We completed our 50 state highest points project!

We did it!!!  Just a little over a year ago, when we completed 49 out of the 50 highest points in each state, I did a write-up: 49 continental state highest points complete.  We still had the highest point of one last state to attain: Hawai’i!  And, at last, we did it!

Two days ago, we first attained it when the grandson of my now former neighbor, Cathy, drove us nearly to the top, and we all sauntered over to the true summit.  Knowing how this would engender ridicule and scorn from our hiking and climbing buddies, we then went back, yesterday, and hiked the 6-plus miles (9.6km) and 4,800 ft (1463 meters) to the summit from the Visitor Center.  The weather, yesterday, wasn’t as ideal as the previous day, so we couldn’t see as much.  Here are the two “couple” summit photos from each day.  This first one is from September 6^th (when we had Mark to take our photo!) – Mauna Loa is the mountain in the distance:

And then this one from September 7^th – since we arrived later in the day, we had to change the background, so that the sun’s direction would be more favorable to the photo, so you can see some of the many buildings that litter the summit area (besides, Mauna Loa wasn’t visible, due to the clouds):

And, as many of you know, I’ve been using our state highest point achievements to bring awareness to Juvenile Myositis (a sometimes fatal autoimmune disease affecting children) by taking a photo of a Cure JM banner supplied years ago by a friend whose son had the disease and has since passed away due to it.  Photos with the banner at all of the highpoints can be seen here (this is public, you don’t have to belong to Facebook to see it).  Here is the Hawai’i Cure JM photo:

A fascinating thing about this state high point is the myriad of antennas, arrays of antennas, telescopes, and observatories that are on the top of this mountain.  These buildings are all HUGE.  The mountain is also HUGE!  Note the red color:

From the summit (on the 6^th, when it was clearer!), we could see Maui!  (I’m assuming that it’s actually the top of Haleakala’s crater):

The following is typical scenery for the whole top 1000 ft or so of the mountain:

This was near Lake Waiau at 13,020ft, one of the highest lakes in the US – what I found fascinating is that there was still flora up here:

I’m including this photo because it shows some of the trail we took to the summit.  In the distance, you can see the road to the summit:

Almost all of the signs on the mountain have these holes in them – presumably so that the wind doesn’t blow them over:

May you succeed in your long term goals/projects!

Leora

49 Continental State Highest Points complete!

As you’re probably aware, Jay and I have been on a quest to summit the highest natural point in each of the 50 states of the United States of America.  We went on a trip this July and August to attempt to wrap up getting to the highest points in all of the states situated on the continent.  On August 25^th, 2016, we succeeded (Jay and I, and our Cure JM (Juvenile Myositis) banner)!!!  Now, all we have left to do is Mauna Kea in Hawaii, and we’ll have been to the highest point in each of the 50 states!

Here, I’ve included a collage of the final continental high points (I’ve been posting the Cure JM photos at this publicly accessible link.) We also did the highest natural point in Washington, District of Columbia, since we were so close.  Finding the USGS marker for the point that is the official recognition of the highest point that the public is allowed to visit, turned out to be a bit of a challenge, but, in spite of the almost 100degree Fahrenheit (38C) weather (with very high humidity), we did find it, as you can see from the picture:

(Click on Photo to see the higher quality image that you can zoom in on.)

We did hikes with friends around New Jersey’s High Point, and we did hikes to reach New York’s Mt. Marcy, Connecticut’s Mt. Frissell (the high point is on the shoulder of the mountain, whose peak is in Massachusetts), New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington (we had a choice for this one – there’s a road to the summit), Vermont’s Mt. Mansfield, and Maine’s Baxter Peak on Katahdin.  The rest were readily accessible via at most a stroll from the vehicle.  Speaking of which, Jay’s Ford F150 has now been in 48 of our 50 states!  Not many vehicles can say that for themselves!

May you have goals around your own passion to which you can strive!

leora

Mt. Rainier, Washington - #40 out of 50

Since this was a rather significant summit in terms of our getting to the highest point in each of the 50 states, I decided to put captions on some of our 5/11/16 Mt. Rainier climb pictures, and put them on the web.  Unlike our neighborhood Mt. Hood, or even Washington’s Mt. Adams, neither of us have tens of climbs of this mountain under our belts – this was #8 for me, and probably #7 for Jay.  It takes at least 3.5 hours to get to the trailhead, and for me, at least, it’s likely to always be at least a 2 day climb.  It’s such an impressive climb, though – and the crevasses are so monumental in size, that it’s such a pleasure to do a climb of the mountain.  If you're interested in the “picture story”, go to:

Link to May 11, 2016 climb of Mt. Rainier, Washington (#40) 

[Note, Google is now showing this in Google Photos, rather than using Picasa Web, so in order to see the captions, you have to click on the little "i" in the upper right hand corner of the screen.  If you're looking at the album as a whole, it will give you the comments that I put in for the whole album.  Once you click on the first picture, it will start showing the captions on each photo.]  I hope that you enjoy seeing the pictures and reading the captions as much as we enjoyed doing the climb!!

leora

1st Wedding Anniversary!

It’s already been a year since we climbed to the summit of Mt. Hood, and were married by and in the presence of other climbers!  Some of our climbing friends couldn’t make it, that year, so soon after that climb, we decided that we’d just have to do it, again, and our 1^st anniversary seemed like an appropriate time to do such a climb.  So, I reserved the date on the climb schedule (with the wilderness restrictions, and restrictions that the Mazamas, our local climbing organization, have, we can’t have 2 climbs happening at the same time on the same side of the mountain), and hoped that there would be a weather window for the climb.  And. . . there *was* a weather window.  It was predicted to be warmer than last year, so we had to do the climb at night, rather than during the day, as we had last year, but it turned out that the snow conditions and weather were absolutely perfect!  We had more than the 12 people, maximum, who were interested in the climb and could go that day, so a couple people decided to do climbs on their own, and meet us for the celebration.  Here is our celebration photo with everyone who could join:

Photo people, in strict left to right:

Mark Fowler, Dyanne Foster, Jean Hillebrand, Gary Riggs, Lynne Pedersen, Rita Hansen, Moriel Arango, Leora Gregory, Jason Vosburgh, Jay Avery, David Carrier (solo climber), Jonathan Myers, Karen Vernier (solo climber), and Amad Doratotaj.  The photo was taken by another Mazama organization member, Aaron Mendelson, who just happened to also be on the summit at the same time.

Mark, Dyanne, Jean, Gary, and Karen had all joined us last year for the wedding, which was performed by Karen.

Since most of the climb was at night, the pictures were primarily taken at the summit.   Jay stood just at the top of the crux of the climb, and took photos of everyone as they emerged from the narrow chute of the western Pearly Gate.  One that I particularly enjoyed was this one:

This picture happens to be of me (followed by a couple of team members), but that’s not why I like it – it’s because you can see all the way down the mountain, to the sun just kissing the western edge of the White River canyon, below.

On the summit, Rita took this really sweet picture of Jay and me:

 

And Jason caught us doing what we tend to do a lot, especially while on a mountain:

Gary is looking on. . .

The temperature was nice and cool, the sun was shining, the skies were clear, there wasn’t much wind to speak of, and snow was such that it made for an easy and safe ascent.  Everyone made it up to the top, and home, safely – a perfect climb, and a perfect gift for our 1^st Wedding Anniversary!  People are already suggesting that this be an annual event – but, as always, that will depend upon the weather!!!

May you all have wonderful experiences to mark occasions of importance to you!

leora