatever reason, Sam and I went on a couple short hikes pretty close to home. I wasn't even starting to bag high points at this time, but Jerimoth Hill had been on my bucket list for a while, and having a free day and someone to go with me gave me an excuse to finally get it done. After all, if you're a hiker who lives in the smallest state in the country, shouldn't you have been to the highest point?
We also went to beavertail state park, roger williams zoo and lantern hill that day, but I believe a direct drive from Westerly is about an hour. It's not really close to anything, and will likely be out of the way no matter where you live (unless of course, you lived in the area). Jerimoth Hill is somewhere on route 101 in Foster, RI but is stupidly difficult to find. There is a sign for it, but if I recall correctly, the trail entrance is actually a tenth of a mile away from the sign and across the street. There's also no parking lot whatsoever (although apparently from other's experiences, there is a parking lot and the trail entrance is very clear, so maybe I'm retarded or something) so I had to park on the side of this pretty busy road. There was a decent amount of snow on the ground that day, which made the trail a little more enjoyable as there's really nothing special at all about it. It's a pretty straight and boring quarter mile walk from there on a wide dirt trail that literally doesn't change at all. There's a few signs here and there that make it somewhat unclear where the actual high point is, before coming to a bigger opening and the high point is represented on a rock just around the corner. We cleared off the snow to see the circular metal marking showing the highpoint and signed the trail register, which was perhaps the only neat part of the journey.
Backtracked out of there with one highpoint wrapped up. I had plenty of great footage that day, showing the trail in the snow as well as views of the highpoint itself and the trail register. For whatever reason, my SD became corrupted and I lost all the footage, including additional footage on other walks that day which was a real shame. I ended up coming back on a very rainy day in April and filmed the walk from the road to the high point, but because of the rain, the quality is extremely poor. I don't really have any pictures either, as there's isnt much that looks photo-worthy and I wasn't really committed to completed or documenting the high points at that time. Here's the video below:
High Point #2: Mt. Greylock, Massachusetts (3,491 feet)
Sunday, April 15th, 2018 (9:52 AM)Strava Activity- 10 miles, 4 hrs, 2,328ft elevation gain
Like Jerimoth Hill, Mt. Greylock had been on bucket list for a while and having been the most excited for this one, it was the natural next high point for me. Despite being the next closest high point (tied with CT/NJ), it was still 3 full hours drive away and require a free day. Spring break rolled around, and the first sunday seemed like the perfect time to go. Got Sam on board again. We left at a reasonable hour, 6:45AM which was early enough to allow us to get there with plenty of time to get a hike in, but not a ridiculously early start that would tire us out. 3 hour drive was okay, the part between Westerly and Springfield on highways went by quickly, but the rest was on pretty rural roads which seemed to take a while. We took a quick break at nearby Hoosac Valley High School which offered our first views, and just for fun I ran a quick lap on their track. I even called it random track lap on strava. The mountain looked massive from the high school, which only added to my excitement.
I was looking to bag an extra peak or two and the mostly out-and-back Appalachian trail would get me the additional Saddle Ball Mountain, the second highest peak in the Greylock Range and in Massachusetts. At 7.5 miles, getting to climb primarily on the Appalachian trail and getting the two highest peaks in the state, this seemed like by far the best option. However, after doing more research, I realized that the parking lot for the route required driving on roads that were closed until May, and I had to quickly scramble for new options. I was disappointed, but found another route that still covered Saddle Ball Mountain and the Appalachian trail, the only catch was that it was now 10 miles, which was a little more than I was looking to do.
Parked at the Cheshire Harbor parking lot with the intent to hike Cheshire Harbor trail-Old Adams Road-Appalachian Trail-Summit-Appalachian Trail down-return on Cheshire Harbor trail. We saw there was some snow on the ridgeline driving over, and I was definitely expecting a cold one. What I did not expect, however, was the amount of snow and water that would end up being on the trail.
Begun the hike just before 10. The beginning of Cheshire Harbor trail was very easy, a wide non-technical trail with a decent although not steep incline. It was pleasant to start the hike this way and we made it about a mile before we got to a point where the trail was entirely covered with snow and ice. The trail became dirt again just past the mile and at the intersection of Cheshire Harbor and old adams road. Made the turn onto old adams road. The hike began to decline in enjoyment as old adams road was a long (2-mile) and boring stretch of wide trail. The real problem, however, was the trail was entirely covered in running water and we had to awkwardly walk on sloped snowbanks to avoid getting wet. While there would be breaks where we could walk back on the main trails, a large portion of the trail went on like this, which was not fun at all. To be fair, there were some cool parts as well, including both bridges and small waterfalls.
After a while, it became long and boring as I awaited the turn on what promised to be more exciting terrain of the Appalachian trail. Just before the turn, we approached snow yet again but this was a different, more pleasant experience. While the snow covered the trail entirely, it was crunchy rather than icy or wet and made for very easy walking conditions. The markings for the AT were really confusing but after a while we made the turn- and were instantly presented with a new problem. the snow was frozen over. This would be okay, if not for the footprints that were molded into the trail. This made for awkward stepping into and out of frozen holes, generally having slanted steps and hitting my legs/ankles against the hard snow.
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| White blazes of the Appalachian Trail. |
I don't remember that section being particularly long (to be honest though, I don't remember a whole lot writing this a year later) and fortunately we soon started an ascent that was less gradual and more steep. The steeper grade was much more difficult to climb and I enjoyed the feeling that I finally felt like I was putting work in, especially compared to the relatively easiness of the rest of the hike so far. For reference, the average grade at this point (1000ft in 3.3 miles) had been 6% and now the grade, at least for the next half mile was around 15%. This was an enjoyable and more challenging section, although the frozen footprint problem still persisted somewhat. I was actually surprised to come up to a section of trail with no snow on it, but as soon as I turned the corner, the snow followed.
After the climb breathed a little life back into a pretty dull hike, I was very excited to soon summit Saddle Ball Mountain and get above treeline. While it would likely be very cold and exposed, I was looking forward to epic views of the surrounding mountains and hopefully more rocky terrain. My watch's elevation inched closer and closer to the 3,238 foot elevation of Saddle Ball mountain and I thought it be any moment before we'd break treeline. Eventually, the trail flattened out considerably and I continued on a flat section. Soon I realized the ridge was entirely covered by trees without exposed sections and that we must have sumitted Saddle Ball Mountain without even realizing it. I had been used to the typical Northeast summit of a exposed section of rock with views for mile, and in contrast the not only completely unremarkable summit in the middle of the woods but also unmarked summit of Saddle Ball was a massive disappointment. However, Greylock still remained and I was excited for that.
The next two miles of the hikes had probably the best hiking terrain as the trail followed the mostly flat ridgeline. Despite being over 3,000 feet in the air, there wasn't anything to see due to thick pine tree cover. However, the cold air, combined with the nearby trees, snow and elevation did create a cool feeling of being in the wilderness. The downside of that, though, was that it was really cold. Despite the tree cover from the wind, the temperature was much lower and I felt frigid for most of that portion. Additionally, this was another 2 mile stretch and just felt really long. We took a couple breaks but motivation was low. Eventually we got closer and it became more promising seeing the first trail signs in over half an hour as well as starting to climb again. Getting to the top of Mt. Greylock was also extremely disappointing however, as while there were no more trees, a thick fog covered everything. There were absolutely no views to be had here today, the only thing I was hoping could save the hike. I literally couldn't even see 200 feet in front of me. It was also brutally cold up there, so after checking out the tower on top (maybe you can go in during the summer?) we made the trip back. The signs were way off and showed 6 or so miles back to the parking lot when it should have been around 3. This was concerning but I remained confident that the signs were wrong. We took the Cheshire Harbor trail back down, which was very similar to the trail at the beginning- a wide, wet and slippery mess. There was flowing water going all over the trail and made it difficult to get back down. Sometimes we even opted to go off the trail in order to avoid ice or water.
The signs had been wrong, and we returned to the parking lot at 10 miles and 4 hours, both longer than expected. I was glad to cross off the high point, but extremely disappointed that I didn't get to experience any fun terrain or incredible views. The 3-hour drive home felt long and I was pretty tired. We stopped by the same track as before, and this time Sam joined me for a track lap. I went barefoot and couldn't even finish the full lap on the track as it really hurt.
The video below shows off a little of everything I talked about- dry trail to start, wet and icy trail, crunchy snow, hard frozen snow with footprints, cold looking wintry conditions and a complete lack of views at the top. The quality is not great and it's somewhat shaky, but is definitely a huge improvement over the first one (although that's not saying much). I do like the shot of a frozen over pond at 14:17, as it really shows how cold it felt and looked that day.
Summary: Mount Greylock may be special, but I certainly did not have a great experience there. The combination of tough, snowy and icy terrain, brutally cold wintry conditions and the complete lack of views at the top made it hard to say any positive about this one and feel really disappointed. However, a huge portion of why I really didn't like this hike was the winter-like conditions of water, ice, snow and fog but even taking that out, the saddle ball summit still would have been disappointing and the terrain was pretty basic and unremarkable (and very flat-feeling). Mount Greylock is a probably a decent hike, I just had too many bad conditions come together on this but it's hard to imagine this being great even had I hiked it two months later (although I assume the views are spectacular). One hiker on alltrails said of the hike, "If you want to feel like Frodo bringing the one ring to the fires of mount doom, the trail between Saddle Ball and Mount Greylock can definitely help". Unless I missed a scene where Frodo walks for 30 minutes on a boring, flat, and viewless trail through the forest, I'm not sure how accurate this is. Mt. Greylock definitely has more to offer than my experience, but I was so disappointed I don't really have any interest in going back. Either way, I got the high point done but it was another unenjoyable one and not the reason I wanted to do high pointing in the first place.
High Point #3- High Point, New Jersey (1,804ft)
Wednesday, June 20th, 2018 (8:38 AM)
Strava Activity- 3.7 mi, 1hr12min, 560ft elev gain
I had gotten pretty lucky with Greylock as track season got really busy from early April and didn't conclude until Mid June. With school and track, there was no room for the time and effort hiking would take and it would have to wait until the summer. The week off with April vacation provided a time for easy training and allowed for one or two adventures, but HP #3 would have to wait for 2 months later. I never forgot about it, and planned enthusiastically for a 2-day trip with my friend Frank that involved lots of hiking in NY/NJ and possibly even some kayaking. He bailed on me on pretty short notice and I ended up (immediately after coming back from NC for track nationals as well, so I was less eager to leave) cutting out a lot of the planned activities and just going for a one day trip.
New Jersey was the next logical high point for me to get, especially as I could combine it with other sights/hikes like the Hudson Highlands. Being in the Northwest corner of NJ, it wasn't especially far away nor was it urban. I had initially considered adding on the CT high point, as neither would be long or difficult hikes, but given the amount of driving time it would add (it's really rural and hard to get to) I decided just to go for one as I had the entire summer to get the rest.
I tried to get up early to get as much as possible in that day without getting back really late. It started with a one shot drive to the NJ high point in High Point State Park (Sussex). The drive on the way back would at least be broken up by some stops. I had planned a 4:30AM departure but ended up going at 5:30, which was still good enough. The route brought me on various routes through CT and NY on some busy highways before dumping me out on more rural roads. It was pretty long, 3 hours in total but I don't remember feeling really tired or bored. Parked at the visitor center office where I used the bathroom and picked up the trail map before starting the hike.
