From Here On Out

Once again I've managed to finish a batch of posts just in time to set off to gather data for the next ones. This third leg of my trip will be the longest yet--and the last of the year--so listen up:

I'll head out from Ohio (following a family vacation) on August 7th in order to hit Illinois on a permissible day, then continue north through the Upper Midwest, down to Iowa, and back up to the Dakotas. From there I'll make a line down the Plains states, interrupted by quick jogs west to Mt.s Elbert and Wheeler, then rebound up from Texas by way of Arizona, Utah, and Idaho, and conclude with a visit to the former Mt. Mazama.

As I predicted back in April, the glaciated high points of Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, and Washington remain out of reach for me, as does a 22-mile day hike up Mt. Whitney (and its neighbor Boundary Peak is so close that I might as well do those two together). So it looks like I'll have to cap it at 42 high points for this summer... unless someone wants to step forward with airfare to Hawaii? (Any sarcastic fool who steps forward with airfare to Alaska is coming along to be my rope-buddy on Denali's glaciers. I mostly know how to self-arrest.)

So, here goes!
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Revised Northeast Itinerary

By the time you read this, I’ll be on my way north to bag my second batch of highpoints.

Wow, you’re probably thinking, that was incredibly good timing. Did she mean to stretch out the first leg’s posts to cover her entire layover in Virginia? Well… yes, let’s ascribe that to planning and not procrastination.

Fortunately, this northeastern leg will involve a lot more hiking and a lot less driving than the last one. I’ve got 9 high points to hit, 4 of which (Marcy, Mansfield, Washington, and Katahdin) are pretty darn remote. I don’t expect to have proper Internet access at all on this leg... which means you’ll get a week-and-a-half-long break from my blathering. Yay!

Itinerary!

"So," everybody's been asking, "how are you gonna do this trip? How long will it take? How many miles will you drive? How much will it cost?"

Well, I won't know the last three until it's done, but as for the first:

Here's how.

I'll start off in my hometown, the good ol' Northern Virginia Urban Conglomerate (I've always found something vaguely grotesque in that word, "conglomerate." Have you?). From there I'll pop up into Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia in quick succession (following the light-green arrows), then work my way down the southern Appalachians through Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Georgia. After that I'll head south to Alabama, then all the way down to Florida (where I expect I'll linger for a few days on the beach), then back up to Mississippi, and then over the river to Louisiana.