RI state high point

I met up with Eric & Chris (and the dogs) for the short stroll to the highest point in Rhode Island.  I've visited 46 state high points.  This was my third time at Jerimoth Hill.

A few random "peaks"

Before I met up with Eric & Chris (and the puppies) on Saturday I decided to go to a couple of hills close by including one that formerly had a firetower.

Visited Mt Daniels, Emerson Hill, and Wood hill.

Mt Daniels "summit" is for sale

Emerson hill highest point

Wood hill tower

Katahdin via the NEW Abol Slide trail

Katahdin:  I’d been up to Katahdin (the highest point in Maine) twice before and swore that I’d never go up again.  When Kevin noted that they recently finished the re-routing of the Abol Slide trail and that he had never been to the summit I knew third time up would be the charm.  The other ascents had been via the longer Hunt Trail and down via

Peak bagging State High Points

Eric and I took a short trip last week that got us 6 more State high points (and upped my total of States I'd summited two or more times).

Peakbagging in the South

Peakbagging trip

 

Eric Morse and I are trying to visit all of the state high points, and do some running at each.  Prior to this trip I’d visited 44 and Eric had 35.  Our plan was to bag 6 southern states in a very short period of time (flying out on Thursday morning and back on Saturday).  I already had all six of these states but was looking forward to heading back to them.  Travel with Eric is always fun.

 

We got in a 3 mile run at 3am before heading to the airport on Thursday morning.  I had a plan to get the miles we wanted, bag the peaks, and even get a few hours sleep each night.  Once we touched down in Charlotte we had a 3 hour drive to Sassafras

Mexico trip - final post

Day 9 in Mexico (01/17) – Early morning wake-up at the hostel where Al and I were the only ones staying (even the owner was away for the weekend).  I got my 4 mile run in (8,600’) and we were

Mexico trip - part 4

Day 7 in Mexico (01/15) – We woke up to sunshine and could finally see Orizaba!  I got in my 4 mile run early and at 9:30am we started the drive up to the high hut.  The road was absolutely brutal, rutted, muddy and higher up snowy. 

 

 Our driver had done it hundreds of times and knew (and found) every bump along the way.  We got to the hut (13,978’) by

Mexico trip - part 3

Day 4 in Mexico (01/12) – This was a day for an acclimatization hike with no summit goal.  We headed up to Volcán Iztaccíhuatl or Izta but the park gate hadn’t opened so we had to hang out for a bit.  The view of Popo was great.  Popo is active and no hiking is allowed, on this day we saw it “burp” a few times (some plumes of smoke).  Eventually we made it to the trailhead at 13,060’.

 

 I felt pretty good as we headed up and then up, and then even more up.  Eventually I asked Al where the lower peak was and found we were well beyond it.  I was ready to turn as we were 2:15 into the hike and at 15,420’.  Plenty high enough for

Mexico trip - part 2

Day 2 in Mexico (01/10) – Al headed up the mountain on a scouting trip while I slept off my altitude induced hangover.  I felt a lot better and did a 4 mile run in Toluca between 8,400-8,500’.  We drove up to the pass (10,700’) then on to the TH at 13,600’.  There was some camping available but it really seemed too high especially with how I’d felt the day before.  We dropped back down to the pass and did a little bootleg camping in some nice pine trees not too far off of the main road.  It was a good day for relaxing and getting acclimatized.

Day 3 in Mexico (01/11) – We got up before sunrise and headed back up to the Trailhead for Nevado de Toluca, it was 30 degrees and sunny. 

 

 We had the mountain to ourselves as we headed up to the crater rim (13,657 to 14,078) then dropped to the crater floor (13,809’).

 

 Then the real climbing began!  I topped out at 15,200’, about 70’ below the very top.  There was a 5’ section of exposed rock with a couple of scramble moves need to get up there.  I didn’t feel comfortable doing that so I sat and took some pictures while Al went to the top.  We reached that point in 2:50 and I hung out for about 10 minutes before we started our descent. 

 

 Al thought the scree slope would be fun to head straight down and I could not disagree.  We dropped 1,500’ in ½ mile!  It was a blast storming down the dirt/rock slope. 

 

This got us back to one of the two lakes in the crater (at 13,800’) and we then picked up the 500’ climb to the top of Cerro Del Ombugo (14,173’).  After that we had a short downhill before ascending back to the crater rim and then down to the car.

 

 We covered the 5.16 miles in 4:35 with 2,380’ of climb and descent.  After the hike we drove to Amecameca and checked into the Hotel El Marques (rates for a night or four hours and porn on all TV stations).  It was actually clean and comfortable.  We did an easy four mile run (at 8,800’) and then headed to the town square where we bought hamburques from a street vendor.  I was a little worried about maybe catching something and Al noted that the woman preparing the burgers coughed in her hand then pressed the burger and also handled cash with the same.  Oh well!

