never made it anywhere! My buddy and I are high pointers and we tried to do Mt Frissell a few years ago. We were terribly disappointed to spend literally hours looking for the trailhead in a flooded region of Connecticut. We used Paul Zumwalt's book as a guide but we walked back and forth, this way and that way, shortly after heavy rains had flooded this whole area pretty badly. We were so mad we couldn't figure out where the trailhead was to go up! We eventually gave up hours later, totally soaked to the knees from the wet areas we had been and went all the way back to DC completely perplexed. We did get to at least 4 other high points that weekend but CT was a bust.
Now I'm doing these high points by myself because at 49 y.o. my hiking friend just had a baby and can't do them with me for a few years I'm guessing. I just did SC, KY and GA last weekend by myself, 1500 miles of driving in 2.5 days and had an awesome time (also saw The Biltmore mansion while down there in Asheville and the BMW museum in Spartanburg - totally cool sideline things to do). Thanksgiving weekend I'm planning to do MS, AL and FL while traveling from DC to Miami to see my sister, about 3000 miles RT. Hope I make it.
I want to do Iowa, Illinois, Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana Sept 4th weekend, the last weekend for 9 months that Charles Mound is open. It'll cost $432 for the RT flight, $600 for 4 days of rental car (that 1 way drop off is pretty expensive) and cheap, scuzzy hotels for 4 nights at about $50 each night. It's more than I want to spend to do these high point but going somewhere else in the world for that same $1500... I don't know where I'd go that would be as fulfilling for me. I get incredible pleasure driving to these high points and doing them, meeting people along the way on the road, thinking about them, talking about them, and then there's the glory of actually finding them after getting lost for hours. For me, it's a grown up scavenger hunt. I will be at 62% of the US high points if I do all these I've listed, and at 64% if someone is willing to bang out Mt Frissell with me one Sat morning.
So - I really want to drive up to Mt Frissell one night after work, leaving Rockville, MD at 5pm, driving the 343 miles to Salisbury CT (about 7.5 hours) and I guess it's near there somewhere. I really want to conquer this tiny hike to the top but I don't want to do it alone. Would anyone consider meeting me one Saturday morning around 9am or 10am to do this hike - someone that has done it before and can actually show me how to get to the top?
Thanks in advance if you can. I can't afford a repeat of a few years ago. It would hurt too much if I drove all that way and got lost again! You could email me off-line if you can do it. I'm thinking in the next 2 months at the latest.
Really enjoying this forum. I just found it again after reading it a few years back before doing Mt Whitney. That was my hardest hike yet. Another friend I met at a corporate training week in Philly wants to do Gannett Peak with me next June. He's a real mountaineer as opposed to what I do, general hiking. I have never done technical rock climbing so I doubt I'd be up for it but it's certainly piqued my interest from the pics I've found on this site of a gent's hike up to the top. Took him 7 attempts before he finally made it. Wow...that's intense.
Regards,
Steve R
Maryland
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