Rhode Island #21, backyard open for business

Rhode Island's high point is on private property. Basically it is in someone's backyard. The owner's have been so kind as to provide a trail from the road that is open 8am to 4pm everyday of the year. We made it just 30 minutes before close thanks to our failed attempts at highpointing Connecticut and Massachusetts earlier in the day. Rufus wasn't interested in posing for the scary camera...but he's got a great hero pose!

Here is the beginning of the short trail to the highpoint. Although the trail was well marked, we let Rufus lead the way.
Before retiring to our awesome Extended Stay America hotel in Providence, we visited Newport, RI. Here the Buf finds out that sea water doesn't taste so good.

Two more failed attempts high pointing out of season

After visiting New Jersey's highpoint we stayed in New Paltz, NY (my first time in NY). We found an awesome Indian restaurant in the little hippie college town. In the morning we headed for Connecticut's high point.

Unfortunately, the road leading to the high point was closed presumably because of mud. To make it we would of had to hike through many miles of mud just to get to the trail head. We didn't even bring a backpack on this trip. Now on to the Massachusetts drive up...

As we pull up to the visitor's center, we see the high road is CLOSED!!!! This is 2006 all over again! Two failed attempts due to weather. The ranger said the road is closed in the winter. I replied, "but it is Spring." "Not up there it isn't," in his thick New England accent. He said the snow mobiles pack the snow down over the winter, and the road would not open until late May. This shows we could probably do a little more planning before our future trips. The summit could be hiked in the winter, but we didn't bring the gear for that.

New Jersey #20 sneaking in the dog

After losing $20 in Atlantic City we drove to northern New Jersey to visit their highpoint marked with this obelisk.

The views were spectacular but difficult to capture in a picture. We could see ski runs still filled with snow in the distance.
Another shot of Rufus. Dogs technically are not allowed in the park. That is silly. Someone else even brought their dog right behind us.
We finally got Rufus to look at the camera!
Becki and the Buf walking on some exposed granite/gneiss. I'd rate it about a 5.1.
Nice artsy shot by Becki. She did a good job making sure the obelisk wasn't coming out of my head. I was unprepared for how cold it was up here and kept insisting we go back to the car.

Delaware #19 rocking the suburbs

Delaware was our first target of five this Spring break. We brought the new addition to our family, Rufferford B. Hayes, or Rufus for short. You may also call him Mr. President or the Buf (pronounced the "boof") or Rufus B'Bufus. After stopping to spend the night in Hershey, PA we found our way to this roadside high point.

Here is the Buf relaxing on the couch.

The high point was fairly uneventful, but it was Rufus' very first highpoint!!! It was drizzling and windy. We did a quick pose for the camera. At one point Rufus thought the camera on top of the Gorilla Pod was an animal and growled at it. Such a tough guy!
Now on to Atlantic City for the night...

Virginia #18 return of the hike

We would have liked to include Virginia's highpoint during our October 2007 marathon highpointing trip, but the long hike didn't fit our schedule. So we made a weekend out of it and brought Pig.

Becki and I haven't had this long of a hike since we did Colorado's highpoint in 2006. Our guide book says it is 8 miles round trip, but we took a wrong direction at some point so we probably made it 9 miles.

We hit the trail early in the morning. About 1 mile in, Becki emphatically whispered, "PSST" and awkwardly pointed to a group of wild ponies up the hill. We saw many more groups in the distance, but the prize was a mother and two foals in the middle of the trail!


They even came up to me but when I pulled my hands out of my pocket they jumped back. Becki kept her hands out and petted these two babies.


I wore "trail shoes," the North Face ones on the right. Not a good idea. Now I know why there are hiking shoes. These lightweight shoes flexed with every rock I stepped on and really made my feet sore. I'll remember in the future lightweight shoes are only good for flat even terrain.


As you can see the weather and hike was beautiful.
I think this is the first time we tried out the trekking poles we got as a wedding present. They really made hiking a breeze. Thanks Sarah, Trey, and Kathy!

Trees blocked the view from the summit.
Pig (our dog) came on the trip but because she's 15 years old and hates rain, we decided to let her hold down the fort. We left her at our campsite underneath a giant 12'x12' rain tarp. We came back to find a soaking wet yellow dog whose leash was tangled up in the picnic table . She didn't quite figure out the shelter we left for her. Not too smart, but she sure is cute!

Arkansas #17 and the death of the VW Golf TDI

After we passed through Little Rock, Arkansas, we hit some thick traffic on the highway. Maybe our car had a secret button that turned our car invisible. Maybe I accidentally hit it. Maybe the lady in the white car was talking on her phone and didn't look over her shoulder during her lane change. Whatever the case was, she ran us off the road. Becki was driving, and she tried to compensate. Unfortunately, our car spun out of control and skidded through 3 lanes of traffic. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt...except the TDI. We totaled the car and the cause of the accident left the scene, so we were stranded in not-so-scenic Conway, Arkansas. The police officer was great, and she helped us with everything. We needed to stay the night and wait for our new rental ride with enough room for P-Dog. We weren't allowed to smoke in the rental, but Pig sneaked in a rawhide "stoogie."


