Ryan, Debi, and Toren Cragun's Blog

Summit Date
December 20th, 2003; around 12:00 pm

Party
Ryan & Debi Cragun

Trip Report
We left Cincinnati at 4:00 am and were on our way to Orlando for a week vacation. We re-directed our route in order to stop by the last two state highpoints I had not visited in the South – Alabama and Florida.

After leaving the main freeways, the drive up to the highpoint is fairly scenic, though it is likely more scenic during the other three seasons as many of the trees were leafless and brown. The roads are well-kept, but narrow.

We pulled into the state park to find some very nice-looking bungalows and a restaurant. There is a $1.00 per person fee to enter the park. The guidebook we were using said there were cabins in the park, but these looked more like condos. If I had known they were so nice, I may have arranged our trip so we stayed there that night (though the bed and breakfast where we ended up staying that night was also very nice).

From where you enter the park it is about 2 miles to the summit tower. There are a bunch of cellular and radio towers next to the summit tower along with some other stuff, but what the other stuff was or will be was not apparent as much of it was under construction when we visited (see the pictures below).

We parked opposite the summit tower and found the highpoint marker along the path leading up to the tower. The door to the tower was closed and I wasn’t sure if we could just walk in, but I tried it anyway and it opened right up. I quickly realized why the door was closed – the summit tower is heated! That’s right, a heated summit tower. Never seen that before.

The climb is quick and at the top, there is a ‘pay-to-view’ telescope in a beautiful, wood-paneled lookout. The lookout room at the summit offers a nice, panoramic view of the surrounding country-side. The view isn’t America’s best, but it is pretty nice. The only problem we had with the summit tower was that, with how cold it was, the windows were accumulating condensation, so you couldn’t really capture an entire vista without cleaning the windows (it wasn’t too cold, but it was surprisingly chilly, say – mid-40s or lower with the wind chill).

We had another couple visiting the highpoint snap some pictures of us and we did the same for them. They were from Alabama and were very nice. We spent a few minutes up there snapping pictures and enjoying the view (the fact the tower was heated helped us want to stay).

Overall, it’s a nice highpoint to visit, especially considering it is a drive-up (the only hiking involved is climbing the summit tower). The final thing I should note is that, instead of re-tracing our route back to I-20, we continued on SR-281 hoping to save ourselves some time as we were headed south. The result? First, we missed a turn and ended up driving about 5 miles before the road we were on ended. It was actually quite disappointing because that road was wide, very nice, and recently paved. When we realized we couldn’t continue on that road, we backtracked and found SR-281, which quickly degraded into a road that had been paved 20 years ago (though it was adequately patched). The road was also very narrow, barely affording room for two small-sized cars. There was, however, one cool thing about it – it had banked turns (and a lot of them). When possible, I approached the road as a race track, not slowing much for the turns and enjoyed the feeling of my momentum being re-directed. When you can’t see beyond the turn, you obviously shouldn’t speed through them as I did pass about 6 or 7 cars coming the other way, but when you can, the high-speed banking makes the narrow road kind of fun to drive.

We drove the to southern border of Alabama that night and stayed in Olde South Inn bed and breakfast, which was very nice, before continuing on to Florida’s highpoint and Orlando the next day.

Panorama

Directions
Here’s a map from Anniston, AL:

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Summit Date
July 22, 2003, around 9:30 am

Party
Ryan Cragun, Tom Triplett, Mark Woolley

Trip Report
This is the fourth hike that Tom, Mark, and Ryan have done together; but only the third state highpoint. We decided on hiking Mt. Elbert because Ryan was driving in from Ohio and this would prevent him from having to drive further than necessary. Also, the hikes that we choose to do together have to be rather strenuous hikes, as Ryan has done a number of much less strenuous highpoints either alone or with people other than Tom and Mark. Combining these factors, Colorado seemed like a good choice.

Anyway, Ryan spent the night in Leadville on the 21st then waited for Mark and Tom to arrive as they were driving directly to Leadville from Utah. Ryan spent most of the day in the public library, which is very nice, has internet access, and a hardwood reading room. Also, it should be noted that though there are a number of Mexican-type food restaurants in Leadville, they aren’t particularly great. While in Leadville we tried two of them (La Cantina and The Grille) and were not particularly impressed. Tom and Mark arrived in Leadville at around 5:30 pm and, after eating a quick dinner and picking up a few more essential supplies, we made our way to a campground next to the Mt. Elbert trailhead (Mt. Elbert trail).

We spent the night at the trailhead and got up at 4:45 in order to be on the trail early so we could be headed down before noon. We completely broke camp and were on the trail by 5:30. At the trailhead we met a young couple from Canada who took a quick picture for us before we headed out. We started out about five minutes ahead of them but they quickly overtook us (more about them later).

The trail starts out going up for a ways, probably close to a mile of incline. Then you have a relatively short section that actually drops in altitude. After the altitude drop, which isn’t very long, the trail then heads up again and doesn’t really ever lose altitude after that. There are a few spots that are close to level, but for the most part it is almost a continuous 15-25% grade up the mountain.