NJ is a high point with many options and like many others, simply driving to the top is one. Considering it wasn't a super tall high point, I didn't want to waste time on flat trails so a 1-2 mile trail to the highpoint would do. I began the hike at the parking lot, crossed the street before walking across a field to get to the white-blazed Appalachian trail. From there it was mostly pleasant and just under a 2 mile walk to the high point. I wasn't expecting much so I was pleasantly surprised by some difficult rocky terrain in places. The weather was really nice in the morning, about 60 degrees so this was not a sweaty and hot hike by any means. It was fun to have a only slightly challenging and short walk through the woods especially as many others would be much harder. There was one point that opened up slightly and offered a view of the high point monument briefly. Halfway into the hike, I came upon an observation deck that offered great views of the monument, which appeared to be much further away than within a mile.
After that I continued on and soon took a turn off the Appalachian trail towards the high point which was only a brief section. This connected to a wider trail where I could see the monument right next to me to the right and I came out to a large parking right next to the monument. The views around were panoramic of green hills/small mountains and quite beautiful, something I wasn't really expecting in NJ. After walking around, I climbed to the top via the stairs which was decently long. The top was a disappointment as there were loud fans up there and the windows were pretty gross/blurry and the views were significantly worse than those at the base.
Finished up with that and decided to walk back on the road. Got pretty disoriented and ended up walking about a quarter mile in the wrong direction before getting back on track. The road was fairly quiet as the trail had been and I actually enjoyed that part as well. Plenty more driving that day as I added on a nice hike up Breakneck Ridge and a short visit to Kent Falls in CT (both about an hr drive from the previous destination). On the way home from there, my phone died and the car charger stopped working so I pretty much had to guess where to go and eventually found my way back to 95. I actually ended up getting back in time to watch the fun run, so that was nice.
Summary: This was the opposite of Greylock where I had high expectations and was heavily disappointed. Here I had little expectations and it felt chore like, but ended surprising myself and really enjoying it. It wasn't anything epic but a pleasant one hour walk over fun terrain and with rewarding views. The perfect weather only made things better. Obviously it pales in comparison to later hikes, but it was never going to be epic to begin with and for a more low key high point, this was definitely one that I had a good time on. The views were fantastic as well, no complaints there. Certainly my best experience so far and at the time, hopefully getting me really excited for some bigger ones.Strava Activity- 3.7 mi, 1hr12min, 560ft elev gain
I had gotten pretty lucky with Greylock as track season got really busy from early April and didn't conclude until Mid June. With school and track, there was no room for the time and effort hiking would take and it would have to wait until the summer. The week off with April vacation provided a time for easy training and allowed for one or two adventures, but HP #3 would have to wait for 2 months later. I never forgot about it, and planned enthusiastically for a 2-day trip with my friend Frank that involved lots of hiking in NY/NJ and possibly even some kayaking. He bailed on me on pretty short notice and I ended up (immediately after coming back from NC for track nationals as well, so I was less eager to leave) cutting out a lot of the planned activities and just going for a one day trip.
New Jersey was the next logical high point for me to get, especially as I could combine it with other sights/hikes like the Hudson Highlands. Being in the Northwest corner of NJ, it wasn't especially far away nor was it urban. I had initially considered adding on the CT high point, as neither would be long or difficult hikes, but given the amount of driving time it would add (it's really rural and hard to get to) I decided just to go for one as I had the entire summer to get the rest.
I tried to get up early to get as much as possible in that day without getting back really late. It started with a one shot drive to the NJ high point in High Point State Park (Sussex). The drive on the way back would at least be broken up by some stops. I had planned a 4:30AM departure but ended up going at 5:30, which was still good enough. The route brought me on various routes through CT and NY on some busy highways before dumping me out on more rural roads. It was pretty long, 3 hours in total but I don't remember feeling really tired or bored. Parked at the visitor center office where I used the bathroom and picked up the trail map before starting the hike.
NJ is a high point with many options and like many others, simply driving to the top is one. Considering it wasn't a super tall high point, I didn't want to waste time on flat trails so a 1-2 mile trail to the highpoint would do. I began the hike at the parking lot, crossed the street before walking across a field to get to the white-blazed Appalachian trail. From there it was mostly pleasant and just under a 2 mile walk to the high point. I wasn't expecting much so I was pleasantly surprised by some difficult rocky terrain in places. The weather was really nice in the morning, about 60 degrees so this was not a sweaty and hot hike by any means. It was fun to have a only slightly challenging and short walk through the woods especially as many others would be much harder. There was one point that opened up slightly and offered a view of the high point monument briefly. Halfway into the hike, I came upon an observation deck that offered great views of the monument, which appeared to be much further away than within a mile.
After that I continued on and soon took a turn off the Appalachian trail towards the high point which was only a brief section. This connected to a wider trail where I could see the monument right next to me to the right and I came out to a large parking right next to the monument. The views around were panoramic of green hills/small mountains and quite beautiful, something I wasn't really expecting in NJ. After walking around, I climbed to the top via the stairs which was decently long. The top was a disappointment as there were loud fans up there and the windows were pretty gross/blurry and the views were significantly worse than those at the base.
Finished up with that and decided to walk back on the road. Got pretty disoriented and ended up walking about a quarter mile in the wrong direction before getting back on track. The road was fairly quiet as the trail had been and I actually enjoyed that part as well. Plenty more driving that day as I added on a nice hike up Breakneck Ridge and a short visit to Kent Falls in CT (both about an hr drive from the previous destination). On the way home from there, my phone died and the car charger stopped working so I pretty much had to guess where to go and eventually found my way back to 95. I actually ended up getting back in time to watch the fun run, so that was nice.
High Point #4- Mt. Washington, New Hampshire (6,288ft)
Friday, June 29th, 2018 (5:21 AM)
Strava Activity- 20.2 mi, 14 hrs, 9,570ft elev gain
-note that my strava shows 20 miles but 3-4 of them are my GPS going crazy indoors
Jerimoth and Greylock were disappointments, and High Point was pretty cool. But all of those were small, short and lame compared to what I was about to do. I'm never prepared enough for trips like these but this was something I had in the back of my head for sixth months or so. I told a decent number of people about it and eventually convinced Sebastian and Colby to come with me. This was really ambitious, as I went for not only a Mount Washington summit but a full Presidential Traverse which seemed absolutely epic and awesome but would crank the difficulty level and endurance requirement up to an insanely high level, at least for me. I was never worried although looking at the terrain, elevation and distance I knew it would be tough, but believed my endurance would carry me through. I thought no less of Colby or Sebastian, who both were among the tougher people on the track team and was glad that others actually declined as it may have been too much for them.
After some planning, I selected and confirmed the date in May, booking a hotel and being really excited for that day. Suddenly the night before leaving, I encountered 3 problems, all of them worse than the last that could potentially jeopardize the entire trip.
1) Sebastian "had to" work later than expected
This wasn't a huge deal, but instead of leaving comfortably in the early afternoon Thursday, we'd have to leave more towards 3 or 4. I wanted to arrive in the White Mountains in the early evening to relax before the big hike, get a quality dinner and use the pool in the hotel. I had also planned on going to the nearby Great Glen trails fun run which I was done years back and should be fun. Now we'd likely be getting there when it's dark, miss the fun run and have to get dinner on the way. The sleep window would also shorten significantly, something that was obviously important before the big hike. While I was going up for the hike, it was disappointing to not get in a little extra fun, which was really 100% Sebastian's fault as he told me pretty last minute. This didn't change much on the big day, but sure made getting there a lot less fun.
2) The Weather Forecast
I had been so excited for this one day and upon checking the temperatures, there were Thunderstorms forecasted for the entire afternoon up in the Presidentials. Normally, I wouldn't care but given my lack of experience, I didn't want be an idiot and put myself or others in danger. I also feel like I read that the hike shouldn't be done in Thunderstorms. I immediately started worrying that we'd have to do an alternate hike, maybe just a half traverse or just a Mt. Washington summit or whether that meant skipping the trip altogether. In the end, it meant too much to me and we kept the original plan.
3) I hadn't researched the Transportation
As cool as the Presidential Traverse is, the one thing that is an absolute pain in the ass is that it's one way and the roads to the start and end go much longer than the trail does. For example, the traverse is around 20 miles but the shortest drive length from start to end is about double that. Considering I only had one car, I had to figure how to get transportation from one end to another. I figured I would just Uber and that would be cheap, maybe there wouldn't be Uber at 5 in the morning to get me to the start but surely in a huge tourist destination like the whites, they must have cars running in the evening? Nope, no Uber. Looked at the other options, the AMC shuttle service. Sounds perfect! Only the schedule is extremely inconvenient for hikers attempting a one-day traverse. We had a strict 5AM start time to make sure we weren't finishing in the dark, and I don't remember exactly but the shuttle didn't run until at least 9 or so. It also didn't work out in the evening. In the end, there was only one other option left, some White Mountain Taxi service. They didn't run that early in the morning, so we'd have to get picked up after the hike. Sounds fine, only they charged $150 for a 40 minute drive. Really frustrated like both the above problems, but again, if I wanted to go and do this, there wasn't much of a choice.
Thursday rolled around. Picked Colby up first. We waited outside the Cooked Goose for Sebastian for an hour after he said he was getting out and finally made the trek to New Hampshire. Stopped for dinner at some decently nice rest area with only local chains. It got insanely dark in the final hour or so and we had a scare when a deer popped out of nowhere. Somehow got to the hotel at 10pm. I feel like all driving with some stops takes twice as long as it should. And of course, the pool closed at 10pm. They asked me to check in by showing that I had the debit card I booked the hotel with which was really lucky (that I had it on me), because what if I had booked it with my parent's card? The hotel was decent. I was too excited to fall asleep and none of us really got to bed until midnight, which was good because we only had to get up...at 3:30am!!
It might have 3:45 or so, but obviously not much sleep that night, probably not a great idea before a 20-mile hike with 9k feet elevation gain. I had a quick oatmeal before heading over to the Daniel Webster trailhead. I'm pretty sure it's a Presidential Traverse as long as you get a certain number of Presidential peaks, and other than that, you're free to take whatever route you want. I had no idea what I was doing, and after seeing that the FKT was mostly run starting from the Daniel Webster trailhead, I figured that was likely the fastest/easiest route (Note: the current FKT, broken after I did this hike, was done from the Valley Way trailhead where most others doing the hike came from that day). We got there just past the planned time and started at 5:20AM.
I broke my video into three parts, so that's what I'll break my write-up into as well.
The detour trail was quite annoying and unenjoyable. It was basically a dirt road with high grass in the middle that was sometimes unavoidable and would brush against your leg. The problem was that the grass was really wet and just 10 minutes in my, my legs and feet were soaked. Not a great start nor is there much to write about this section. Boring, unremarkable terrain that can really be found in any forested area, and avoiding wet overgrown sections for much of it. There was a short bridge crossing over a stream, but thats all I can remember.
