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The day after Christmas, coming back from seeing my sister, my daughter and I "climbed" Mount Davis. This is my home state but it wasn't very exciting. The area around has the Allegheny Passage rail trail, some Amish farms, and that's about it. There was basically no snow across the entire state, but around 3,000', right before the summit, there was a nice little mix of crusty and new snow. It's a pretty cool tower at the top, which helps because you would never know you were on a high point otherwise. The trail along the ridge was almost perfectly flat.

Baumann_pat will be glad to know there was an even easier way to go, a drive getting you less than a quarter mile from the top. Looking at a map I think there is a way to come up from the river, about 2,000' vertical, on public land, but with my knee we didn't even consider it.

So Cypress and I have done 12 together, and I have done maybe four or five more. Our plan is to do Mt. Rogers this spring before she graduates from UVA. Until my knee is better steeps will really slow me down and rock hopping is almost impossible. Anybody know what the trail is like?

I think I did the Rhododendron and Appalachian Trail to the summit. From what I remember, there's no steps, just sections of up hill hiking. The AT runs over the mountain, so you could even stay the night if your want. There's plenty of camp areas along the AT in this area.

GEM Trail wrote:Our plan is to do Mt. Rogers this spring before she graduates from UVA. Until my knee is better steeps will really slow me down and rock hopping is almost impossible. Anybody know what the trail is like?

AT from the south is easy...very gradual climb...about 9 miles round trip....nothing steep. Have fun!

Thanks for the info, guys! I figured it was doable if I gave it enough time; nice to know it should be pretty routine. Any recommendations on where to camp, maybe up near the top?

GEM Trail wrote:Thanks for the info, guys! I figured it was doable if I gave it enough time; nice to know it should be pretty routine. Any recommendations on where to camp, maybe up near the top?

It seems like there were a number of spots along the trail that were flat enough for decent camping. Though I don't remember any water so you'd have to carry it. If you are worried about your knees I'd just travel light and make it a day trip.

The Thomas Knob shelter on the AT is probably within a mile North of Rogers and has a water source if that's the kind of thing ya'll were looking for.

Hello all, been reading a long time. Thought I'd share my plans. Started state highpointing a year ago on a wild hair. Woke up on a Saturday morning February 2011 and thought "what the hell, why not?" Drove from Austin, 8 hours later I was in a hotel room in Van Horn. The next morning went up to Guadalupe Mountains and hiked to the top of Texas, then drove 9 hours back. I was hooked!

Since then, did the Southern Six-Pack in a weekend in May. In July, Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado. Had planned Wheeler Peak in New Mexico on that trip, but they closed the forest due to fire danger the night of my flight. I had no idea 'til I arrived at the Taos Ski Valley.

Labor Day weekend, topped Rhode Island, Connecticutt, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. Turned around on Katahdin in Maine the day after Mount Washington. No gas left in the tank.

This Presidents' Day weekend is my first trip of the year. Flying into Baltimore and going to Delaware, New Jersey, then west for the three-fer in PA, MD and WV. Memorial weekend already booked for a re-attempt of Katahdin and Mount Marcy.

Starting to think about the big western highpoints for the summer already! Going to want to partner up on some of those!

Fifteen HPs last year? Not bad! Way to jump in with both feet. Hope you'll post some photos and write a trip report once in a while.

swankman07 wrote:This Presidents' Day weekend is my first trip of the year. Flying into Baltimore and going to Delaware, New Jersey, then west for the three-fer in PA, MD and WV.

I'm afraid you will find the Ebright Azimuth to be rather uninspiring (I live four miles away from it). The rest of your itinerary will take in some nice scenery. Enjoy!

I keep a scrap book of my highpoint trips and yea my Ebright Azimuth highpoint page highlight is probably a picture of me eating crabs at O'Brycki's.

Alpinist wrote:Fifteen HPs last year? Not bad! Way to jump in with both feet. Hope you'll post some photos and write a trip report once in a while.

Sure, can definitely do that. A little catching up to do after the weekend.

Congrats! I'll hike UT and ID July 4th weekend and looking for a partner, let me know if you are interested.

Also planning for Granite Peak with gwave47 in Aug!!! So happy to find a partner on the forum, he is 44/50 now.

Labor Day weekend I'll be at ND/SD for some road trip, happy highpointing!

swankman07 wrote:Hello all, been reading a long time. Thought I'd share my plans. Started state highpointing a year ago on a wild hair. Woke up on a Saturday morning February 2011 and thought "what the hell, why not?" Drove from Austin, 8 hours later I was in a hotel room in Van Horn. The next morning went up to Guadalupe Mountains and hiked to the top of Texas, then drove 9 hours back. I was hooked!

Since then, did the Southern Six-Pack in a weekend in May. In July, Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado. Had planned Wheeler Peak in New Mexico on that trip, but they closed the forest due to fire danger the night of my flight. I had no idea 'til I arrived at the Taos Ski Valley.

Labor Day weekend, topped Rhode Island, Connecticutt, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. Turned around on Katahdin in Maine the day after Mount Washington. No gas left in the tank.

This Presidents' Day weekend is my first trip of the year. Flying into Baltimore and going to Delaware, New Jersey, then west for the three-fer in PA, MD and WV. Memorial weekend already booked for a re-attempt of Katahdin and Mount Marcy.

Starting to think about the big western highpoints for the summer already! Going to want to partner up on some of those!

If anyone else is looking to stand on top of Granite Peak this year, SM0421 and I will be hitting the trail head for the SW Col in Cooke City the morning of 8/11. It will be a two day (three if we don't have favorable weather on the 12th) hike/scramble. If anyone's interested shoot us a message and we'll plan on meeting up with you in Cooke City the night of the 10th or at the trail head the morning of the 11th.

swankman07 wrote:This Presidents' Day weekend is my first trip of the year. Flying into Baltimore and going to Delaware, New Jersey, then west for the three-fer in PA, MD and WV.

How did it go? Did your plans get scuttled due to the snowstorm on Sunday? No precip. here but heard it was quite the mess to the south through VA/WV.

We are headed to CO and UT for July 4th week. Plan to do Elbert on July 3 and then head to Kings so we might be there the same time.

sm0421 wrote:Congrats! I'll hike UT and ID July 4th weekend and looking for a partner, let me know if you are interested.

Also planning for Granite Peak with gwave47 in Aug!!! So happy to find a partner on the forum, he is 44/50 now.

Labor Day weekend I'll be at ND/SD for some road trip, happy highpointing!