2003 - year one (Dean)

Year one?

My actual peakbagging career really started in 2003 at the age of 62 so to me it is "year one".

Prior to 2003, my main interest in the mountains was centered around the Cascades of Washington state with a central interest in the area known as "The Enchantments". I had the opportunity to climb Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens so I was able to summit both of those back in the late 60' and early 70's but for the most part, I would call myself a backpacker with my main emphasis on that activity. Trip after trip into the Enchantments were made with various friends and family members whenever I had the chance. High lake fishing and photography were my two most favorite things to do with an occasional visit to the top of one of the peaks in that area but as mentioned, for the most part I was truly an avid backpacker. So much so that at one time I dreamed of thru hiking the Pacific Crest trail but job and family kept me from chasing that pursuit.

So prior to 2003, I had probably climbed less than 20 mountains in my life up to that point of playing in the mountains. That all changed when I met SP member Bob Bolton somewhat accidentally on summitpost. He had posted a picture of the Enchantments that I loved and I emailed him and asked if he would be so kind as to send me a higher resolution version of that picture so I could have it made into a picture for my office. That email led to a lot of back and forth exchanges and we discovered that we had a lot of the same interests.

In early February of 2003, Bob invited me to accompany him on a county highpointing trip and little did I dream that that trip would change my life.

A year of county highpointing

The 1st time out

Mt. Hood beckoned

Lofty fun

If 2003 could be titled anything, it would have to be titled "the year of county highpointing". I basically didn't go after a summit or highpoint unless it was the highest point in a county. The guy who really got me into this pursuit of craziness was SP member Bob Bolton as I mentioned above. Before the year was over, I had really covered almost every corner of Oregon and much of Washington. It began in February when I met Bob at Biggs Oregon and together we headed out to pick up the county highpoints of both Gilliam and Sherman counties together. I won't go into detail about our overall trip but I can say with conviction that when the day was over, I was hooked on county highpointing. I had also learned the value of a GPS when seeking out obscure places as watching Bob use his GPS was a real education for me. I really concentrated on Oregon and by the time the snow flew in November, I had visited every county highpoint in the state of Oregon but one as well as a good share of the ones in Washington and Nevada as well. The one in Oregon that eluded me was Mt. Jefferson and I had one trip planned for that one but it fell apart due to a
family need. Two other trips to Mt. Jefferson also were aborted when I broke my finger a few days before a scheduled trip and the other was aborted due to bad weather.

If I could rate the peaks visited in 2003 (all county highpoints), I would list Oregons Mt. Hood, Mt. Thielsen, South Sister, Mt. McLoughlin, Eagle Cap, Nevada's Mt. Charleston and Wheeler Peak, and Washingtons Mt. Adams, Mt. Daniels to name a few of my favorites.

2003 was also the year I met Dennis Poulin, who along with Bob were to become a couple of my best friends. Dennis and I have probably climbed close to a hundred mountains together and that is a similar number to the ones I have done with Bob. The friends I have made since becoming involved in chasing peaks has created quite a list but when all is said and done, Bob and Dennis are the two who have influenced me the most.

County highpointing led to prominence peak chasing later on but 2003 was really the year that I was only into that pursuit. Here is the total number for 2003, overall 75 summits with the most of them being county highpoints:

Oregon Cohp's: 34
Washington cohp's: 27
Nevada cohp's: 6
Idaho cohp's: 3
Utah cohp's 1

27 of those county highpoints were done with Bob and I did 31 by myself.


For all peaks the breakdown month by month looked like this:
January - 0 February- 8 March - 4 April - 6 May - 8 June - 9 July - 12
August - 12 September - 8 October - 7 November - 4

However, for this page, I will only list the summits which were the highpoints of counties since in 2003, that is where my focus was. The end total was 67 county highpoint summits which made up the majority of 2003's totals.


In the table below, if you click on the county, you will be taken to a List of John page that provides more information about the peak/highpoint and those who have signed the register log.