After one mile of that (17 minutes), we made the turn onto the real trail, the trail we would have begun at had there been no detour. We instantly began a significant climb towards the peak of Madison and the steep and wooded trail was already much more interesting than what we had come from. However, the next two miles weren't that actually all that great. While it was more fun to ascend now, we gained nearly 2K feet over the next two miles under treeline. This was pretty tiring this early in the hike, and I felt that by excessive sweating. Heat and humidity didn't help, nor did constantly running into spider-webs. I began to feel so gross, with my shirt slowly being covered in sweats and spider-webs on my skin that I took my shirt off. That wasn't a perfect solution either, as my backpack straps became soaked in sweat and would feel disgusting every time it shifted around. Probably one of the biggest drawbacks to summer hiking is that it can be really hot/humid and being soaked in sweat is no fun at all. I also wrote in my description that there were some bugs, but I can't really recall that (problems with writing posts so late).
Maybe 1.5 hours into the hike, we started getting our first glimpse of views of surrounding mountains and I was excited to break treeline soon. Climbing began to get even steeper and rockier, while heat/excessive sweat reduced as we became more exposed. I put my shirt back on at some point. We broke treeline and came out to a massive boulder field unlike any I've ever seen before. The views back in the direction we had come from were now stunning and suddenly, it felt like we were really high up. The boulder field was so much fun to scramble around on and was challenging as the boulders were much harder to traverse around on as opposed to dirt trail. According to strava, this quarter-mile section was 40+ percent grade. This was a very slowing moving mile due to both the terrain and grade, but this was far more exciting than pretty much any trail I had done in the past, so I enjoyed it. I tried to film as much as possible of this, but the footage came out really shaky as this section really required both hands to get around. There were a few spots where it was difficult to see where the trail went, and occasionally I would get in a bush area and have to backtrack. We slowly progressed towards a ridgeline and I was the first to break it.
Immediately upon breaking ridgeline, I was greeted with the best views I have ever seen, including Mountain Washington in the background with Jefferson, Adams and Madison somewhere to the side. It was hard to discern exactly which peak was which or whether or not I was on top of Madison already. Additionally, it was so exposed that it was suddenly extremely windy and I felt quite cold. I lingered there for a couple minutes, checked my map (which nearly was blown away by the wind) and waited for the others to catch up. We turned to the right and continued on, now on a much clearer and more discernible trail with the first AMC signs (with mileage). It was still fairly technical and steep and also seemed to go on for some time. Eventually, we got to a flatter section of trail in the middle of which lied the mount madison summit. There were no marking nor did it look like a summit, and I had no idea that I was even on it. We hiked on a mostly flat (although still very technical) ridge for a while before starting to descend which is where I realized the Madison summit was behind me. The trails had been mostly clear and in good condition other than the below-treeline trails but the Madison descent continued the technical boulder scrambling, except this time, the rocks were wet and very slippery. This wasn't the same insane boulder field as before, and there was space between rocks but it was still a large boulder field nonetheless and was impossible to get through without stepping mostly on rocks. I stopped filming here because I was slipping quite a bit and wanted to focus on getting down without a wipeout. There were plenty of close calls (my shoes also have no traction though) and I eventually went down pretty hard which hurt. I was relieved to get past this section to a short trail with some pine trees with the hut just behind.
Waited up for the other guys and then went in the hut. I don't remember exactly, but I was surprised to find there was no food or trash in the hut. I believe there was a hose or sink for water refills and a bathroom, but it was certainly more crude than expected. Regardless, it was a nice place for a quick rest for the legs.
It was around here that my watch was showing low battery and I kept the rest of the activity on my phone. My watch battery is pretty poor and I'm thinking about getting a new one that can support longer hikes as my phone's GPS data can be a little messed high in the mountains (I did the same thing on Marcy and when i looked at the phone data it had gone completely haywire and showed 70 miles with the map going crazy). Got to chimney pond campsite and checked that out for a little bit including chimney pond itself before moving. The rest of the hike was fairly similar to other descents after that. Tired and wanting to be done and without steep or technical terrain but enough to both that the legs were still taking a beating. The alpine forest was still pretty cool though and I enjoyed being in that. Took a little detour to another pond/lake before trudging on for a pretty boring last couple miles. Finished up around 2 and was grateful for the first time in any highpoint not to drive afterwards.
Summary: Katahdin isn't a super special hike on the surface, but there are a couple factors that push it ahead to be the second best high point/hike I've done. Most of it is no different from many other New England/Northeast peaks- difficult, steep terrain with great views but what really sets it apart is the knife's edge trail, easily the most brutally technical trail I've done and completely different from possibly anything on any Northeast hike. It's difficult but a blast to hike on that kind of terrain and adds quite a bit to the hike. I imagine a hike up Katahdin not using the Knife's edge would be enjoyable/worthwhile but add nothing extra seen in a typical Northern new england mountain. Additionally, being so far north the trees/overall scenery did feel more tundra/alpine like which was pretty cool and it was definitely enjoyable being in the Maine wilderness. Katahdin is so far out of the way it isn't something that can likely be done often, but it certainly a must-do at least once.
While there were plenty of difficult miles in there, it wasn't the hiking itself that presented a challenge (although it will in the future) but rather the planning around getting to and completing each of them. I ended up doing a lot of the planning pretty last minute, but fortunately it all worked out for the best. The one thing I didn't like was the tired driving. Through the 7 high points and 6 trips (NY-VT were merged, I didn't have to drive in ME), I drove about 45 hours total and I'm sure at least of a third of that I was ready to die.
This was a bit of a money suck, but it was well worth it. Overall besides the driving, I have no complaints. I had several epic experiences, a few pretty good ones and a few mediocre ones as well. But the feat of having these 8 behind my back feels pretty good and gets me excited for more.
It's unfair to rank the high points exactly (variety of routes and conditions), note that in the rankings below I am ranking based on my personal hikes/experiences as recapped above in several categories. Each is ranked worst to best, with a worse ranking getting a higher number (ex. 8 is the worst/easiest ranking, 1 is the best/hardest).
Views
8. Jerimoth Hill
7. Mt. Greylock
6. Mt. Frissell South Slope
5. High Point
4. Mt. Mansfield
3. Mt. Marcy
2. Mt. Katahdin
1. Mt. Washington/Presi Traverse
Terrain
8. Jerimoth Hill
7. Mt. Greylock
6. High Point
5. Mt. Frissell South Slope
4. Mt. Marcy
3. Mt. Mansfield
2. Mt. Katahdin
1. Mt. Washington/Presi Traverse
Notes: If for best terrain among any part of the trail, the Knife's Edge would take this one, but the quantity of the terrain over the hike gives The Presidential Traverse the easy win.
Difficulty
8. Jerimoth Hill
7. High Point
6. Mt. Frissell South Slope
5. Mt. Greylock
4. Mt. Mansfield
3. Mt. Katahdin
2. Mt. Marcy
1. Mt. Washington/Presi Traverse
Youtube Videos
8. Jerimoth Hill
7. Mt. Frissell South Slope
6. High Point
5. Mt. Washington/Presi Traverse
4. Mt. Katahdin
3. Mt. Greylock
2. Mt. Marcy
1. Mt. Mansfield
Notes: 3-6 can definitely be interchanged, 4-5 have better shots being on nice mountains and with the gopro but I feel like the greylock video is just a much more concise/trimmed down vlog of the hike whereas 4-5 are obviously way too long and 5 is pretty shaky. High point is a decent but okay video, just not much to show. Frissell isnt very exciting and jerimoth hill is very blurry. The two I'm happy with are Marcy and Mansfield, especially Mansfield. They're much more trimmed down and there's a lot less raw/tedious hiking while still having plenty of beautiful shots.
Overall
8. Jerimoth Hill
7. Mt. Greylock
6. Mt. Frissell South Slope
5. High Point
4. Mt. Marcy
3. Mt. Mansfield
2. Mt. Katahdin
1. Mt. Washington/Presi Traverse
Notes: I would probably only do the Presidential Traverse again, due to just how many mountains there are out there.
Mt. Tom (MA), May: Mt. Tom was a mostly easy 7 mile hike designed for a fun weekend activity. There wasn't a lot of challenge but the views were surprisingly really nice and a good portion of the hike took place on a ridgeline with very fun, technical terrain. Definitely a great small hike, only disappointment was the summit which was covered with radio towers and fences. (w/Frank and Matt)
Castle Craig (CT), June: A very difficult but fun run up East and West Peak in Meriden. Brutal, insanely technical climbs that were honestly a complete blast. The views in Western CT are always going to be of roads and buildings but if you looked the other direction, they weren't half bad.
Breakneck Ridge (NY), June: A short but pretty awesome hike with amazing views of the Hudson river and nearby Hudson Highlands. One brutally difficult and insanely technical mile of rock scrambling (1k feet elevation gain), a lot of fun.
Talcott Mountain (CT), July: Enjoyable and challenging run in CT state parks. Had fun on the rocky, rolling terrain of Penwood State Park and while Talcott was a little more boring in comparison, the Hueblein Tower a the top was really cool. One of the best trail runs I've been on.
Camden Hills (ME), July: First day up to the top of Mount Battie auto road and back, fun with pretty great views. Second day, a brutal and hot ascent up Megunticook, later smashed my knee into a rock garden. Not so fun.
Acadia National Park (ME), August: 3 short and amazing hikes, easily a "bang for your buck" kind of thing. Packed a lot of fun terrain and views of the Atlantic on par with some of the better highpoints in just under an hour. Lots of fun scrambling on rock and iron rungs. Beehive, Precipice Trail and Beech Mountain. Love this place, want to attempt to get every peak here sometime in the future.
This wasn't a huge deal, but instead of leaving comfortably in the early afternoon Thursday, we'd have to leave more towards 3 or 4. I wanted to arrive in the White Mountains in the early evening to relax before the big hike, get a quality dinner and use the pool in the hotel. I had also planned on going to the nearby Great Glen trails fun run which I was done years back and should be fun. Now we'd likely be getting there when it's dark, miss the fun run and have to get dinner on the way. The sleep window would also shorten significantly, something that was obviously important before the big hike. While I was going up for the hike, it was disappointing to not get in a little extra fun, which was really 100% Sebastian's fault as he told me pretty last minute. This didn't change much on the big day, but sure made getting there a lot less fun.
2) The Weather Forecast
I had been so excited for this one day and upon checking the temperatures, there were Thunderstorms forecasted for the entire afternoon up in the Presidentials. Normally, I wouldn't care but given my lack of experience, I didn't want be an idiot and put myself or others in danger. I also feel like I read that the hike shouldn't be done in Thunderstorms. I immediately started worrying that we'd have to do an alternate hike, maybe just a half traverse or just a Mt. Washington summit or whether that meant skipping the trip altogether. In the end, it meant too much to me and we kept the original plan.
3) I hadn't researched the Transportation
As cool as the Presidential Traverse is, the one thing that is an absolute pain in the ass is that it's one way and the roads to the start and end go much longer than the trail does. For example, the traverse is around 20 miles but the shortest drive length from start to end is about double that. Considering I only had one car, I had to figure how to get transportation from one end to another. I figured I would just Uber and that would be cheap, maybe there wouldn't be Uber at 5 in the morning to get me to the start but surely in a huge tourist destination like the whites, they must have cars running in the evening? Nope, no Uber. Looked at the other options, the AMC shuttle service. Sounds perfect! Only the schedule is extremely inconvenient for hikers attempting a one-day traverse. We had a strict 5AM start time to make sure we weren't finishing in the dark, and I don't remember exactly but the shuttle didn't run until at least 9 or so. It also didn't work out in the evening. In the end, there was only one other option left, some White Mountain Taxi service. They didn't run that early in the morning, so we'd have to get picked up after the hike. Sounds fine, only they charged $150 for a 40 minute drive. Really frustrated like both the above problems, but again, if I wanted to go and do this, there wasn't much of a choice.
