State High point trip

I met up with Eric and Murdoch (Eric’s Westy dog) and we drove a couple of hours to Highland NY.  My final run of the day was a nice easy 3 mile run with them on the Hudson Valley Rail trail.  This was a really nice paved trail in Highland that now continues over the Hudson River on the “Walkway over the Hudson”. 

 

The next morning (after a 4 mile run on the rail trail) we headed to Port Jervis NY for a quick stop at the NY/PA/NJ tri-state monument.  We parked at the Laurel Grove Cemetery and walked the ½ mile through the cemetery to the monument on the end of the peninsula (between the Delaware and Neversink Rivers).  After a few pictures we hiked back and headed to the aptly named “High Point” State park in NJ.

 

The guy at the park gate didn’t have any maps nor know where we could get them which was disappointing since we’d paid the out of state entrance fee.  I had printed up a winter XC ski map so it wasn’t a major issue.  We drove up to the monument parking lot and were the only ones in the park (it had just opened for the day).  We took some pictures of the highest point in NJ before heading out for a 3 mile run.  There was a nice view from the parking lot but once we hit the Monument trail any views were missed as we concentrated on the very rocky footing.  The trail descended a 300 hundred feet at which point we got on the Cedar Swamp trail which was a nice dirt road.  That brought us back below the high point where we finished the run with a ½ mile climb up 250’.  At least it now felt like we “earned” the summit.

 

Next up was a long drive to Delaware for the Ebright Azimuth high point.  This is a drive-up high point where the hardest part is finding parking.  We parked across from the high point sign and walked the 30 yards.  We finished the day with another 3 mile run, this time at the Brandywine Creek state park on the flat crushed stone trail.

 

Eric is now tied with me for mainland USA state high points with 42.  The only state left that I have and Eric doesn’t is Hawaii.  That should be a pretty cool trip!