 

Mexico trip part 1

Mexico

CMS teammate Al Bernier and I have been hiking together since 2005.  Al bagged nearly a thousand peaks in 2015 alone as he is working his way through numerous peak lists?  Since 2005 I’ve done just over 1,100 peaks but a lot of those were just little hills.  Over the years Al and I have done some interesting hikes together including some really difficult bushwhacks (no trail, just pushing through the woods).  It is usually a new adventure when I hike with Al.  A few months back we were visiting some peaks and he mentioned a trip to Mexico for some truly high peaks.  I immediately said I was interested but noted my concerns about my hiking weaknesses.

 

Al felt none of the peaks were outside of my abilities.  I’d need to buy some gear I was lacking and hoped to take a winter hiking course.  My strength is steady climbing; I’m a pretty strong climber.  My weaknesses are a major fear of exposure (falling off ledges to my death) and no steep snow climbing history (I’ve used running Kahtoola’s but never real crampons and certainly never used a climbing ax).  I left all of the planning to Al as I felt this was his trip and I was along for the fun.  I was up front that if I didn’t feel comfortable with the peak I’d just descend.  Unfortunately we never got any snow in New England so I did get to take a climbing class.  I also didn’t get to test out my new winter gear on Christmas weekend as temperatures soared to the 60’s.

 

My one plan for the trip was to get 4 miles of running in every day no matter what.  On January 8 I got up at 3:30 am to get in my run before we headed to the airport.  It looked like we might not make it when I jokingly asked Al “got your passport?” which he did not!  We got to Logan airport with about an hour to go before our flight.  We spent most of the day flying to Houston then to Mexico City.  It took a long time to navigate in the city but eventually we located the outfitter which sold fuel for Al’s stove.  It took an even longer time to get to our hotel but eventually we got there and called it a day.

 

Day 1 in Mexico (01/09) – Al joined me

Algonquin Peak

I met up with Eric Morse on Friday afternoon and we did an easy run on the Montpelier bike path.  I needed some easy running after two days of fast running.  We were planning on bagging a couple of peaks in NY and VT so getting some of the kinks out was a good idea.

We headed out at 5am on Saturday and drove 3+ hours to the trailhead at the Adirondack Loj near Lake Placid NY.  Our goal would be Algonquin Mountain, the second highest peak in New York.  We also considered adding on the out/back section to Wright Peak but would wait and see how we were doing before making that decision.  We paid our $10 for parking (!) then checked in at the ranger station to get the latest on the trail conditions.  Temps were in the upper 20’s and we were in the low cloud deck.  Traction devices would be needed on the trail but otherwise everything sounded okay.

We double checked out packs which had plenty of extra warm gear, headlamps, etc. then headed on down the path.  We “jogged” on down the way and were soon warm enough

Stinson Mountain - former fire tower site

I'm trying to visit all of the current and former fire tower sites in New Hampshire.  Knocked one more off last weekend.

Cockermouth and Bald Knob

I was up in Plymouth for the weekend and took advantage with some peakbagging.  I could not resist going to Groton (which was formerly known as Cockermouth) and of course I found the hilariously named Bald Knob.  The Cockermouth forest turned out to be a great place for a run.  The trails included a lot of old dirt roads and the summits offered up some great views.  I also get to say I visited Cockermouth which continues to crack me up.  I really worked it on Bald Knob and it was hard.  :-)

My route in red

 

Cracking myself up

Wheeler Peak - NM State high point

Eric and I headed out to M for a long weekend to do some Peakbagging.  We've both been slowly chipping away at the 50 state high point list. The goal on this trip would be to run to the highest point in NM, the summit of Wheeler Peak at 13,161'.  There were a few options to reach the top and we chose the longer Williams Lake to Bull of the Woods (BOTW) loop.  By doing this counterclockwise we'd be doing much of the climb in the first 6 miles and then drop over 8 more miles (with a couple of bumps).  Along the ay we'd hoped to visit Mt Walter, Frazer Mountain, and BOTW mountain.  This would be Eric's 35th high point and my 44th.

Friday morning at 3am we hit the road for a 3 mile run at Eric's then drove to Burlington VT.  We arrived in ABQ at noon and by 1:00 we were on a bike path along the Rio Grande putting in a bit of altitude training.  It was 90 degrees and the travel, the sun and the 5,000' of altitude were all felt.  After another 2 hours of driving we arrived in Taos and went out for another 5 mile run this time at 7,000'.  It seemed like a good way to ease into the upcoming trek.

We were off at 5am on Saturday and arrived in Taos Ski Village at a bit before 5.  It was 41 degrees at the BOTW trailhead parking lot and just barely light enough to run without headlamps.  We set

State high points visited

With the trip to Wheeler peak NM this weekend, Eric Morse and I are getting closer to reaching each of the state high points.