The trailhead to the highpoint. It was a sunny, crisp day. Perfect for highpointing!


After hitting the summit, we were on to Springfield, Missouri (my hometown). Since we had out tearful good by with the TDI and it was going to be $400 to rent a car to get back to Columbus, we bought a used Civic to drive home. Just to clarify, I drove the entire way because Becki can't drive a stick. (Becki's note: I can drive a stick, I just choose not to.)

Louisiana #16

Florida #15

This makes our second highpoint on this day.

Lakewood Park, the lowest state highpoint at 345 feet. Neither Becki nor Pig were ready for the camera.



This was one of those anti-climatic highpoints. It was not clear we were on a highpoint of anything. It was so flat, I think we saw the ocean (not really).

Afterwords, we drove west along the cost towards our next highpoint destination. We stopped at a huge restaurant on the beach in Destin before searching for a campsite. It was another long night of looking for a campsite along our route to Louisiana.

Alabama #14, Cheaha Mountain

We topped off our biological tanks with some Cracker Barrel near Birmingham before traveling east to the Alabama highpoint. Alabama is a drive up and includes camping. We should have researched the camping situation beforehand because we could have spent the night at the highpoint. However, too much planning takes some of the excitement out of the trip!

As shown in the picture above, the Cheaha Mountain has a nice lookout tower.


We were too cheap to pay for the binoculars, so we just took our picture with it instead. Note, we used the correct flag this time. Good job, us!


The view to the north from the tower.


Pig couldn't make it up the steep stairs of the tower, so she settled for a photo at the sign.

After all this highpointing we were hungry. Fortunately, while driving through some small town in southern Alabama on our way to Florida we saw Unique Bar-B-Que, this little joint in the middle of nowhere. Of course we ordered the pulled pork and sweet tea (pronounced swate-tay). Now, every barbecue is compared to Unique Bar-B-Que.

Mississippi kicks off Spring Break 2008 highpointing marathon

We kick off a long week of state highpointing in the South with Mississippi. Our journey starts on Sunday March 16th from from Becki's parent's house in Cincinnati with our Golf TDI packed up with Pig (our dog, not an actual pig). We unsuccessfully attempted to unload Pig at Becki's parents' house "Hotel Charlie" for the week while we traveled across the South.

The drive was long to the first highpoint and our VW TDI Golf rolled over to 100,000 miles just as we crossed into Mississippi from Tennessee.

We accidentally flew the wrong flag for this pose, so I GIMPed in the correct one. Pig is modeling her pink Copper Mountain Colorado bandanna.

Pig is all about the "hero" pose.

We barely made it into the northeast corner of Mississippi before we crossed into Alabama in search of a place to camp for the night. Without a nightly camping plan, we used the tent symbol on our road atlas to search out camping sites. We wasted an hour or two driving to a state park to find that it was closed. Hint: state parks typically close at sunset. Thanks to our computer street atlas, we found phone numbers and navigated our way to a private site and settled down for the night as the only occupant.

What's missing from these pictures?

Our religious blog readers may have noticed that there is something missing from our last highpointing trip (NC, SC, GA, TN, KY). If you study our entries carefully, you may be able to guess what that is. If you think you know the answer, post it as a comment or send the answer in a briefcase filled with unmarked bills. The first right answer will receive a FANTASTIC gift package! Act fast...you don't want to miss out!

Kentucky Highpoint

On the way home from Asheville, NC we stopped at the Kentucky highpoint, Black Mountain.

Our 12th highpoint! At this pace we will be done is less than 10 years.

The marker was nicely tucked away in the trees. I've excluded all the radio towers and the FAA radar that litter this highpoint.

We picked a great time of the year to do these last five highpoints.

North Carolina

Some photographer took this of us on a lookout on the beautiful Blueridge Mountain Parkway.

Another picture from the parkway.


We get to the parking lot for the summit to find out it is closed!!!! On top of this there is a ranger truck right at the trail head with the caution tape and backhoe. For a while we think it is one of the guys walking around in the parking lot. We hang around for a while and most people leave and I convince Becki to sneak up to the top with me. We traveled too far to turn back now.

You can see here the top isn't far from the parking lot.

Shhhh, they might hear us.


This is the summit pose. Isn't nature wonderful with gravel, rebar, concrete forms, heavy construction equipment?

On the way out of the park Becki caught a nice sun set. We had planned on camping in the park, but we were really hungry, without food, and the restaurant in the park had already closed. We got a little lost trying to leave the park and follow the Google Map directions. We were supposed to turn on right on "Old Railroad Grade". No surprise this wasn't a road that could be traveled by car. We had no choice but to head back to Asheville, NC. Fortunately my parents were staying in Asheville so we called them up and stayed in their room.

South Carolina

In about 3 hours after Georgia's highpoint we reached South Carolina's Sassafras Mountain. We didn't see anyone else on this highpoint and it was probably the ugliest highpoint we've been to so far. Not much to say about this one except now we've completed 10 highpoints.


My outfit is lovely isn't it: crocs, wool socks, and plaid shorts.
On to North Carolina's Mount Mitchell...