Thursday rolled around. Picked Colby up first. We waited outside the Cooked Goose for Sebastian for an hour after he said he was getting out and finally made the trek to New Hampshire. Stopped for dinner at some decently nice rest area with only local chains. It got insanely dark in the final hour or so and we had a scare when a deer popped out of nowhere. Somehow got to the hotel at 10pm. I feel like all driving with some stops takes twice as long as it should. And of course, the pool closed at 10pm. They asked me to check in by showing that I had the debit card I booked the hotel with which was really lucky (that I had it on me), because what if I had booked it with my parent's card? The hotel was decent. I was too excited to fall asleep and none of us really got to bed until midnight, which was good because we only had to get up...at 3:30am!!
It might have 3:45 or so, but obviously not much sleep that night, probably not a great idea before a 20-mile hike with 9k feet elevation gain. I had a quick oatmeal before heading over to the Daniel Webster trailhead. I'm pretty sure it's a Presidential Traverse as long as you get a certain number of Presidential peaks, and other than that, you're free to take whatever route you want. I had no idea what I was doing, and after seeing that the FKT was mostly run starting from the Daniel Webster trailhead, I figured that was likely the fastest/easiest route (Note: the current FKT, broken after I did this hike, was done from the Valley Way trailhead where most others doing the hike came from that day). We got there just past the planned time and started at 5:20AM.
I broke my video into three parts, so that's what I'll break my write-up into as well.
Part I: Start to Madison Hut
The trailhead turnoff was somewhat difficult to spot and I ended up missing it and having to turn around. The usual trailhead parking was entirely closed off, and we had to park in a small grass/dirt area and take the "detour" trail. Parked, got out and started the hike.The detour trail was quite annoying and unenjoyable. It was basically a dirt road with high grass in the middle that was sometimes unavoidable and would brush against your leg. The problem was that the grass was really wet and just 10 minutes in my, my legs and feet were soaked. Not a great start nor is there much to write about this section. Boring, unremarkable terrain that can really be found in any forested area, and avoiding wet overgrown sections for much of it. There was a short bridge crossing over a stream, but thats all I can remember.
After one mile of that (17 minutes), we made the turn onto the real trail, the trail we would have begun at had there been no detour. We instantly began a significant climb towards the peak of Madison and the steep and wooded trail was already much more interesting than what we had come from. However, the next two miles weren't that actually all that great. While it was more fun to ascend now, we gained nearly 2K feet over the next two miles under treeline. This was pretty tiring this early in the hike, and I felt that by excessive sweating. Heat and humidity didn't help, nor did constantly running into spider-webs. I began to feel so gross, with my shirt slowly being covered in sweats and spider-webs on my skin that I took my shirt off. That wasn't a perfect solution either, as my backpack straps became soaked in sweat and would feel disgusting every time it shifted around. Probably one of the biggest drawbacks to summer hiking is that it can be really hot/humid and being soaked in sweat is no fun at all. I also wrote in my description that there were some bugs, but I can't really recall that (problems with writing posts so late).
Maybe 1.5 hours into the hike, we started getting our first glimpse of views of surrounding mountains and I was excited to break treeline soon. Climbing began to get even steeper and rockier, while heat/excessive sweat reduced as we became more exposed. I put my shirt back on at some point. We broke treeline and came out to a massive boulder field unlike any I've ever seen before. The views back in the direction we had come from were now stunning and suddenly, it felt like we were really high up. The boulder field was so much fun to scramble around on and was challenging as the boulders were much harder to traverse around on as opposed to dirt trail. According to strava, this quarter-mile section was 40+ percent grade. This was a very slowing moving mile due to both the terrain and grade, but this was far more exciting than pretty much any trail I had done in the past, so I enjoyed it. I tried to film as much as possible of this, but the footage came out really shaky as this section really required both hands to get around. There were a few spots where it was difficult to see where the trail went, and occasionally I would get in a bush area and have to backtrack. We slowly progressed towards a ridgeline and I was the first to break it.
Immediately upon breaking ridgeline, I was greeted with the best views I have ever seen, including Mountain Washington in the background with Jefferson, Adams and Madison somewhere to the side. It was hard to discern exactly which peak was which or whether or not I was on top of Madison already. Additionally, it was so exposed that it was suddenly extremely windy and I felt quite cold. I lingered there for a couple minutes, checked my map (which nearly was blown away by the wind) and waited for the others to catch up. We turned to the right and continued on, now on a much clearer and more discernible trail with the first AMC signs (with mileage). It was still fairly technical and steep and also seemed to go on for some time. Eventually, we got to a flatter section of trail in the middle of which lied the mount madison summit. There were no marking nor did it look like a summit, and I had no idea that I was even on it. We hiked on a mostly flat (although still very technical) ridge for a while before starting to descend which is where I realized the Madison summit was behind me. The trails had been mostly clear and in good condition other than the below-treeline trails but the Madison descent continued the technical boulder scrambling, except this time, the rocks were wet and very slippery. This wasn't the same insane boulder field as before, and there was space between rocks but it was still a large boulder field nonetheless and was impossible to get through without stepping mostly on rocks. I stopped filming here because I was slipping quite a bit and wanted to focus on getting down without a wipeout. There were plenty of close calls (my shoes also have no traction though) and I eventually went down pretty hard which hurt. I was relieved to get past this section to a short trail with some pine trees with the hut just behind.
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| Washington in the distance. |
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| Love the AMC signage. |
Waited up for the other guys and then went in the hut. I don't remember exactly, but I was surprised to find there was no food or trash in the hut. I believe there was a hose or sink for water refills and a bathroom, but it was certainly more crude than expected. Regardless, it was a nice place for a quick rest for the legs.
Part II- Adams, Jefferson and Washington
The first part of the hike had both its ups and downs. The below treeline stuff was mostly an unexciting, hot/sweaty and difficult slog. However, upon breaking treeline the terrain and views instantly got incredible, although the trail was bit too hard and could have been marked better. The trail to Madison was similarly really cool in terrain but was a little confusing, felt a little long and Madison summit itself could have used better signage or recognition. The trail down from Madison was not enjoyable at all and even using caution, I still went down.
However, I was still here for a full traverse and the majority of it lied ahead of me. The difficulty of some of the previous trails felt like things really slowed down and it was going to take forever to get through this one. I didn't want to waste a lot of time, and after the quick break, we started our way up Adams. It was initially pretty confusing which way to go, but it wasn't long before figuring it out. We walked past a cool pond next to the Madison Hut and began the next climb. All of a sudden, it got really hot out again which made things less comfortable. The Adams ascent was only half a mile or so, but was brutally difficult with a very steep grade and jagged, rocky terrain. Like the giant boulder field from before, this was very slow moving and each step had to be carefully thought through. There was even some terrain that felt more like rock scrambling/climbing which was really fun. Several times during the ascent I suddenly got really exhausted/weak and stopped to eat a bar to regain energy. This surprisingly worked really well as I was ready to go again. Eventually, I reached the top. This was one was overall tougher (in the final straight ascent) than Madison but loads of fun. The summit itself was very easy to distinguish. There wasn't a sign on this one either, but there was a clear high point. This summit was covered in jagged rocks and there was no real good place to sit down. It was once again, extremely windy all of a sudden but offered phenomenal views, including of the surrounding mountains and the hut/pond we had just came from.
The hike was getting really exciting and fun at this point as we were exploring great terrain and views, while still having a lot of summits ahead. Continuing on the terrain remained very technical but this descent was both longer and more gradual, which did make a bit easier. It would be a full two miles until the Jefferson summit, so this stretch of trail felt longer than the previous climb. Immediately after summitting Adams and continuing on, a large cloud came into appearance just below us and blocked a great portion of the views. We eventually went into the cloud which was really cool. Visibility was low and it felt cool and refreshing. The next two miles didn't introduce any new amazing terrain or views, but was a just a very enjoyable hike through the White Mountains. The panoramic views continued and the terrain even eased up. The feeling of being up high in the cool alpine tundra far beats the monotony of everyday life. It never became a simple dirt path and was always littered with rocks, but the rocks became much, much smaller at one point and while still awkward to walk on, they allowed for a much faster/more natural pace. We encountered many people at this point then before, including a surprisingly high number of people going for a full, one-day traverse like us. There were a decent number of four to five way intersections on the way that were confusing but were easily solved with pulling out a map. We passed a group doing a traverse and were moving much faster than them. There were plenty of cool sights on the way that I probably don't remember, but overall this was one of the easier yet more fun stretches of the hike. After a while, we did eventually get to the climb up Jefferson. It wasn't anywhere near as technical as Adams, but still very steep and very tiring. I similarly got exhausted/weak in the middle of the ascent but this time pushed through until the summit without stopping. Unlike Madison and Adams, the summit was slightly off the main trail and I had to take a short detour to get the top. There were a bunch of hikers up there, including some experienced one and I sat and took in the conversation. One guy commented that we were flying, so that felt good I guess.
Next up was Clay, an optional peak that was really just a higher point on the way to Washington. Some of the summits had a bypass option with the main trail (Gulfside) going on a flatter route and a specific spur route that would summit a mountain before returning to the main trail. We took the Mount Clay loop. As a distinguishable summit, there was some climbing but it was more like Madison where the summit felt like it was right there although in reality it was further up. I don't remember there being much difficult terrain in the Clay ascent, nor a steep grade. The ascent actually consisted of a lot of flat rock with the summit being more reminiscent of other Northeast summits and not the jaggedness of Adams or Jefferson.
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| Jefferson, Adams and Madison in background (l-r) |
It was another mile or so to the Washington summit from there, but it was a relatively easy mile. The trail again, was much less technical than what came before with smoother rocks in almost a staircase-like design. There was also grass surrounding the trail in every direction and this climb felt a lot more casual than the difficulty of Adams or Jefferson. The ascent was immediately next to a steep drop off to thousands of feet below. I think I was pretty tired at point and grateful this ascent wasn't too difficult as well as looking forward to summiting and taking a longer lunch break in the mount washington building. About a quarter mile to the summit, the trail actually went over the cog railway. The trail became much more rocky towards the summit but never became all that difficult and soon enough I was nearing the summit. It was covered in fog/cloud and I was afraid the views would be nonexistent but fortunately, the West side was still clear. I wandered around the pavement of the top, passing the long line for the summit sign photo and waited around for the others to catch up (which was a decent while, I got really far ahead). Had various weird lunch items as there weren't many options nor was anything fairly priced. Colby was pretty beat and was considering taking the railway back down, but fortunately he decided to continue. We were there for about an hour, getting food into our systems and filling up on water. Some guy who worked there asked what we were doing and noted that there were thunderstorms in the area soon and advised not continuing. Of course, we did anyway.
