(NM-AZ-) Nevada: Boundary peak (-CA)

Third state on this road trip was Nevada and Boundary peak. There exists some confusion regarding Nevada's highest mountain/point. The highest freestanding mountain is Mt Wheeler, named the same as the peak in New Mexico. But the highest point is Boundary peak,, named from being close to the boundary of California, and connected to the higher Montgomery peak, so while boundary peak is a isolated topographic high point there is a higher point not much more than a mile away, although that peak is in the state of California.

Enough trivia... I decided to camp at the trail head on about 9000 ft elevation, reason being it is in the middle of nowhere and required a 15mile very slow trip on a gravel road, which at parts was not really worth the title "road". The rental car took a minor beating, but I was mostly happy not to slide off the sides of the roads which whould have ended in a stuck car in the middle of nowhere (or worse). The trail head marks the newly created wilderness area, and it's residents which range from flies and cows to bear (rare sightings though). One note though I arrived in the afternoon to very pleasant and almost overly warm weather, the night proved to be very different though with a couple degrees below freezing indicated by ice on the rain-fly of the tent. It got me so hypothermic that I had to sit in the car and warm up for over an hour to mend the shivering. Once the sun came up the quicksilver jumped upwards for a beautiful morning and day to hike in without any other people around apart from some people fishing in a dam slightly below the trail head.

In the evening I did a minor hike just to check out the terrain for tomorrow. being a more obscure peak there is a number of faint "trails" or routes one might take. The first part follows a lush valley along a small creek, the deep saddle on the right above is then one option to go to and then follow the ridge for over 2000ft elevation. alternatively one aims for the second ridge to the left and then go to the left and find Boundary peak hidden behind the peak on the left.

 The zoom above shows one of the 2 main obstacles on this hike: major rock outcroppings which one needs to climb around, navigating them is somewhat tricky though so on the ascent it is common to take a steeper than necessary route to follow the ridge, while form above going down, one can identify  that some can be avoided by walking below them on the scree on various sides depending on which is too steep.

The second obstacle can be seen in the picture below. The side of the mountain is compromised of loose scree and gravel at inclinations of 20-25% meaning it's a game of 2 steps forwards three steps back on the way up, and the way down is more of 1 step forward, 10ft of gliding downwards in loose scree. As an illustration it took 4h to the top, and less than 1h 45min down, of which close to an hour was the top scramble, and the rest consisted of the very quick and amusing (as long as the leg muscles keep up) decent. The inclination can also be seen from the starkly dark sky looking upwards at high altitude with less atmosphere to look through.

Getting up to the ridge one can make out Boundary peak on the picture below, some snow is left on the northern sides, but not much considering it was close to desert landscape around the mountains.

The picture above shows some of the magnificent rock formations one found on the mountain slopes. The photo is taken in the direction of Nevada and the valley the trail came from (on the right). The car and tent awaits less than 3 miles away (bird's route).  Below one can see Montgomery peak which is in California, the state boundary is actually passing more or less in the middle between the peaks in each state.

The top register actually had a nice flag showing the location and elevation nicely. So that lead to a good Photo opportunity, and a pretty irrefutable sign of being above 4000m elevation again.

Weather was nothing short of fantastic, and the SPF 50 which was reapllied about 5 times saved my fqace and nose from a lot of future pain.

Finally there was a section along the trail which had eerily looking trees which reminded me of the Ents going to war in the  Lord of the rings movies. Most of the was quite a bit away from the trail, but below is one nice one that was close to the trail and clinging on to the side of the valley.

As I reached the car I started heading towards California to find a place for sleeping and possibly visiting Yosemite or another park in the Sierras, however, luck had it that I could get a pass to Mt Whitney, and I had 5 minutes to decide where or not to accept it and hike the highpoint of all of continental US or rest or go to some mild scenic climb like half-dome in Yosemite. Considering the phenomenal altitude acclimatization NM,AZ,NV had given, I could hardly turn that opportunity down...


Stats:
State: Nevada
High point:Boundary Peak
Elevation: 13 140 ft (4 005 m)
Date: July 13, 2011
Total elevation to date: 135 174 ft (41 201 m)
Access: Hike, class 2, 6h round trip
Difficulty rating (of 10): 5
Potential Difficulties: Loose scree and sand will make ascend hard. Even in July, camping at trail head can lead to hypothermia.

(NM-) Arizona: Humphrey's peak (-NV-CA)

Arizona's Humprey's Peak was next on the list. And after New Mexico the previous day the effects of altitude should be less severe when this mountain was about 500 ft (150 m) lower.

Most of the early parts of the hike was in forests up on the slopes of the now extinct volcano, which is also the home to Arizona's only ski resort: Snowbowl. There wa s much damage to the trees in what looked like the effect of a strong storm, but could also be the long term effect of pollution and acid rain making it hard on the trees.

