Category: High Points

Clingmans DomeTennesseeMay  2013 Foggy day for this summit hike, unfortunately obscuring our view of the mountains.  Instead, I look down.  I look for dog hobble.  Growing close to the ground, it shouldn’t be obscured by the fog. I remember dog hobble from another hike in the Smokies.  Dog hobble is a fast-growing evergreen shrub with… Continue reading Dog Hobble

Mount MagazineArkansasJune  2012 Fortunately, you don’t need to join a club to visit the highest point in Arkansas.  However, if you stay at the Lodge at Mount Magazine, as we do after our summit hike, and choose to imbibe an adult beverage here in this dry county, you must first apply to become a member… Continue reading Frog Leg

Humphreys PeakArizonaJune  2013 Over the past month, as Lisa and I drive home from various hikes, she is twice stopped by the police for speeding.  Both times she is ticketed.  By my standards Lisa is a safe driver, but she just doesn’t seem to be able to slog along slow enough not to attract the… Continue reading Cops on Top

Humphreys PeakArizonaJune  2013 Y’know, this Highpointing adventure of ours is full of conflict for me.  I fight my demons so that I can scale these sometimes soaring places.  I grapple with my altitude anxiety, my discomfort with travel including the terror I feel when on an airborne craft and a bunch of other personal obstacles… Continue reading Heroes

Cheaha MountainAlabamaNovember  2013 Hiking boots are an incredible invention.  The amount of pounding and impact that you put on your feet while hiking is hard to fathom.  What the heck, let’s try.  The average hiker, whatever that is, puts about eight psi, or pounds per square inch of pressure on the boots with every step.… Continue reading Boots I — Hiking Boots

Mount GreylockMassachusettsMay  2014 We think we are very close to the summit of Mount Greylock.  We think we are close because we’ve been climbing for half the day, but we don’t know how close because it’s so foggy that we can’t see a damned thing.  There is a big tower out there, they tell us,… Continue reading Oh Sam Peabody

Cheaha MountainAlabamaNovember  2013 This is some tough climbing.  It’s a 1.2-mile hike that gains 1143 feet in altitude.  What makes it more fun is that almost all of that uphill is in the second half of the hike and as you get closer to the summit, it just keeps getting steeper.  Okay, that’s what we’re… Continue reading Speaking French

Mount GreylockMassachusettsMay  2014 Through the burbs and suburbs and exurbs we go until we get to North Adams where we spend the night.  North Adams in Massachusetts, I believe, is the location of the southern terminus of the Long Trail, the oldest long distance hiking trail in the U S of A.  It was completed… Continue reading One N or Two?

On the drive from Mount Driskill to Mount MagazineLouisiana to ArkansasJune  2012 Highpointing racks up a lot of miles on the road.  Brings up random, but essential, existential issues.  To wit… Kermit + whiskey + cigarettes = Yoda. Or alternately… Kermit + Tom Waits = Yoda.

Shenandoah National ParkWhiteoak Canyon TrailheadMay  2023 Some recreational areas place signboards at trailhead.  These vertical information centers inform you of what to expect on your hike:  route finding, elevation, distance, landmarks, hazards, attractions and maps. As we approach this particular trailhead, and therefore a signboard, we encounter a woman with a furrowed brow, staring at… Continue reading How Tough Is It?