Part III: The Second Half
We had come from some tough climbs, and while not without amazing rewards, the first half had taken a toll on me and I was definitely less ready to tackle everything else. My legs were tired, but I knew the mountains in the 2nd half would be lot easier and the descents would help. Crawford Path down to the Lake of the Cloud huts was the easiest trail yet, resembling the stair-like structure of the Mt. Washington ascent to an even greater degree. There was no difficult terrain here, although it was somewhat awkward continually dropping down onto each "step". The sky seemed really clear and certainly not about to thunderstorm. Reached the lake of the clouds hut (which almost certainly should be a pond) and took a bathroom break inside. A ton of people were coming in because of the thunderstorms, but Sebastian and I agreed that we didn't really care and continued on anyway. I think Colby wanted to stay, but we sorta just ignored him.
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| Monroe |
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| "Lake" of the Clouds |
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| Darkening skies |
Not long after leaving the hut behind, the sky darkened and the wind picked up. The Monroe summit was short and easy, I don't remember any challenging terrain. It started to rain on top of Mt. Monroe and I put my camera away there. There weren't a lot of people out anymore. The rain was brief and the sky cleared up again but soon the weather wasn't looking so great. We started to hear lightning strikes in the distance and there were large black clouds coming towards us. It was actually kind of scary as the lightning got a lot closer and well as the cloud. The cloud eventually engulfed us as we ducked next to some rocks for probably 10 minutes and waited it out as it absolutely poured. Unlike Sebastian and Colby, I didn't have a raincoat and got drenched. However, having a change of clothes did the trick and once the cloud passed, I quickly changed and felt fine. We went on for another mile of pretty easy descent, completely failing to note the summit of Franklin because there wasn't really any ascent to get there. The Mount Eisenhower ascent was surprisingly tough and a real shock to my tired legs. It was much more similar to Adams or Jefferson with a short, but steep and technical climb that was pretty tiring. The summit itself was pretty cool and had a flat circular shape to it that would have been perfect for a break. It was pretty windy but the views were still there and the sky was just as clear as before.
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| Eisenhower |
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| Eisenhower Summit |
Tried to keep moving, but my legs were pretty much done after that and the excitement of the views and terrain began to slowly decline. Pierce, like Franklin didn't have much ascent to get to the summit and it was hard to really tell where it was. We slowly began to encounter more green as we got back towards treeline with the views still there, but small trees starting to be next to the trail. We took one final break before going back under the shelter of the trees. The Pierce summit was weirdly below treeline and I didn't know I had hit it until after passing it. The trail leading up to Pierce was pretty soaked and not fun at all to go through.
The last three miles were absolutely brutal as my legs were complete toast but I had no choice to continue. We had to take a slightly longer route to get to pierce instead of continuing on Crawford path. The descent suddenly got really steep again with the trail being comprised of many large boulders. It didn't help that it rained before because everything was really slippery. It started to pour again and I was definitely looking forward to being done. The rocky descent was really tough and slow going. We made a quick stop at the Mizpah hut where we planned to wait out the rain but it was totally full and serving dinner, so we got out there. The rest of the trail wasn't steep but it was enough of a grade that it made aching legs hurt. It became pretty boring and unremarkable. The road eventually seemed so close and I decided not to stop even though my legs hurt so badly. After what seemed like an eternity, I still was a half mile out and finally took a break. There was a short detour for a waterfall which I checked out before taking the last stretch and coming out to the road and into the AMC Crawford Notch center.
The hike was over. It was about 7:30PM. Sebastian called the taxi service (who apparently asked why we didn't just take Uber) who took a whole hour to get there. I went inside and rested on the couch for a while, wet and tired. I didn't have the signal to upload my activity on strava and was worried it wouldn't save. It was still nice outside in a very nice area. I briefly considered going for a short run, but the surrounding trails were way too difficult and my legs would not have liked that. Eventually, the taxi shuttle thing came and brought us back to our start (after stopping at a random gas station and asking if that was where we wanted to get off- "I thought you said Daniel Webster highway, not trailhead. I'm going to have to contact the boss about this". Just a huge pain in the ass. Finally got back to the car in what felt like an eternity later.
The drive home was easily the worst drive of all time. Sebastian and Colby instantly fell asleep while I struggled to keep my sanity. It was a brutal four hours. I probably felt the worst on route 4 and was glad to suddenly get to 95 but started to close my eyes and fall asleep for a second or two while drifting into other lanes. It was a bad time, but I couldn't really check into a hotel as I was pretty strapped for money at the time. There were a bunch of tolls too which was really annoying. I took a long break at the Newton rest area and reenergized myself with coffee and unhealthy McDonalds food. I actually felt great again until getting back to Rhode Island where I struggled to stay awake again. Was so happy to turn off into Westerly. Got back at 2am.
Ranking of Peaks (terrain, views, summit, overall satisfaction): Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Eisenhower, Washington, Monroe, Clay, Franklin (honestly have no idea what this summit is/looks like), Pierce (just rock slab in the forest)
Ranking of Peaks (terrain, views, summit, overall satisfaction): Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Eisenhower, Washington, Monroe, Clay, Franklin (honestly have no idea what this summit is/looks like), Pierce (just rock slab in the forest)
Summary: The Presidential Traverse was amazing. The planning and logistics, with weather issues, taxi problems, and some horrible late night driving were a complete nightmare, but ultimately the point to point hike was everything I hoped for. Some of the trails were mediocre and ultimately not that enjoyable, and the wetness and heat didn't help with that. However, this was just a small portion of the hike and the majority of it, the above treeline hiking was incredible. Being up so high and being able to see these massive mountains as well as the ground way below was amazing and experiencing all the difficult and extremely technical terrain was a real delight as well. While I definitely was hurting at the end, the challenge was perfect. I did something many times harder than I ever had and had many, many moments of fatigue but never felt like it was too much. The Traverse brought the best views, terrain, elevation and challenge into any activity I've ever done. This is by far the best hike I've ever done and certainly a groundbreaking one at that.
High Point #5- Mt. Mansfield, Vermont (4,393 feet)
Tuesday, July 17th, 2018 (10:54 AM)
Strava activity- 9.2 miles, 4hrs 45 min, 3900 ft elevation gain
The next trip was bit longer, with challenging but much easier hikes. I ended up going with Matt Brissette on this one, who had I gone on a hike in MA with back in May. The plan was to drive up to Vermont that Monday, get the VT high point Tuesday morning then the NY highpoint Wednesday morning. Planned the trip pretty last minute and booked a campsite at Smuggler's Notch State Park (2-night minimum, so had to pay double despite staying one night). Got a bunch of supplies at Walmart in Waterford before heading up for an enjoyable drive to Kilington, VT, where we did pretty much all the adventure-pass activities, ranging from the very lame (tubes) to very cool (zipline, mountain coaster, ropes course). A bit of a money sucker, but worth it overall. However, I'm pretty terrible at planning and sticking to a schedule and that took the majority of the time that evening. Ended up having to bail on a camel's hump hike/run which I was disappointed about, but we did go the Cabot store in Waterbury which had amazing cheese sampling before swimming in Waterbury Reservoir State Park, which was somewhat fun but the water and the mud at the bottom felt really gross (and the park charged to get in). Got to the campground pretty late, bought a bundle of firewood. Didn't have much time to set up, and hadn't even gone for my run yet. Ended up running at like 9pm or something like that, and it got so dark that I ended up just doing 4 miles. Insanely hilly in every direction as well, got 800ft gain. Dinner was kinda rough that night as campfire hours were over by the time I was back/set up. It was also really difficult to go back to the car in the night as the campsite was like a tenth of a mile away from the parking, with a short trail to get to the campsite. Besides the run, dinner and darkness issue, there were bear warnings in the area, it was really hot/hard to sleep and there were bugs everywhere (none in the tent, but everywhere else). Definitely not a great experience.
Slept in pretty late (9 or 10ish) and then continued to sleep/lay awake because it was pouring out until 11. Ate breakfast and got going on the hike super late at like 11:30. The one nice thing about it was that we could hike directly from the campsite and the 2-night minimum didn't require us to pack up just yet. Walked on the road a little before taking the Houghton trail, a half mile long pretty flat and boring trail leading out to the Stowe ski resort. The next half mile was pleasant, a slight downhill on gravel service/ski roads with better views and clear skies. We made a turn onto our first real trail, the Haselton trail after that. The Haselton trail was what got the hike really going. It was probably an average 20% grade on steep and rocky singletrack through the forest, which was definitely pretty tiring. It was hot and humid out and now that I was exerting a pretty good effort, I got really sweaty and took my shirt off. There also was just about nobody else on the trail (probably because I took my shirt off). This trail was only a little over a mile in the wooded portion, but a long and tiring one at that. There wasn't much break in the climbing at all and we gained about 1,500 ft before exiting the woods onto a grass ski slope again.
It was nice making progress towards the top of the mountain and first views started to come into sight. However, moving out of the woods got rid of the shade and it was suddenly brutally hot and exposed. The grade got even steeper on these ski slopes/gravel roads but it wasn't technical at all. Halfway up on the grass section, we saw a wooden stand with a guy standing behind, and it was quite a pleasant surprise to see that he was giving out free, ice cold and delicious lemonade. One of the strangest yet coolest encounters I've had hiking. He said he hadn't seen many other hikers as well and I talked to him briefly about other peaks. He took a photo of us and I ended up finding it on the merrell magic website later.
We continued on the service roads which brought us to the toll/auto road and we walked about a half mile on that which was pretty boring. The road doesn't actually go the top of mountain and ended in a parking lot where the long trail picked up. There's also a gondola that goes near, but not all the way to the summit. There was a cool information center building at the top that I made a quick stop in. The rest of the hike to the summit was pretty awesome from there. The long trail went mostly on open, exposed slab of rock. It was mostly a gradual grade to the summit and the rock was pretty even and flat, so it was just an enjoyable easy trek. The sky was clear and being further up it was no longer that hot and with panoramic and beautiful views in every direction, this was definitely the most enjoyable portion of the hike. It was a pretty easy final summit without any of the suddenly tough climbs I had encountered in the presidentials. There was a ranger eating lunch at the top who asked us which trails we came from, and I was mildly annoyed she had no idea what the houghton trail and looked at me like I was a complete idiot/had no idea what I was talking about.
Took in a minute to soak in the views before beginning the descent. We continued on, descending the other direction of the of the long trail. Unlike the final ascent, the descent was immediately steep and very technical, including some hands on rock scrambling. This was enjoyable, although its always much harder/out of control to go down instead of up. The trail quickly went back into the forest and the trail remained steep and rocky throughout. In a little over two miles, I had dropped 3000 feet in what felt like a long and exhausting time, coming out to a road. Waited up for Matt there before walking back on the road to the ski resort, walking back through the service roads and back on the houghton trail to smuggler's notch. It was actually really difficult to spot the trail coming from the other direction and it took some wandering out/backtracking to eventually get on. By the time we came out it was already 4pm, way longer than I had anticipated and we needed to get a move on. Packed up really quick, took a shower and unfortunately plans for camels hump or a local fun run were both scrapped due to the lack of time. We were in Burlington around 7pm and I decided to go for my run there, knowing I'd get to the campsite really late either way. My legs were exhausted but I enjoyed being on the Burlington bike path with incredible views of Lake Champlain. Despite being tired too, I made it progressive and dropped a bunch of low 6s/high 5s at the end.
It got dark driving over pretty soon. Google maps showed to get on a ferry which seemed really weird to me (apparently its totally normal, cheap and simple i just didn't want the hassle of figuring that out at the time) so I took an extra half hour detour south. Eventually crossed into the NY border, and I'll leave that for my Mt. Marcy/NY Portion of the post. To be continued...
