Arthur Digbee wrote:What's everyone been up to? I know . . . leaving the Midwest in one way or another. That's what I did.

It is ironic that most of the posts in this thread are about what us midwesternerns do outside of the midwest. That being said, I've been to North Carolina twice in the past month. Three weeks ago I went on a short weekend trip and hiked Grandfather Mountain...

http://www.summitpost.org/the-grandfather-mountain-traverse/719061...and went back last weekend for a two night backpack in Linville Gorge.

I do hope to post several pages from that trip.

But the rest of the summer is looking pretty dry as far as trail time goes!

MarkDidier wrote:It is ironic that most of the posts in this thread are about what us midwesternerns do outside of the midwest. That being said, I've been to North Carolina twice in the past month. Three weeks ago I went on a short weekend trip and hiked Grandfather Mountain...

http://www.summitpost.org/the-grandfather-mountain-traverse/719061...and went back last weekend for a two night backpack in Linville Gorge.

Wonderful! Keep the pages coming.

Thanks for pushing me to post something here.

Local stuff: I recently put up pages for 2 Michigan county HP's, and I've been working on albums for the Yankee Springs Recreation Area and North Country Trail (NCT) through Michigan. Some of those are still in progress. Also, some of my NCT description from last year is now obsolete, since tornadoes/wind ripped up the Kimball Pines County Park near Battle Creek. The trail was recently completely impassable (and may still be), and once it's cleared it will NOT look the same.

Away stuff: I was in the Northeast last week, and went to NH for a day. So, I put up a trailhead page for Mount Osceola and East Osceola in the White Mountains. Eventually, I'll post an album of the Mount Osceola Trail and a trip report. Unfortunately, I had no views because the summits were in the clouds.

Went to devils tower in may and on the way back we stopped at pictured rocks in Iowa. It was a very cool crag along side of a small river. There was some bolted routes and a really cool cave. One down side I didn't see any camp grounds around there.

Finally getting around to posting some pages from my trip out to the South Dakota this past May. Just set up a page for White Butte in the Badlands, more to come...

dwhike wrote:Finally getting around to posting some pages from my trip out to the South Dakota this past May. Just set up a page for White Butte in the Badlands, more to come...

...and now a trip report for a day hike up Little Devils Tower...

just back from Washington and had a great time getting away from the hot weather here in chicago. I went up rainier for my second summit. We had the best weather of the year I think.

Just finished a page for Wind Cave National Park if anyone's interested!

I just posted a new route page for the Wichita Mountains. The route is a grand loop passing most of the highlights of the Charon's Garden Wilderness.





This is part of a revamp of the Twin Rocks Mountain page that is currently underway.

Revamp on Twin Rocks Mountaincompleted.

I finally completed the 50 state highpoints last week and put together an album here. (WooHoo!)

Just discovered the site, I like it! Looks like there is some great information all around here. Obviously the Midwest doesn't compare to the Appalachians or the wonderful West, but if you have to live here, you may as well enjoy the regional stuff until you can get some extended travel time.

Just spent a weekend in the Saint Francois Mountains and, for me, it's second only to the Upper Peninsula for most enjoyable area of the Midwest.

I just had a great couple days in the Porcupine Mountains near Memorial Day. Planning my drive from Chicago, I came across the Alligator Eye. For more, see this:

http://www.summitpost.org/alligator-eye/794272

Cool find, Stu. And Lake Gogebic is conveniently located on the way to the Porkies.

How were the Porkies? Soggy? Skeeters? Nice breeze off the lake?

I had an awesome time (my first) in the Porkies May 24-26th. It was 83 driving up, but the temperture dropped 22 degrees within a mile of Lake Superior when a massive Canadian Storm front roared through, causing a seich and pummelling the area. But after the storm cleared at dawn, we had crisp cool temps and a 30 mph wind that cleared the bugs, which even with the mud produced 2 days of great hiking.

It was cool and rainy the day I left but since it was 101 degrees 7 hours later in Illinois I still would have been better off had I stayed!