Hawkeye Point (Iowa Highpoint)

Sy and I have been driving from Utah to New York for a couple of days with a canoe strapped on the roof of the Saturn Ion.  It has been a lot of fun... all except for the high winds in Wyoming almost blowing the canoe off of the car and the little kidney stone passing issue in North Platte, NE.  Other than that it has been great!

The important thing is that there is now way I was going to drive across the country and not hit a few more highpoints!

Hawkeye Point, though a few hours off of I-80, was the first one within striking distance of our route.  Note: Sy and I hit Panorama Point, NE a few months ago.

This one was as "drive-up" as they come.  I understand the farm owner recently donated the land at the actual highpoint to the government (local/county/state?) and it was obvious some recent development had been done to improve the site.  Signage was also excellent on the approach roads. 

These midwest "highpoints" make me chuckle a little as the elevation is barely distinguishable from the surrounding terrain.  Guess I just need to trust the surveyors!  Regardless, it is always fun to do a little bit of route finding and enjoy the tour of a new place as I work to arrive at the goal.

Mount Mitchell (North Carolina Highpoint)

Luckily our drive to Mount Mitchell was much less eventful than the drive we had just finished to Sassafras Mountain.  Anne's patience must know no limits because she was still on board with hitting North Carolina's highpoint after the South Carolina disaster.

I am glad she did too because this drive was a classic drive down a beautiful, historic highway ending with a sunset on the top of a mountain!  There is only one way to get to Mount Mitchell and it is along the Blue Ridge Parkway, a national parkway and part of the US National Park Service.  As we drove along, I felt just like I was back on the AT in Vermont.  Thick forested, damp, green mountains which hug and almost suffocate you and then unannounced lay out a spread of beautiful views for the taking.  Although it was beautiful, we didn't have a ton of extra time because the state park (and the summit) closed at 9:00pm and we were pushing the deadline.

We eventually pulled up into an empty summit parking lot at 8:45pm just behind the park ranger who was up there to close things up.  He let Soren and I walk the couple hundred yards to the summit where we snapped a couple of pictures and soaked in the sunset before jumping in the car and heading out at 8:59pm!

Although we will be within striking distance of the highpoints of West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania tomorrow, I think it would be wise to call it a week and make that trip another day.....

...... on to our family's new life in New York!!!!

Sassafras Mountain (South Carolina Highpoint)

After hitting Brasstown Bald, the family jumped into the car and headed east toward South Carolina.  Our next goal was Sassafras Mountain.  If bagging Georgia's highpoint was easy and uneventful, getting to South Carolina's was the opposite.  Admittedly, I caused most of the trouble.... as usual!

It didn't start well.... after grabbing lunch for the boys, I made a wrong turn somewhere in northern Georgia. Mistake #1.  I corrected it after about 20 miles or so but still....  From there the drive was pretty uneventful and we eventually approached the junction of SC 11 and US 178 in South Carolina about 10 miles south of our goal.

Mistake #2.... even though I had less than a quarter tank of gas I chose not to stop at the station that was right there.  I figured I had plenty.  Instead I plowed forward.  The next 10 miles ended up being very steep and loaded with very sharp turns which had to effects (a) low fuel efficiency and (b) Sy complaining of some car sickness.  

Mistake #3 occurred when I shot past the turn off to Sassafras Mountain ending up a few miles into North Carolina before turning around.... all the while, burning up the little fuel we had.  Not a huge mistake under normal circumstances but under these conditions (i.e. low fuel, sick kid, increasingly frustrated spouse) it was a dangerous cocktail.  This all leads me to my mistake of omission....

Mistake #4 - I should have just pulled over!  Look... when I am out on my little adventures, I get a little bit crazy with achieving the goal (exhibit A - Mt. Datun, Taiwan  and exhibit B - Taum Sauk MT, Missouri)

I know it can be stupid but the adrenaline rush of route finding, problem solving and sometimes just pushing through can be exhilarating.  That is fine and dandy when I am flying solo or when I am with a like minded crazy person but is whole other matter when I drag the family into it.  Anyway, needless to say, Sy eventually threw up into his blanket just under a mile from the summit.  Of course, then it was time to clean up. Anne is not happy with me. We are still low on gas (like getting past the E).

After doing some damage control, we reached the parking lot on top, finished the short walk to the summit, in a swarm of mosquitoes, and Anne graciously gave me about 30 seconds to snap a picture or two before she started heading down.  I didn't deserve more than that!  We happily made it the 7 or so miles north into North Carolina and a gas station.  I am also glad to report that Anne has decided to stay married to me!

All is well that ends well..... errrrr, right?!