Summary: Mt. Mansfield certainly had some sections of uninteresting terrain that felt like a slog, but I guess that depends on what route you take. The Haselton trail was surprisingly tough and the Long trail up to the summit was surprisingly easy and offered phenomenal views. However outside the mile and a half leading to the summit and the quarter mile after it the terrain or views were mostly unremarkable. I know this is for the specific hike I did, but only half an hour of the hike was really amazing. Overall it was a good hike with phenomenal views, but I certainly would have liked more challenging rock terrain/ascents for a longer portion of it. It's a bit too easy for the views that are offered, whereas the presidentials made you work for those views. This is probably middle of the road in these rankings. The incredible views and decent elevation profile put it above any of the first three but the lack of really challenging terrain ensures that it never really competes with the Presidential Traverse. A recommend, but there are almost certainly better hikes out there.
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| Cabot Creamery |
Slept in pretty late (9 or 10ish) and then continued to sleep/lay awake because it was pouring out until 11. Ate breakfast and got going on the hike super late at like 11:30. The one nice thing about it was that we could hike directly from the campsite and the 2-night minimum didn't require us to pack up just yet. Walked on the road a little before taking the Houghton trail, a half mile long pretty flat and boring trail leading out to the Stowe ski resort. The next half mile was pleasant, a slight downhill on gravel service/ski roads with better views and clear skies. We made a turn onto our first real trail, the Haselton trail after that. The Haselton trail was what got the hike really going. It was probably an average 20% grade on steep and rocky singletrack through the forest, which was definitely pretty tiring. It was hot and humid out and now that I was exerting a pretty good effort, I got really sweaty and took my shirt off. There also was just about nobody else on the trail (probably because I took my shirt off). This trail was only a little over a mile in the wooded portion, but a long and tiring one at that. There wasn't much break in the climbing at all and we gained about 1,500 ft before exiting the woods onto a grass ski slope again.
It was nice making progress towards the top of the mountain and first views started to come into sight. However, moving out of the woods got rid of the shade and it was suddenly brutally hot and exposed. The grade got even steeper on these ski slopes/gravel roads but it wasn't technical at all. Halfway up on the grass section, we saw a wooden stand with a guy standing behind, and it was quite a pleasant surprise to see that he was giving out free, ice cold and delicious lemonade. One of the strangest yet coolest encounters I've had hiking. He said he hadn't seen many other hikers as well and I talked to him briefly about other peaks. He took a photo of us and I ended up finding it on the merrell magic website later.
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| Lemonade Stand below |
Took in a minute to soak in the views before beginning the descent. We continued on, descending the other direction of the of the long trail. Unlike the final ascent, the descent was immediately steep and very technical, including some hands on rock scrambling. This was enjoyable, although its always much harder/out of control to go down instead of up. The trail quickly went back into the forest and the trail remained steep and rocky throughout. In a little over two miles, I had dropped 3000 feet in what felt like a long and exhausting time, coming out to a road. Waited up for Matt there before walking back on the road to the ski resort, walking back through the service roads and back on the houghton trail to smuggler's notch. It was actually really difficult to spot the trail coming from the other direction and it took some wandering out/backtracking to eventually get on. By the time we came out it was already 4pm, way longer than I had anticipated and we needed to get a move on. Packed up really quick, took a shower and unfortunately plans for camels hump or a local fun run were both scrapped due to the lack of time. We were in Burlington around 7pm and I decided to go for my run there, knowing I'd get to the campsite really late either way. My legs were exhausted but I enjoyed being on the Burlington bike path with incredible views of Lake Champlain. Despite being tired too, I made it progressive and dropped a bunch of low 6s/high 5s at the end.
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| Base of Mansfield, Stowe Resort |
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| Lake Champlain at Sunset |
It got dark driving over pretty soon. Google maps showed to get on a ferry which seemed really weird to me (apparently its totally normal, cheap and simple i just didn't want the hassle of figuring that out at the time) so I took an extra half hour detour south. Eventually crossed into the NY border, and I'll leave that for my Mt. Marcy/NY Portion of the post. To be continued...
Summary: Mt. Mansfield certainly had some sections of uninteresting terrain that felt like a slog, but I guess that depends on what route you take. The Haselton trail was surprisingly tough and the Long trail up to the summit was surprisingly easy and offered phenomenal views. However outside the mile and a half leading to the summit and the quarter mile after it the terrain or views were mostly unremarkable. I know this is for the specific hike I did, but only half an hour of the hike was really amazing. Overall it was a good hike with phenomenal views, but I certainly would have liked more challenging rock terrain/ascents for a longer portion of it. It's a bit too easy for the views that are offered, whereas the presidentials made you work for those views. This is probably middle of the road in these rankings. The incredible views and decent elevation profile put it above any of the first three but the lack of really challenging terrain ensures that it never really competes with the Presidential Traverse. A recommend, but there are almost certainly better hikes out there.
High Point #6- Mt. Marcy, New York (5,344 feet)
Wednesday, July 18th, 2018 (12:39 PM)
Strava Activity- 14 miles, 6 hours, 3400 ft elevation gain (watch died at 11, so strava only shows to that point)
Continuing from the NY border, it was about 9pm and we still had 2 hours to drive, which wasn't that fun in dark and rural upstate NY. Our campsite/the adirondack high peaks were actually a decent ways inland. The area was so rural my phone completely lost signal in a few spots which was somewhat scary as we were relying on it to navigate but fortunately it would always come back. Got to the campground at 11pm which was kinda weird because everyone was sleeping and check in was closed. Fortunately, the confirmation email showed our site # so I just headed over. It was a real pain to set up in the dark and we definitely treaded the line between trying to be as quiet as possible and making a lot of noise to set up. Our air mattresses were comfortable at night, but not convenient in this situation where we had to use loud pumps to inflate them. Additionally, we kept the car's headlights on to be able to see. It wasn't pretty and I was nervous the whole time, but we eventually got it done and went to sleep. On the bright side, this campsite didn't require a .1 mile trek to get to the campsite and the campsite itself was pretty big. It was also a lot easier to sleep as the temps were much, much cooler.
Woke up around 8 and went for an 8-mile run. I planned to get up early, but was pretty exhausted from the previous day's activity. Was also sluggish on the run and took a pretty boring out and back route to nearby Saranac Lake (and I ran by a prison). Went to check in afterwards (kind of a weird concept doing that as I'm about to leave). Found some girl vaping outside the visitor center and wasn't too thrilled when I found out that was the park ranger who was going to check me in. I had bought the trail map for Mt. Mansfield at the smuggler's notch visitor center the day before but here there were none available for Marcy. Bought some firewood and ate a pretty weird breakfast but the least rushed meal and mot enjoyable so far. Took an ice cold shower after, no hot water.
Didn't really make the checkout time (10ish?, maybe 11) but no one really seemed to care. Headed into town (Lake Placid) to buy some drinks/snacks for the hike. Ended up getting a couple of cliff bars, chex mix and 6 waters (3 each) at a gas station. We stopped at some local bike/hike shop before and bought a trail map where we were about to buy gatorade before being weirdly scolded that the gatorades we were going to buy weren't going to be enough for such a hard hike. I had looked at the trail before and was going to do an out and back on the main blue trail (not sure if it had an actual name) which for some reason I thought was 7 miles based on a strava FKT/activity. It turns out that was one way and after looking at the map, the hike was a full 14 miles. I tried to look at other ways around this but there really weren't any more convenient/shorter routes. This was definitely a bummer as both of us were pretty tired and expecting a moderate, 3 hour hike but now it would be much longer/tougher.
Got to the adirondack loj (not sure what it is entirely, other than some center/parking lot for hiking). As we went in past the booth (I think parking was $10), the person in there asked what we had planned as since it was already past noon and suggested we turn around early and not attempt the whole thing. Its funny how "average" hikers are expected to be so slow and capable of so little. In the majority of hiking, I pass just about everyone else. Got super lucky finding what seemed like the only parking spot left after driving around for 5 minutes. Got over to the trailhead and begun the hike.
There was a trail register at the trailhead which was a neat feature. As opposed to the constantly varied terrain of the some of the previous hikes Marcy was more or less than same for many miles. The first two miles were interesting as they were really easy. We were actually under 20 minutes for both miles which is pretty fast for hiking (at least I think so, I don't really know what I'm talking about). They basically were flat (200ft gain over the entire 2 miles) wide dirt path in the middle of dense forest. About 2 miles in, we came out to a dam which many people commented as their destination on the trail register. It was pretty cool and there was a cold and flowing river with a bridge crossing over it.
The next 5 miles to the summit would be the majority of the climbing and while it never got really steep until the last half mile, the constant 10-20% grade was hard enough. There were plenty of large rocks as part of the trail similar to Haselton which made the climbs difficult. This wasn't the entire way though and there were some breaks in the climbing and technical terrain to give a little break. I don't have a lot to say about this section, I actually didn't film anything from the dam to breaking treeline and I can't really remember all that much either about it. We focused on continuing to move forward to make the 14 miles seem as short as possible. Around 5 miles in, I suddenly got really weak and had a tough time from there forward. It was unlike anything I had experienced hiking where I usually get gradually more tired both energy-wise and physically in my legs. Here, it was similar to blowing up in a race and suddenly having no energy and having such a hard time just continuing. It took like 6.5 miles to finally get above treeline which was much more than expected and honestly why the hike wasn't all that memorable. The grades got really steep in the last half mile. The terrain wasn't technical at all with the open, exposed slabs of rocks like many other mountains but this was a pretty steep grade and I had to mentally focus to get through it. Eventually we summited and there were a lot of people there. It was pretty cold at the top but the views were amazing. The adirondacks felt much more wilderness-like than the green mountains or whites but also just look a little different in shape and coloration. Took a break there to eat a snack and drink some water before heading back down.
The way down was so long, so boring (I've also never done 7 miles of straight ascent/descent before)
and definitely exhausting. I quickly regained energy and felt a lot more like myself which was good because it wouldn't have been pretty had I continued to feel like that for the entire descent. I guess I just need to get some food into me, which I definitely did not have enough of. After what felt like an eternity of jumping/stepping down on large rocks and absolutely destroying my knees we got back to flat ground. At that point I couldn't really enjoy it though as my legs were dead tired. We had kept a pretty fast pace and eventually Matt just got ahead and having fallen back, I took a minute break or so and got some water. The next two miles, despite being flat were pretty brutal. Got back to the car for a 4.5 hour drive home. While I was tired, I actually never had a problem because we talked the whole time as opposed to Colby and Sebastian going right to sleep. That, interestingly enough kept me alert through the whole ride. Got home at 2am and unpacked everything for another 2 hours (or at least I think it was 2 hours, that seems really long but I don't remember).
Summary: Mt. Marcy was a bit of a disappointment. The Presidential Traverse was an incredible experience and even Mt. Mansfield wasn't bad but this one felt like a chore. And that pretty much had to do with the excessive length out and back after coming off a hike from the previous day. I don't hate below-treeline hiking but definitely live for above-treeline stuff and in a 6-hour hike it's pretty disappointing to be above treeline for less than an hour. I don't have anything against the terrain and the views up top were amazing, but there was just way too much of the same, unexciting stuff. As a one and done, this hike works to get to NY's highest peak but I imagine there are many better hikes out there. I really can't see myself ever wanting to do this exact hike again and it would be difficult to recommend to a non-highpointer.