It took us close to an hour and a half to get to the tree line. We had started out with light jackets and long sleeve shirts but quickly shed those due to the sweating caused by the uphill hiking. Once we cleared the tree line and were exposed to the chilling wind, we put back on our long sleeve shirts.

From the tree line you can see the first false summit. It probably took us just over an hour to get to the first false summit, following the series of switchbacks up the ridge to finally wend our way around the summit to the north. It was just below the first false summit that we saw what looked like grouse. We actually probably wouldn’t even have seen them if they hadn’t moved because their feathers help them blend into the rocks and high-altitude vegetation so well, but they were the largest animal life we say on the mountain. From the first false summit you can see a second summit, which is also a false summit. It took us close to 45 minutes from the first false summit to the second. But once we reached the second summit we felt pretty good because the trail levels out quite a bit and you have just a 10 minute walk or so from the second false summit to the actual summit.

We arrived at the second false summit at about 9:15. Just below the second false summit we ran into the Canadian couple again, on their way down. They had already summitted, spent some time on the summit, and were headed back down. It was fascinating to watch how they climbed. They didn’t moving very fast; instead they maintained a slow, steady pace. And, they never stopped. As we climbed we would get to rather steep sections and would only be able to go 20 to 30 feet before stopping. They just kept plugging along at their mile-eating pace. They made great time.

We arrived at the summit at 9:30 to find it relatively crowded. There must have been close to 20 other people sitting up there. We found a place to sit and munched on some of our snacks and food we brought with us. There were enough people that it was relatively easy to find people to take pictures for you. There was also quite a variety of people (foreign, local, old, young, etc.), though there were many more males than females. We spent close to 50 minutes on the summit: Mark wrote in his journal; Tom and Mark brushed their teeth; and we took a number of pictures. Mark wanted to take a nap as we had done on Boundary Peak, but when we had already been there for close to an hour, Ryan suggested that we get going in case any storms were to blow in early.

The descent was much more rapid than the ascent. We did stop several times to give our quads a breather and Mark’s knees weren’t very happy with him after about an hour of going down the trail. Nevertheless, we probably only stopped 4 or 5 times on the way down. Tom did get a few blisters on the way up and Ryan began to get some pretty serious blisters on his heels about half way down. Of course, being as high up on the mountain as we were, there wasn’t much we could do other than continue, which is what we did, much to the chagrin of our feet.

Anyway, we made it back to the tree line in about an hour and 15 minutes. Most of the time while we were above the tree line the wind was blowing strongly. We kept our long sleeve shirts on until the tree line where the wind dissipated and the temperature increased. From the tree line it was about another 45 minutes back to the trailhead. By the time we reached the trailhead we were pretty tired and our feet hurt, but we were actually very surprised that we had climbed the mountain in close to 6 hours (actual climbing time, not including the 50 minutes on top). We aren’t in particularly good shape, well, Mark and Ryan aren’t; Tom is. Nevertheless we made pretty good time; at least, we thought we did.

Knowing that we were going to get off the mountain relatively early, we decided to drive back to Utah that day. We took a slightly different route to get back to I-70 (through Aspen instead of Leadville) and stopped in Aspen for lunch. From there it was close to 7 more hours to get to the Ogden, Utah area where Mark and Tom live and where Ryan was staying.

Advice: I would suggest that you start close to as early as we did, around 6:00 am at the latest. Also, though it may be a little chilly when you are starting out, you will quickly work up a sweat, so save your warm clothes for later; don’t start out wearing jackets or anything like that as you will quickly realize that you will need to take them off. Know that you’ll be going uphill at a pretty stead incline – 15 to 25% grade – most of the hike, with the exception of the short section that actually goes downhill. You’ll also notice that if you stop for a breather in the tree line there are lots of mosquitoes but above the tree line they are gone. Once you get above the tree line you’ll likely be buffeted by chill winds. It is at this point that you’ll want to put on a long sleeve shirt and perhaps save a thicker jacket for the summit, depending on if you are planning on spending much time up there. On the summit there are a number of small wind breaks that have been built. These work fairly well for keeping you out of the wind as you take a few minutes to enjoy the summit and they impressive views.

Panorama

Directions
Here’s a map from Leadville, CO:

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Summit Date
July 19th 2003, around 3:15 pm

Party
Ryan Cragun

Trip Report
I drove in from Oklahoma City, arriving at the trailhead at around 1:00 pm mountain time. I hadn’t originally known whether or not I was going to do this hike on the 19th or the 20th, knowing that it was supposed to take between 3 and 5 hours. Because I was doing the hike alone I didn’t want to get caught out on the trail alone after dark. Because I made pretty good time from Oklahoma City, I thought I would be fine.