At about 11500 ft the nature opened up at can be seen above and it was possible to see some of the ski slopes and connected ski lifts of the region.

This also marked the first possibility to see and hike on the ridge of the volcano. Meaning the general inclination was lower on the final parts, but that still took a long while with adjusting to the thinner air and scrambling across boulders here and there.

After some heavy rains in the morning while approaching Flagstaff, AZ the sky was now clearing up, which was a blessing since it made thunder storms much less likely. Below you can see the Assisi peak to which one of the chairlifts go very close to, however, visiting that peak is not possible due to the sensitive alpine nature and the fact that no hiking is allowed outside the trails.

The final mugshot at he peak don't quite show how hard the elevation was getting to me, but the rest was very welcome, and the knowledge that the decent is normally much easier did help tremendously!

Stats:
State: Arizona
High point: Humphreys Peak
Elevation:12 633 ft (3 851 m)
Date: July 11, 2011
Total elevation to date: 122 034 ft (37 196 m)
Access: Hike, class1 6h
Difficulty rating (of 10): 5
Potential Difficulties: weather, although a desert state, rain and thunderstorms are common on the high plains near Flagstaf.

New Mexico: Wheeler peak (-AZ-NV-CA)

On a vacation trip in south west US, which would turn out very successful, I started off by going to New Mexico's highest mountian: Wheeler peak, which stands just over 4000m (13 100ft).

Having slept in Santa Fe at over 6000ft (around 2000m) elevation I hoped that I had somewhat acclimatized to the coming altitude. And during the early parts of the hike which went through pine forest around 10000 ft in elevation, that was also the case.
However a few other difficulties presented itself. The forest was being shut sown by fire rescue units, which I met a few of. The last period have been extraordinarily dry, so for the sake of safety for people and forests they completely shut down regions under administrative control such as  national forests and park. The kind firefighters allowed me to continue onwards while they proceeded to mark the trails and put tape up indication the shutdown.

At higher altitude the nature is more of an alpine tundra, which does not present much of a fire hazard, but the mountains are known for notoriously bad thunderstorms, such that lightnings are a common cause of fires and devastation. As seen above that was something that did not phase the marmots occupying much of the high elevations.

The path to the top was supposed to be a scramble over cross country and loose scree on a slope. However, there was a recently established new trail, which switchbacked its way up the mountain. it does however extend the distance of the hike. and at a time when AMS (acute mountain sickness) started to kick in with the common symptom of shortness of breath, headache and nausea. Also my fingertips were turning surprisingly purplish, much in accordance to cyanosis, since usually cold makes my fingers loose color and turn pale rather than colored. It passed away though after having reached the top.

On the top it was not only marmots (ground hogs) that fought for my attention, but also chipmunks which were adorable untill it started to nibble on my backpack in search for food...

The picture above shows the ski slopes far in the valley where the trail started, and it also shows the ridge to the right on which an alternative, less steep, but longer trail goes to Wheeler peak also. Below is a photo showing me happily at the top, together with the monument and register to be found there. Lack of clearmindedness though made me forgot to sign the register to mark my 27th highpoint and second ever peak above 4000m. That turned out to be a more common event by the end of the week though. with the addition of 2 more 4000+m peaks.

Finally the shot taken below shows 2 curious animals, one being a large deer (hint: search for the white butt), and also a ground hog (hint: on the lookout).

The downhill path took quite some time even when compared to the ascending. Partly due to the ascending going very smoothly up to about 3400m/11300ft, before the altitude started to affect me more severely...

Stats:
State: New Mexico
High point: Wheeler Peak
Elevation: 13 161 ft (4 011 m)
Date: July 10, 2011
Total elevation to date: 109 401 ft (33 345 m)
Access: Hike, class 1, 5h round trip
Difficulty rating (of 10): 7
Potential Difficulties: New Mexico weather! Avoiding thunderstorms on the peak during monsoon is important. Having the forest "closed" due to extreme drought and fire danger is even harder to predict though!

(IL-IA-MN-) Wisconsin: Timms Hill

Wisconsin's Timm's Hill was the fourth and last highpoint of this road trip. It's an easily accessible high point with a moderate height. The access road is actually one-way, so depending on which direction one arrives from it could lead to an extra detour.

The last walk up to the Lookout tower doesn't offer much in form of challenge apart from the random tree obstructing the path. Below you can see the base of the wooden lookout tower as well as a steel structure in the background which is a taller fire lookout tower, a number of which I saw along the roads in Wisconsin.

The views were nonetheless very nice in the summertime even if this specific high point is not that much elevated above the surrounding nature.