County highpoints 2003

2003 County Highpoint effort
Number	Peak Name	County	State	Elevation	Date/TR	Partner(s)	P2K
1	Gilliam Cohp	Gilliam	OR	4285	Feb 8	w/Bob	No
2	Sherman Cohp	Sherman	OR	3000	Feb 8	w/Bob	No
3	Rattlesnake BM	Benton	WA	3629	Feb 28	solo	No
4	Karakul Hills	Adams	WA	2100	Mar 8	w/Bob	No
5	Lilienthal Mtn	Lincoln	WA	3568	Mar 8	w/Bob	No
6	East Peak	Douglas	NV	9591	Apr 5	solo	No
7	Mt.Davidson	Storey	NV	7864	Apr 7	solo	Yes
8	Snow Valley Peak	Carson City	NV	9214	Apr 10	solo	No
9	Lewis Peak	Walla Walla	WA	4888	Apr 18	solo	No
10	Mount Spokane	Spokane	WA	5883	Apr 19	solo	Yes
11	Pickles Butte	Canyon	ID	3084	Apr 23	solo	No
12	Saddle Mtn	Clatsop	OR	3283	May 9	solo	Yes
13	Long Mountain	Columbia	OR	2265	May 10	w/wife	No
14	Indian Rock	Klickitat	WA	5850	May 18	w/Bob	Yes
15	Black Mtn	Morrow	OR	5932	May 16	solo	No
16	Mt. Hood	Clackamas-Hood River	OR	11239	May 24	solo	Yes
17	Badger Mtn	Douglas	WA	4254	May 26	w/Bob	Yes
18	Beesley Hills	Grant	WA	2899	May 26	w/Bob	No
19	Wynoochee Point	Grays Harbor	WA	4880	June 1	w/Bob & Duane	No
20	Marys Peak	Benton	OR	4097	June 12	w/Bob	Yes
21	Mount Bolivar	Coos	OR	4319	June 13	W/Bob	Yes
22	Brandy Peak	Curry	OR	5298	June 13	w/Bob	Yes
23	Grayback Mtn	Josephine	OR	7048	June 14	w/Bob	Yes
24	Tower Mtn	Umatilla	OR	6850	June 20	solo	No
25	Spanish Peak	Wheeler	OR	6871	June 20	solo	No
26	Lookout Mtn	Crook	OR	6926	June 21	solo	Yes
27	South Sister	Lane-Deschutes	OR	10358	June 27	solo	Yes
28	Oregon Butte	Columbia	WA	6387	July 2	solo	Yes
29	Strawberry Mtn	Grant	OR	9040	July 3	solo	Yes
30	Mount Mcloughlin	Jackson	OR	9495	July 4	w/Bob	Yes
31	Mount Thielsen	Douglas-Klamath	OR	9182	July 5	w/Bob	Yes
32	Mount Adams	Yakima	WA	12276	July 10	solo	Yes
33	Buck Peak	Multonamah	OR	4751	July 19	w/Andrew	No
34	Olallie Bute	Wasco	OR	6280	July 20	w/Bob	No
35	Copper Butte	Ferry	WA	7140	July 25	solo	Yes
36	Abercrombie Mtn	Stevens	WA	7308	July 25	solo	Yes
37	Gypsy Peak	Pend Oreille	WA	5883	July 26	w/Bob	Yes
38	9000 foot liner	Marion	OR	9000	Aug 9	w/Bob	No
39	Saddle Mtn	Washington	OR	3464	Aug 10	solo	No
40	Franklin Cohp	Franklin	WA	1640	Aug 22	solo	No
41	Tekoa Mtn	Whitman	WA	4009	Aug 22	solo	No
42	Rey Ridge	Asotin	WA	6180	Aug 22	solo	No
43	Diamond Peak	Garfield	WA	6379	Aug 22	solo	No
44	Eagle Cap	Union	OR	9572	Aug 23	W/Bill J	Yes
45	Steens Mountain	Harney	OR	9733	Aug 30	w/Bob	Yes
46	Hayden Peak	Owyhee	ID	8403	Aug 30	w/Bob	Yes
47	Stevenson BM	Malheur	OR	8027	Aug 31	sw/Bob	No
48	Granite Peak	Humboldt	NV	9732	Aug 31	w/Bob	Yes
49	Crane Peak	Lake	OR	8456	Sep 1	w/Bob	Yes
50	Red Mountain	Baker	OR	9560	Sep 6	w/Bob & Dennis	Yes
51	Gold Mountain	Kitsap	WA	1761	Sep 14	w/Bill J	No
52	Goat Mountain	Cowlitz	WA	4965	Sep 19	w/Bill J	Yes
53	Sturgeon Rock	Clark	WA	4080	Sep 19	w/Bill J	No
54	Pacific Cohp	Pacific	WA	3000	Sep 20	solo	No
55	Liner on W. Adams	Skamania	WA	8920	Sep 21	w/Bob	No
56	Sacajawea Peak	Wallowa	OR	9838	Sep 27	w/2 others	Yes
57	Quiemuth Peak	Thurston	WA	2922	Oct 4	solo	No
58	Mount Daniel	King-Kittitas	WA	7960	Oct 5	w/Bob & Bill	Yes
59	Trask Mtn	Yamhill	OR	3424	Oct 18	w/wife	No
60	Laurel Mtn	Polk	OR	3589	Oct 19	solo	Yes
61	Wheeler Peak	White Pine	NV	13063	Oct 23	solo	Yes
62	Charleston Peak	Clark	NV	11916	Oct 25	solo	Yes
63	Delano Peak	Beaver-Piute	UT	12169	Oct 26	solo	Yes
64	Lincoln Cohp	Lincoln	OR	3401	Nov 1	w/3 others	No
65	Rogers Peak	Tillamook	OR	3706	Nov 1	w/Bob & others	Yes
66	Huckleberry Ridge	Wahkiakum	WA	2673	Nov 8	w/Bob & Bill	No
67	Island Cohp	Island	WA	580	Nov 15	solo	No