High Point #7- Mt. Frissell South Slope, Connecticut (2,380ft)
Monday, July 23th, 2018 (11:46AM)
Strava activity- 2.5 miles, 1.5 hours, 900ft elevation gain
Like Mt. Greylock, this was a 3 hour drive to a very rural area. This was also a return to smaller, shorter hikes after some big ones further north. Mt. Frissell South Slope is interesting because it's not actually a summit (summit of Mt. Frissell is in MA) but it is taller than the highest summit in CT, bear mountain. There's a couple other high points close to their state borders that are like this. On this hike, it meant I was crossing into Massachusetts frequently without ever really knowing it. I ended up having a free day from work and saw an opportunity to take a day off from running, so I had the time to go and get this one. I definitely felt like this one was more chore-like and I wasn't particularly looking forward to it, especially with 6+ hours driving on the day. I got my friend Frank to go with me which definitely helped break up the long drive. Like Greylock we started on highways but got more and more rural and even got onto some dirt roads. Got to a very small parking lot, parked and began.
Found the red blaze and got going. Similar to NJ, there wasn't much elevation gain at first and the trail was mostly flat dirt single-track with some rocks in there. It had rained before and there was some on/off rain during the hikes and the terrain was pretty wet. This wasn't a problem at first on dirt, but when we got to rockier terrain, it made everything very slippery. Found a cool orange salamander on the trail. After a quarter mile, the terrain suddenly became rocky and steep. It was never technical, just the flat slabs or rock seen on many other trails. The grade actually got up to the 20-30% range, so for a quarter mile, there was about 300ft of climbing on the steep rock. This wouldn't be too difficult, but the wetness of everything made it somewhat slippery and slow going. The climbing leveled off as soon as we came out to an open rock area where the summit of Round Mountain (CT) lied, marked by nothing more than a cairn. It was really foggy out and there were no views to be had whatsoever.
Continued on following the red blazes and started to notice how overgrown a lot of the trail was, which was made even more annoying as all the plants were soaked and I'd constantly have water running down my legs. We encountered one human on the trail, who suggested to also get the Mt. Frissell summit and not just the high point which was just off the trail. There was another short section of steep climbing before coming to an intersection. Just 50 or so meters to the right lied the summit of Mt. Frissell (MA), viewless and surrounded by trees. It was actually marked by a laminated sign with a register below that I signed. I noted that the other signature from today, the guy who we had passed before, had written that he had completed the Seven Summits and was working towards the 50 high points which was pretty cool.
When we got back the guy from before was there and invited us into his camper across the street. I probably wouldn't have felt comfortable going in myself, but Frank went in first and I didn't want him to get murdered or raped. Worst case scenario, it'd still be 2 against 1. (obviously joking, but what's the right thing to do here? The guy seems like another friendly hiker, but at the same time it doesnt seem right to get in a vehicle with a complete stranger). The guy actually ended up being pretty nice and offered us drinks and said if we wanted, he would talk at our respective universities. He gave me a business card as well. Got out there and made a quick stop at nearby Bash Bish falls which was a really cool waterfall and the trail to get there was a steep and technical downhill for a half mile. It was raining pretty hard, so we didn't stay and made the 3-hour drive back to Westerly.
Summary: This was definitely one of the less exciting and unremarkable hikes I went on, especially coming off three big mountains. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere and isn't all that fun to get. The views were still solid and the terrain fun and challenging in its own way, although the overgrown trails are pretty unacceptable and going on a rainy day obviously didn't add to the experience. This is a perfectly okay walk/hike but is so short, it can't really compete with most other high points. It's certainly in a nice area that is worth checking out but overall another one that is hard to recommend if not going for the high point.
Found the red blaze and got going. Similar to NJ, there wasn't much elevation gain at first and the trail was mostly flat dirt single-track with some rocks in there. It had rained before and there was some on/off rain during the hikes and the terrain was pretty wet. This wasn't a problem at first on dirt, but when we got to rockier terrain, it made everything very slippery. Found a cool orange salamander on the trail. After a quarter mile, the terrain suddenly became rocky and steep. It was never technical, just the flat slabs or rock seen on many other trails. The grade actually got up to the 20-30% range, so for a quarter mile, there was about 300ft of climbing on the steep rock. This wouldn't be too difficult, but the wetness of everything made it somewhat slippery and slow going. The climbing leveled off as soon as we came out to an open rock area where the summit of Round Mountain (CT) lied, marked by nothing more than a cairn. It was really foggy out and there were no views to be had whatsoever.
Continued on following the red blazes and started to notice how overgrown a lot of the trail was, which was made even more annoying as all the plants were soaked and I'd constantly have water running down my legs. We encountered one human on the trail, who suggested to also get the Mt. Frissell summit and not just the high point which was just off the trail. There was another short section of steep climbing before coming to an intersection. Just 50 or so meters to the right lied the summit of Mt. Frissell (MA), viewless and surrounded by trees. It was actually marked by a laminated sign with a register below that I signed. I noted that the other signature from today, the guy who we had passed before, had written that he had completed the Seven Summits and was working towards the 50 high points which was pretty cool.
Backtracked a little and headed (down) to the highpoint. The fog was slowly starting to clear and the views were surprisingly pretty good. To be fair, they were probably the worst views after Jerimoth Hill of all the high points but they were still pretty and it was nice to see the forested hills (really mountains, just much smaller ones without rocky summits) nearby. There was a nice viewpoint for this and shortly after we came upon the highpoint, marked by a cairn itself. There was also a MA/CT border line sign and if we had continued on the trail for maybe another half mile, we would have gotten to the NY/MA/CT tri-state point. I was feeling pretty tired/weak and wanted to get back as soon as possible and didn't really need anymore wet, overgrown terrain. The way back was pretty unremarkable although getting down some of the steeper stuff was a bit difficult.
When we got back the guy from before was there and invited us into his camper across the street. I probably wouldn't have felt comfortable going in myself, but Frank went in first and I didn't want him to get murdered or raped. Worst case scenario, it'd still be 2 against 1. (obviously joking, but what's the right thing to do here? The guy seems like another friendly hiker, but at the same time it doesnt seem right to get in a vehicle with a complete stranger). The guy actually ended up being pretty nice and offered us drinks and said if we wanted, he would talk at our respective universities. He gave me a business card as well. Got out there and made a quick stop at nearby Bash Bish falls which was a really cool waterfall and the trail to get there was a steep and technical downhill for a half mile. It was raining pretty hard, so we didn't stay and made the 3-hour drive back to Westerly.
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| Bash Bish Falls |
Summary: This was definitely one of the less exciting and unremarkable hikes I went on, especially coming off three big mountains. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere and isn't all that fun to get. The views were still solid and the terrain fun and challenging in its own way, although the overgrown trails are pretty unacceptable and going on a rainy day obviously didn't add to the experience. This is a perfectly okay walk/hike but is so short, it can't really compete with most other high points. It's certainly in a nice area that is worth checking out but overall another one that is hard to recommend if not going for the high point.
High Point #8- Mt. Katahdin, Maine (5,267 ft)
Wednesday, August 1st, 2018 (7:22 AM)
Strava activity- 11 miles, 8 hours, 3900ft elevation gain (Part 2 here)
I ended up running out of friends to have anyone to go to Maine with me, so that became the family trip for the year. We started with two days in Camden before heading up to the very rural Baxter State park. While I was disappointed a trip with friends didn't pan out, a huge advantage with going with my parents was that I didn't have to drive (or pay for anything) and after all the driving I had done for the other high points, that was definitely a relief. We camped out at Abol campground, getting pretty lucky scoring a last minute campsite. The campsite was so bare of amenities which was a cool and more wilderness/survival like feeling but at the same time a little much. Stayed in a lean-to which I thought would be weird and I would be eaten alive by bugs but it ended up being very comfortable.
The main trailhead for hiking Katahdin is at Roaring brook, so we had an early wakeup and drove over on slow dirt roads. Saw a moose on the way over, I feel like that's common but it was cool. Got to the huge dirt parking lot and started the hike, signing off on the trail register. Our route was a fairly common but difficult one. Start on helon taylor trail, take that to Pamola peak then take the 1.1 mile brutal difficult/insanely technical Knife's Edge trail over to Baxter peak, the main peak before descending on Saddle (hard/steep) and Chimney Pond (much more gradual).
Got going on the hike as it could certainly be a long one. It was little harder to keep a consistent pace as I had continually wait up for my company and I found that my rate of hiking was significantly slower than usually. I generally got far, far ahead before stopping for long breaks. The initial trail was rather easy, wide and not very technical. I do like a hike that starts out this way and the first part almost serves as a kind of warmup. It was a quarter mile to the junction of Helon Taylor and Chimney Pond and turning onto the Helon Trail did mark some increase in difficulty although it wasn't until over a mile in that the steepness and technical factor became quite difficult.
I remember almost nothing of the below-treeline ascent. It was pretty uneventful and I got pretty far ahead, determined to move along at a good pace. The trail was a steady 20% grade or so, but the real challenge was large boulders in the middle of the trail that required careful use of all four limbs. There were a decent number of rock obstacles and I would say the helon taylor trail was surprisingly difficult. Around 2.5 miles, I got past treeline and the views behind were pretty spectacular, just miles and miles of the Maine wilderness. Up to this point, I had been pestered by bugs, heat and constantly having to pass/getting stuck behind people then getting repassed but fortunately most of that ended here.
The hike to Pamola peak, while still steep and with plenty of rocks was fairly easy. Except for a few spots, the placements of rock was pretty to get around/through and there wasn't much of a challenge overall. There was some more trail through trees but eventually the trees stopped and there was only exposed rock ahead. The last mile or so of trail was all pretty much the same and it seemed to take forever to get to the summit. The surrounding terrain was pretty similar to that of the whites- lots of rocks and grass everywhere. The view instantly changed at the top of Pamola peak with the entire ridgeline of the Knife's Edge trail coming into view, trading the rocky and grass alpine views for those of only steep and jagged rock ahead. The views were probably best here and were pretty unique as opposed to the pretty similar feeling of the ascent. I did the first part of my video up to this point:
Got going on the hike as it could certainly be a long one. It was little harder to keep a consistent pace as I had continually wait up for my company and I found that my rate of hiking was significantly slower than usually. I generally got far, far ahead before stopping for long breaks. The initial trail was rather easy, wide and not very technical. I do like a hike that starts out this way and the first part almost serves as a kind of warmup. It was a quarter mile to the junction of Helon Taylor and Chimney Pond and turning onto the Helon Trail did mark some increase in difficulty although it wasn't until over a mile in that the steepness and technical factor became quite difficult.
I remember almost nothing of the below-treeline ascent. It was pretty uneventful and I got pretty far ahead, determined to move along at a good pace. The trail was a steady 20% grade or so, but the real challenge was large boulders in the middle of the trail that required careful use of all four limbs. There were a decent number of rock obstacles and I would say the helon taylor trail was surprisingly difficult. Around 2.5 miles, I got past treeline and the views behind were pretty spectacular, just miles and miles of the Maine wilderness. Up to this point, I had been pestered by bugs, heat and constantly having to pass/getting stuck behind people then getting repassed but fortunately most of that ended here.
