go hike a mountain

July 28, 2007

After leaving the Delaware high point, we stopped for some ribs and BBQ chicken and drove the 160 miles to High Point State Park, in New Jersey. The ride through Pennsylvania was long and slow, as it was especially foggy. When we pulled up to park headquarters at about 11:30pm, the park police pulled up after us. He pointed us in the direction of some toilets and the AMC lot in the park. We crawled into the back of the car to sleep at about 12:15am.

July 29, 2007

We woke up at 6:45am and headed out of the park to the town of Sussex for some breakfast. Jesse decided we should try a local diner for some pancakes where we encountered some colorful locals who were sharing stories over coffee. French toast and $17 later, we were on our way back to the park. Here are some photos from the drive back. Notice how foggy it was.

We paid the $10 weekend entrance fee and picked up a trail map that suggested we park in the Interpretive Center parking lot for our hike. We took off at 9:05am (and almost forgot Treeson again!) for the Monument Trail which was to total 3.7 miles roundtrip. The trail gradually led us uphill, through some beautiful wooded areas and around some scenic view points. Unfortunately, the fog was so bad we couldn’t see beyond 25ft. The trail was very well marked, but a little overgrown, so our legs got a little wet and muddy from all the dew that had collected in the morning. Here are some photos from along the hike:

We eventually were able to see the replica of the Washington Memorial in the distance.

When we got to the base, we did a little bit of searching and weren’t able to find a metal marker for the high point anywhere in the ground, but according to the plaque, the whole tower was supposed to serve as a high point stamp. If anyone else is aware of something we missed, please email us at gohikeamountain@gmail.com because we’d like to maybe do this hike again just to get a photo of the USGS marker. Well, I suppose we could even drive up this time, since we’ve already done the hike. So, here are some silly photos of us around the memorial:

Oh yeah, Treeson got to ride front seat in my pocket for this hike.

The tower was open and some other people were just descending the steps as we stepped inside. We saw this:

which was to lead 220ft to the top. I think that’s 7 flights of stairs, right? Anyway, we sort of jogged to the top, arrived totally breathless, and were disappointed with what we saw. It was so foggy that the view from the base of the monument was better and it was hot, stuffy, and the windows were so slim and high up that I had to stand on my tippy-toes to see out of them.

I’m sure that on a clear day, it’s worth the view to climb to the top of this tower, but the heat and moisture at the top also made for some slippery steps and I’m surprised the park hasn’t invested in some grip tape to line the steps. We carefully went back to the base, took another short break and finished the 1/4 mile left of our hike. Just at the point where we reached the car, the rain started. And by the time we were in non-sweaty clothes and driving out of the park, it was getting pretty heavy. The hike took us roughly 3 hours.

We took turns driving home, stopping for milkshakes on the way, and returned to New Bedford by 6pm (we had stopped at the REI in Cranston on the way, which took some extra time). In all, we had driven 800 miles, spent about 18 hours driving in the car (24, if you count having to sleep in the car) and were $200 poorer. We’ve both decided that for our next few trips, we’re going to have to go scumbag for a little while and take as much food with us as we can, instead of stopping for gourmet meals on the way. The new campstove will definitely help with that!