Great Job! Good luck in Wyoming.

Congrats catamount, which route are you taking for granite? Looking forward to hear more about it! We are heading there via SW couloir in August.

-Alex

Best of luck on granite guys, that's one of the highpoints i dream most of. i recently took a month long intro to rock climbing course at NYC rock gym just to get some basics to help with this peak someday. I didn't know there was guides for these two peaks I'll add that to my notes for future possibilities.

I had great time on Cheaha last weekend. Took the short but steep lake trail which I had all to my lonesome. Next on my schedule is Humphrey's in September.

I think you both are going to summit Granite!

Please let us know about SW couloir route as that seems to be underused and easier than Froze to Death Plateau. Would love to hear every detail when you get back!

Cypress and I have a plan to climb Mt. Rogers in Va and possibly Black Mtn. in Ky in about ten days. I am way psyched because that would give us 7 highpoints for the year- our most ever.

Does anyone have suggestions for interesting stuff in these places? We are thinking of some stuff around Big Walker Mtn (hike, lookout tower, general store) but that's all we've got.

It would be awesome to find a Civil War battlefield or maybe a Coal Museum to add local flavor... any ideas would be appreciated!

GEM Trail wrote:Cypress and I have a plan to climb Mt. Rogers in Va and possibly Black Mtn. in Ky in about ten days. I am way psyched because that would give us 7 highpoints for the year- our most ever.

Does anyone have suggestions for interesting stuff in these places? We are thinking of some stuff around Big Walker Mtn (hike, lookout tower, general store) but that's all we've got.

It would be awesome to find a Civil War battlefield or maybe a Coal Museum to add local flavor... any ideas would be appreciated!

My wife and I visited the Hatfield Family Cemetery and the Hatfield Family Museum in Sarah Ann, WV. It was interesting to us since my wife is a direct descendant of the Hatfields! Basketball star Jerry West also grew up very close to that area.

A visit to Seneca Rocks is also very worthwhile. We stayed overnight in cabins near there.

Wow, the Hatfields and the McCoys! Can your girl really hold onto a grudge? Just kidding. That sounds awesome. When I lived in DC I climbed Seneca Rocks and mountain biked all over the area, so I know that place well.

Still want more ideas but thought I would share what I have found so far for other travelers:

There IS a coal museum, in Harlan, 20 miles W of Black Mountain. And there's a neat arts and crafts store in Cumberland, less than 10 miles away. Down the road is the Cumberland Gap NP, by all accounts an underused gem of the park system. Cumberland Gap is a very scenic and historic spot with some unique caves and excellent trails (so I have read). There's a really neat mountaintop ghost town called Hensley. And Big Walker Lookout has views of 5 states.

Even though I haven't made it down to Ky's highpoint, but as a KY native I can recommend some great things to do in the state. I'm not sure which way you intend to head down to the highpoints, but the first and most enjoyable is the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. You visit all of the distilleries and yes they have samples. You need not be 21 to do the tours. The distilleries are mostly in the central area of the state, and the driving scenery is quite lovely as you get to see why they call it the rolling hills of kentucky. If you are looking for some history, head over to Bardstown, KY (near Louisville) which is one of the oldest cities in the state and has the states civil war museum. The architecture there is amazing and there is some good quality cooking as well. Just find any hole in the wall looking place and you can bet the food will be good. If you are heading that way you might as well go a little further to Louisville, KY and do a tour of Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby (it will change your whole perception when you watch it on TV) and see the Louisville Slugger Factory. Churchill runs tours everyday and every hour or so as I recall, not sure about Slugger anymore. Either way at Louisville Slugger its cool to just see the giant bat outside the building. If these suggests don't work for you, send me a message and let me know what specific areas you will be visiting and I could possible have more suggestions. I live in northern ky near cincinnati and if you want some suggestions for up here i could also provide. Enjoy your trip!

Thats what I did. The day I did the highpoint I visited Wild Turkey, Four Roses, and Woodford Reserve and I can tell you it is a very pretty area of the country then I had lunch in Versailles and made it to highpoint in the afternoon which is not in a pretty area of country and left me sad. Hiked Rogers next day but I didn't find anything to do near VA highpoint so after mountain drove straight to Asheville, NC which is an awesome town especially for a craft beer nut like myself.

Thanks to everyone for the great ideas. I am especially excited about that Hatfield Museum. The idea of that Hatfield lady at the bottom of the hill with her museum and her gravestone business and her dead relatives buried above her- it sounds Gothic, or Shakespearean.


To change topics, I thought it might be nice to expand the thread a little with more travel info.

Every highpointer does a lot of traveling to the same places. So I'd like to invite anyone to share more info on not just the climbs themselves but other attractions, great campsites, etc. We might as well make this thread as useful as possible!

Well done Catamount! Congrats on a successful trip!

Great job, Catamount. What a successful and fun summer!

My family (wife and 6 kids ranging in age from 12 years to seven months old) and I hiked to the summit of Harney Peak last week via trail # 9! No one had any trouble except for the four year old. She made it 1 1/2 miles before she could go no further. My wife carried her the rest of the way up, and I carried her all the way down in a child carrier. HP #7 for me!

Congratulations Catamount and Iagosghost! So Catamount, can you tell us about SW Couloir? And how many highpoints are you up to now?

Last weekend Cypress and I did Kentucky and Virginia.

Kentucky was as advertised; very uninspiring in its present form. This is one of many highpoints that would really benefit from tourism- and outdoor recreation- related development. We did find two really cool things to do in Cumberland, the nearest town west of the highpoint- the coal museum and the Poor Fork Arts and Crafts collective.

Virginia was unbelievable. I did not realize how great this hike was going to be! Big views the whole way and we ran into two batches of wild ponies. They let us feed them grass and pet them. Add in the atmosphere at the campground, the AT, nearby Damascus, and it was one of the very best highpoints. It could never be my favorite because it was just too easy, but maybe the best ever to get a beginner into highpointing.

I am up to 24 now, and Junior and I have done 19 together. This has been our best year ever!

I forgot about the pin, if i successfully bag Humphrey's in September I may just put in for it, class up my book bag