Brasstown Bald (Georgia Highpoint)

Memorial Day weekend with the Hansen family was awesome.  We hung out, had Sy & Kate's birthday party, attended Kate's baptism, went to a Braves game, and had fun swimming.  The Hansen & Anderson grandparents were both there and we all enjoyed the mini-family reunion.  

On Tuesday, it was time to continue our trek to New York.... with a few highpoints along the way, of course!

Our first stop was Brasstown Bald in Georgia.  Like many of the highpoints in the southeast, this one is also a state park/national forest with maintained facilities so driving close to the top is possible.  After taking a short shuttle from the parking lot to the peak, we paused to take a few pictures and explore.  After unsuccessfully looking for a benchmark, I finally asked a ranger for some help.  It turns out the benchmark is just behind a locked door which doubles as an entryway to private quarters for some of the park staff.  He was nice enough to let me have a look.

It was a beautiful day and the boys and I opted to hike down from the peak to the parking lot instead of jumping on the return shuttle.  It was fun to stretch our legs and enjoy a beautiful day before jumping back in the car!

Cheaha Mountain (Alabama Highpoint)

We had a pretty uneventful drive from Rutledge, AL to Cheaha State Park today but it was interesting to see things change as we went north.  We left behind the coastal areas and eventually reached rolling hills and even honest to goodness mountains as we approached the state park.  The route we took from Lakewood Park in Florida required us to meander through a lot of very small towns and kept us off of freeways almost the entire time.  That made for a more entertaining drive.

This particular highpoint is much more developed than most.  There was a lodge, campgrounds, chalets, cabins, restaurant, observation tower and a number of other facilities which were all part of a state park on the mountain.  From my experience to this point, most highpoints don't have near that kind of development on them.  Well, I suppose this all made the place unique in its own right.

As you can see from the pictures, the highpoint was socked in with clouds while we were up there.  After climbing and descending the observation tower it also began to rain.  That was our signal to jump back into the car and head for Atlanta where we will be spending Memorial Day weekend with my sister, Carolyn, and her family.

Britton Hill (Florida Highpoint)

After reaching the Lousiana Highpoint this morning and making it back to the hotel, we were a little bit slow getting back on the road so I knew it was going to be tough getting to Britton Hill in Florida before it got dark.

As it turns out, the long drive, traffic in Mobile, and extended meal breaks all conspired to make us miss daylight at the highpoint by just around 30 min.  No matter though, we still arrived (a little after 8:00pm) and Sy and Soren joined me for a few pictures before jumping back in the car and working our way up north.

The funny thing about this highpoint is that I had been within a 30 min drive of this spot at least 4 times in recent years.  My family has had a couple of family reunions near Walton Beach just south of  here!  It may seem like a long detour for just this purpose but it felt good to achieve this highpoint... who knows when I will be in the area again!

Driskill Mountain (Louisiana Highpoint)

Now that I have graduated and we have a place lined up in New York, it is time to play a little!  Our moving truck came on May 24th but won't arrive in New York until June 3rd.  What do you do with all that time?  Well..... drive across the country visiting friends, family and state highpoints, of course!

Starting last Sunday, I left Provo, UT with Sy and Soren.  Anne caught up with us in Austin, TX and we spent a couple of days there visiting with friends, colleagues, and also checking in on our rental homes in town.  After a packed visit in Austin, we stopped in Houston to see my brother, CJ, and his family.  We had a great visit with them as well.

Now..... if you are in Houston and you are heading to Atlanta, you wouldn't exactly call Shreveport "on the way" ..... and even if you did, you wouldn't then head as far south as Pensacola, but that is exactly what we were about to do.  We headed north for about 5 hours and finally crashed at a hotel in Minden, LA around midnight.  Minden is about 30 miles NW of the LA highpoint.

I knew we had a full-day of driving ahead of us the next day so I woke up at 6:30am and finished the drive to Driskill Mountain while everyone was still sleeping.   While driving I reflected on how much just driving to these places is a part of the highpointing adventure.  Even the ones that don't require significant planning (i.e. Rainer, Granite, etc..) or long trail distances (i.e. Wheeler, Whitney, etc...) still bring a reward.  These places are pretty much always off the beaten path and you get a better feel for a place as you drive the country and local roads.  The directions are rarely as straight forward as they seem on paper and four wheel route finding is just part of it all.  Driskill Mountain was that kind of a highpoint.....

The trail head sits beside a graveyard and a local church in a rural Louisiana community.  The trail is surprisingly well maintained with excellent signage courtesy of a local Eagle Scout project.  The hike was about a mile each way.  Hiking it early was a good idea because even though I was in and out before 8:30am, the heat and humidity were already starting to have an impact.

In summary, it felt great to be making progress toward the highpointing goal again.  After being out west for a couple of years, it was exciting to be back in the dense forests that lie to the east.