The hike to Pamola peak, while still steep and with plenty of rocks was fairly easy. Except for a few spots, the placements of rock was pretty to get around/through and there wasn't much of a challenge overall. There was some more trail through trees but eventually the trees stopped and there was only exposed rock ahead. The last mile or so of trail was all pretty much the same and it seemed to take forever to get to the summit. The surrounding terrain was pretty similar to that of the whites- lots of rocks and grass everywhere. The view instantly changed at the top of Pamola peak with the entire ridgeline of the Knife's Edge trail coming into view, trading the rocky and grass alpine views for those of only steep and jagged rock ahead. The views were probably best here and were pretty unique as opposed to the pretty similar feeling of the ascent. I did the first part of my video up to this point:
The Knife's Edge was only a mile long but was quite the experience. The terrain instantly switched to only large, jagged rock with no grass or dirt anywhere nearby. While the jagged rock was frequent on the presidental traverse, this rock was much pointer and more difficult to walk on, making for a very slow moving final ascent. Immediately there was a large drop followed by an ascent that is hard to describe but certainly involved both hands and feet. It's actually pretty hard to describe most of the trail, but it continued on as extremely technical and truly felt like the edge of a knife. There weren't a lot of sudden drops but the entire time, it remained very hard to walk on, slow moving and never far from the edge of a steep drop off. I passed a couple of people, but mostly when they would move to the side because it would be difficult to pass otherwise. The end became less exciting and was just a final little climb to Baxter with even more rocks to have to step around/avoid. I totally wiped out at one point which definitely hurt. Got to the summit which was very crowded. Like the preceding trail and like mount adams, it was a very rocky/jagged summit rather than the flat slabs of rocks of others. I waited up for a while, had a little to eat, got some cool photos of the Katahdin sign (which is among the best summit signs I've seen in hikes). There were a couple of interesting groups, including one guy who had just completed the Appalachian trail and some surprisingly very young kids. I took a video of much of the knife's edge that shows off the terrain pretty well, certainly much better than I can describe it.
The initial descent down was very easy, neither steep nor very technical. The terrain once again felt very much like the whites, and felt similar to some section of the Traverse. The views were stunning here as well. The next turn was onto the saddle trail, which was instantly insanely steep and very slow going due to that. It wasn't technical but had a lot of gravel/sand which made slipping pretty easy. This was a short section but had a grade probably over 40%. Once we got past that, it was pretty easy from there on out. I had a quick PM issue immediately after that and was unable to get into the forest due to how dense the trees were. Filled my water bottle with ice cold stream water (I know you're not supposed to unless you have the materials to clean it, but it seemed clean enough) and soaked my feet as it was a pretty hot day.
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| Brutal descent on Saddle. |
It was around here that my watch was showing low battery and I kept the rest of the activity on my phone. My watch battery is pretty poor and I'm thinking about getting a new one that can support longer hikes as my phone's GPS data can be a little messed high in the mountains (I did the same thing on Marcy and when i looked at the phone data it had gone completely haywire and showed 70 miles with the map going crazy). Got to chimney pond campsite and checked that out for a little bit including chimney pond itself before moving. The rest of the hike was fairly similar to other descents after that. Tired and wanting to be done and without steep or technical terrain but enough to both that the legs were still taking a beating. The alpine forest was still pretty cool though and I enjoyed being in that. Took a little detour to another pond/lake before trudging on for a pretty boring last couple miles. Finished up around 2 and was grateful for the first time in any highpoint not to drive afterwards.
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| Chimney Pond |
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| Basin Pond. |
Summary: Katahdin isn't a super special hike on the surface, but there are a couple factors that push it ahead to be the second best high point/hike I've done. Most of it is no different from many other New England/Northeast peaks- difficult, steep terrain with great views but what really sets it apart is the knife's edge trail, easily the most brutally technical trail I've done and completely different from possibly anything on any Northeast hike. It's difficult but a blast to hike on that kind of terrain and adds quite a bit to the hike. I imagine a hike up Katahdin not using the Knife's edge would be enjoyable/worthwhile but add nothing extra seen in a typical Northern new england mountain. Additionally, being so far north the trees/overall scenery did feel more tundra/alpine like which was pretty cool and it was definitely enjoyable being in the Maine wilderness. Katahdin is so far out of the way it isn't something that can likely be done often, but it certainly a must-do at least once.
High Points Wrap-Up/Rankings
Essentially over the course of five months, mostly from late june-early august, I confirmed and got going on a big goal of mine and brought hiking into my life in a big way. Despite some decline in running success, this was a really fun endeavor to take on and I feel that completing all 8 was a big accomplishment, especially with my limited hiking experience in the past. I'm certainly still no hiking expert and probably appear like a rookie, but now have essential experience planning and completing some moderate hikes in the Northeast.While there were plenty of difficult miles in there, it wasn't the hiking itself that presented a challenge (although it will in the future) but rather the planning around getting to and completing each of them. I ended up doing a lot of the planning pretty last minute, but fortunately it all worked out for the best. The one thing I didn't like was the tired driving. Through the 7 high points and 6 trips (NY-VT were merged, I didn't have to drive in ME), I drove about 45 hours total and I'm sure at least of a third of that I was ready to die.
This was a bit of a money suck, but it was well worth it. Overall besides the driving, I have no complaints. I had several epic experiences, a few pretty good ones and a few mediocre ones as well. But the feat of having these 8 behind my back feels pretty good and gets me excited for more.
It's unfair to rank the high points exactly (variety of routes and conditions), note that in the rankings below I am ranking based on my personal hikes/experiences as recapped above in several categories. Each is ranked worst to best, with a worse ranking getting a higher number (ex. 8 is the worst/easiest ranking, 1 is the best/hardest).
Views
8. Jerimoth Hill
7. Mt. Greylock
6. Mt. Frissell South Slope
5. High Point
4. Mt. Mansfield
3. Mt. Marcy
2. Mt. Katahdin
1. Mt. Washington/Presi Traverse
Terrain
8. Jerimoth Hill
7. Mt. Greylock
6. High Point
5. Mt. Frissell South Slope
4. Mt. Marcy
3. Mt. Mansfield
2. Mt. Katahdin
1. Mt. Washington/Presi Traverse
Notes: If for best terrain among any part of the trail, the Knife's Edge would take this one, but the quantity of the terrain over the hike gives The Presidential Traverse the easy win.
Difficulty
8. Jerimoth Hill
7. High Point
6. Mt. Frissell South Slope
5. Mt. Greylock
4. Mt. Mansfield
3. Mt. Katahdin
2. Mt. Marcy
1. Mt. Washington/Presi Traverse
Youtube Videos
8. Jerimoth Hill
7. Mt. Frissell South Slope
6. High Point
5. Mt. Washington/Presi Traverse
4. Mt. Katahdin
3. Mt. Greylock
2. Mt. Marcy
1. Mt. Mansfield
Notes: 3-6 can definitely be interchanged, 4-5 have better shots being on nice mountains and with the gopro but I feel like the greylock video is just a much more concise/trimmed down vlog of the hike whereas 4-5 are obviously way too long and 5 is pretty shaky. High point is a decent but okay video, just not much to show. Frissell isnt very exciting and jerimoth hill is very blurry. The two I'm happy with are Marcy and Mansfield, especially Mansfield. They're much more trimmed down and there's a lot less raw/tedious hiking while still having plenty of beautiful shots.
Overall
8. Jerimoth Hill
7. Mt. Greylock
6. Mt. Frissell South Slope
5. High Point
4. Mt. Marcy
3. Mt. Mansfield
2. Mt. Katahdin
1. Mt. Washington/Presi Traverse
Notes: I would probably only do the Presidential Traverse again, due to just how many mountains there are out there.
Other Hikes/Runs
The highpoints made up the majority of my mountain/trail adventures for the year but I still did do a decent amount of other adventures. This is a highpoint recap, so there won't be full recaps for any of these.Mt. Tom (MA), May: Mt. Tom was a mostly easy 7 mile hike designed for a fun weekend activity. There wasn't a lot of challenge but the views were surprisingly really nice and a good portion of the hike took place on a ridgeline with very fun, technical terrain. Definitely a great small hike, only disappointment was the summit which was covered with radio towers and fences. (w/Frank and Matt)
Castle Craig (CT), June: A very difficult but fun run up East and West Peak in Meriden. Brutal, insanely technical climbs that were honestly a complete blast. The views in Western CT are always going to be of roads and buildings but if you looked the other direction, they weren't half bad.
Breakneck Ridge (NY), June: A short but pretty awesome hike with amazing views of the Hudson river and nearby Hudson Highlands. One brutally difficult and insanely technical mile of rock scrambling (1k feet elevation gain), a lot of fun.
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| Storm King Mountain, across the Hudson. A peak for another day... |
Talcott Mountain (CT), July: Enjoyable and challenging run in CT state parks. Had fun on the rocky, rolling terrain of Penwood State Park and while Talcott was a little more boring in comparison, the Hueblein Tower a the top was really cool. One of the best trail runs I've been on.
Camden Hills (ME), July: First day up to the top of Mount Battie auto road and back, fun with pretty great views. Second day, a brutal and hot ascent up Megunticook, later smashed my knee into a rock garden. Not so fun.
Acadia National Park (ME), August: 3 short and amazing hikes, easily a "bang for your buck" kind of thing. Packed a lot of fun terrain and views of the Atlantic on par with some of the better highpoints in just under an hour. Lots of fun scrambling on rock and iron rungs. Beehive, Precipice Trail and Beech Mountain. Love this place, want to attempt to get every peak here sometime in the future.
2019 Plans
I naturally want to continue my high point progress through this year, but now have the added challenge of everything being much, much further away now. With the eastern states being smaller and more compact and with the Appalachians running in a line, the highpoint of about 10 southern states line up very well as I just have to follow the Appalachians rather than go to extreme points of any state. At the same time, this makes for a one trip scenario- either go and get all of the highpoints in that range or none. If I were to get say 5 of them, I'd be only 2-3 hours away from the next one whereas the drive home will be 12+ hours. And each one is located so close to each other, I'd be wasting a lot of time if I were to make a separate trip later.
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| Eastern High Points on google maps- note that many of them line up well |
So, my 2019 highpoint plan is pretty ambitious- get 18 highpoints and cover the vast majority of the Eastern United States over an exhaustive, three week road trip. It'd be a difficult one for sure with lots of planning required and trying to live as cheap as possible. Some of it would be epic hiking (Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah) while others like Florida's Britton Hill and Delaware's Ebright Azimuth are simple drive ups. The status on this right now is 50/50 and simply depends on whether I can get anyone to go with me. If I can, it'll most likely happen but if not, I'm not willing to take on that much time alone, especially with the fatigue from driving, planning and hiking. Even if it doesn't pan out, DE/PA/MD/WV are close enough I could do those anyway and still get some highpointing in (and there's plenty more hiking planned, regardless of whether this works).
I have a lot more details about this potential trip, but until I know for sure that it's happening, I'll hold off on posting them. Sometime by early june, I'll either put up a more detailed post with summer plans and hopefully reveal the status of that.
So there it is. The most thorough blog post I've ever written. Sorry it took forever. Whether you read/watched all of it or scrolled through the highlights, thanks for checking it out. Highpointing in 2018 was an adventure and I'm excited for more! Stay tuned.