A mandatory mugshot at the top was taken in fierce combat with the mosquitoes which by now had gotten the blood scent which followed me after the attacks in Minnesota earlier that day... A word of warning regarding the drinking fountain at the picnic site... I have rarely tasted a more foul water, mostly being infested with heavy iron taste and other pleasant odors.

Stats:
State: Wisconsin
High point: Timm's Hill
Elevation: 1951 ft (594.7 m)
Date: July 3, 2011
Total elevation to date: 96 240 ft (29 334 m)
Access: Drive-up, walk
Difficulty rating (of 10): 2
Potential Difficulties: Park/road closing at dusk, getting sick from water fountain...

(IL-IA-) Minnesota: Eagle Mountain (-WI)

Minnesotas Eagle Mountain was next on the list, and this really require some remote driving, since it is located north of Lake Superior in the direction of Canada, this it's is not very close to any other highpoints apart from Wisconsin's.

After driving some very well maintained gravel roads, the 6 mile round trip hike could commence. Nature was beautiful with much resemblance to the Nordic countries. Including some planked pathways above some small marshes.

As usual there is the mandatory lake close to the highpoint, in this instance Moose lake. The year have been reported in media as one of the most mosquito infected years to date, and this specific hike was already touted in guide books as possibly the fastest one of all due to the nuisance of mosquitoes...

Luckily the temperatures were a bit milder up north so keeping some covering layers of clothing was not exactly pleasant, but it wasn't too torturous either. And the nice views definitely made up for much of the flying pests. Close to the summit one should take care looking for stone cairns marking the trail dividing into a spur leading to the highpoint.

The high point was marked with a USGS marker declaring the roof of Minnesota, and also a large plaque with information about Eagle Mountain (of which there is several in the state).

On the way back along the lake shore of Lake Superior there were plenty of beautiful scenic areas including a number of waterfalls going down towards the massive water reservoir containing around 10% of the worlds surface freshwater (and more than the other 4 (3) great lakes combined). Note the people happily playing around close to the cascading waterfall, which had 3-4 20+ ft drops.

The Minnesota HP marked my official 'half-way done mark' with the 25th state highpoint ascended. Iowa would be the halfway mark for continental US which many complete rather than the full 50 state list.

Stats:
State: Minnesota
High point: Eagle Mountain
Elevation:2301 ft (701.3 m)
Date: July 3, 2011
Total elevation to date: 94 289 ft (28 739 m)
Access: Hike, class 1
Difficulty rating (of 10): 4
Potential Difficulties: MOSQUITOES! There are so many that you can actually get anemic within an hour or so...

(IL-) Iowa: Hawkeye Point (-MN-WI)

Iowa's Hawkeye Point was the next high point. It's a mere 1670 ft high (509 m). Just like Illinois HP it is located on farmland. This one though does not come with any visiting restictions and visitors are welcome.

The visitors welcome part is somewhat misleading though since I saw a lot of people in Illinois, but my only company at this highpoint was a tiger striped farm cat. Who was also admiring the collection of old used licence plates, one from each state in fact.

There was also nice informative signs in all kinds of directions pointing out the 49 other locations as well as their distance. I was somewhat surprised that Arizona was closer than Massachusetts, considering I'll be heading that direction soon.

The cat happily decided to part take in most photos, even if he is hidden behind the grey summit-marking stone in the above shot, he was happy to pose for a close-up below.

Stats:
State: Iowa
High point: Hawkeye Point
Elevation: 1670 ft (509.0 m)
Date: July 2nd, 2011
Total elevation to date: 91 988 ft (28 038 m)
Access: Drive-up
Difficulty rating (of 10): 2
Potential Difficulties: New road which GPS might not have xc, road construction detours.

Illinois: Charles Mound (-IA-MN-WI)

The independence week end was a good opportunity for a road trip spanning some 2000 miles and covering some of the 15 "lowest highest points" of all the states. Illinois' Charles Mound. It is located in the northwester corner of the state on private property. Being on private land the times to visit the the highpoint is somewhat limited to the first weekend of each summer month.

The High point required a few miles walk, along a country gravel road, which didn't offer much of views or exciting things to see apart from possible having to jump out of the way when Cowzilla comes running along the way. Cowzilla happened to be the registration plate on the pickup truck belonging to some of the landowners...

The highpoint offers some decent views of the rolling hills surrounding the mound/hill that was the actual highpoint. The view below is part of the road leading to the highpoint form the south.

Stats:
State: Illinois
High point: Charles Mound
Elevation: 1235 ft (376.4 m)
Date: July 2nd, 2011
Total elevation to date: 90 318 ft (27 528.9 m)
Access: walk (class 1 hike), drive-up
Difficulty rating (of 10): 2
Potential Difficulties: heat, meeting "Cowzilla" on the way