I spent about 30 minutes getting ready, filling up my Camelback, and throwing in a couple of extra bottles of water. I snapped some pictures of the trailhead then was about to head out on the trail when I noticed a bird’s nest built right on the information sign. I just had to get a picture of it. I also quickly looked around for a stick to carry with me in case I ran into any snakes on the trail. My guidebook warned that the trail was home to rattlesnakes and, hiking alone, I wasn’t particularly keen on meeting one unprepared. I did find a stick to carry with me and carried it with me all the way to the top and back, thinking it would offer at least a little more protection against a rattlesnake.

Once I had snapped some pictures of the bird’s nest and found my stick I headed out. The trail is very flat, with only gradual hills until you reach the base of the plateau just before climbing the switchbacks that take you to the top of the plateau. Also, though I am hesitant to admit it because people will likely begin cutting trails off of the already developed trails, the trail zigs and zags off of a straight course. If you were to cut a straight line to the base of the switchbacks you would probably cut off close to a mile of the trail. Anyway, I did follow the trail, both up and down, wondering who designed it. Also, there is something like a ranch or home of sorts almost near the base of the plateau. I’m sure that it is private property and they wouldn’t be very keen to people driving onto the property to cut off 2 miles of the hike, so you’ll just have to start from the trailhead.

The hike, until the base of the plateau is marked with green arrows and is very easy going. It took me about 40 minutes to get to the last of the green signs. The hike up the switchbacks is a little strenuous, but nothing major and is over in about 10 minutes. Once you get up on top, understanding why the Spanish word for table ‘mesa’ is used to describe these natural landscape features makes perfect sense, it is as flat as natural terrain gets. But keep in mind that once you are on top of the mesa you still have about 1 mile to go before you reach the highpoint. On top of the mesa there are also trail markers, but they seem newer and are yellow.

I was hyper alert on this hike because of the snake warning. Keeping my eyes open, I noticed some movement just as I reached the top of the mesa. Jumping back in fright, I wiped the sweat from my eyes so I could see clearly what I had to deal with. I first noticed a monstrous grasshopper. It must have been at least 2 inches long and an inch wide. It was the biggest grasshopper I’d ever seen. But only about 2 feet away was a horned lizard. It was about 4 inches long and 2 to 3 inches wide. I laughed at my fear, then snapped some pictures.

I continued on to the highpoint. Right next to the memorial on the highpoint is a cairn of rocks. I took off my pack as I neared the summit and was about to put it down next to the cairn to stretch my back a little but again found myself jumping back in fear as I watched a thin, tan colored snake hiding in the shade of the cairn disappear deeper into the cairn to where I was no longer able to see it. When my heart rate dropped back to normal, I gave the cairn wide berth and made my way to the memorial where I gingerly set my pack down.

I snapped a bunch of pictures and admired the unique memorial. The memorial has some interesting information on it, including mileages to distant cities and the surrounding states. I filmed my panorama and checked the impromptu registry. I didn’t sign it; I very seldom do. I spent about 15 minutes total on the summit, before loading back up and heading back down.

About 10 minutes from the highpoint I met a couple on their way up. I’m not positive of the names, but I think it was Dave Snyder and Deborah (not sure if they were married or dating or what, they didn’t say and I won’t assume it). They were really nice. I warned them about the snake in the cairn and we talked for about 15 minutes. Dave had summitted McKinley exactly two weeks previously and this was his highpoint number 34. I had to shake his hand. We had a good conversation then parted company.

I made my way back down and reached the trailhead about 3 hours and 15 minutes after I started. My feet were a little tired and I found that I had a few sore muscles the next day, but for the most part the hike doesn’t really push you. I did decide to stop in Kenton for something cold to drink. I had used up over two liters of water on the hike and all of my remaining water was hot. The only place open was ‘The Merc’, which apparently doubles as an impromptu hamburger stand. I got a couple of very great tasting drinks and headed north into Colorado.

Couple of suggestions: There are snakes, probably more visible if you hike to the trail early in the morning or when it is cooler out. It was very hot when I was hiking the trail, probably the hottest part of the day, so I didn’t see many. Also, take a lot of water, especially if you are going to hike the trail when it is as hot as it was when I hiked it. Using a continuous, medium pace you should be able to hike the trail in around 3 hours. The trail is very dusty. Also, it is very remote, which was nice for a change.

Panorama

Directions
Here’s a map from Boise City, OK:

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Summit Date
July 18th, 2003 around 6:30 am

Party
Ryan Cragun

Trip Report
I had visited Mississippi’s highpoint on July 17th and had planned on camping in Vicksburg, Mississippi that night. Though my small tent is waterproof, the campground where I had originally planned on staying was fairly water logged and from what I could see, the rain was still coming. I would have been sleeping on a water bed and it just didn’t seem worth paying $10 to be miserable in my tent. Instead, I decided to sleep in my car at a rest area I believed was just a few more miles down the road in Louisiana. Big mistake!

The rest area was just over the Mississippi. I pulled in and tried to get comfortable. The problem wasn’t so much that I couldn’t find a comfortable position in my very small car. It was the humidity; it was horrible. I thought that maybe I could let the air circulate by cracking the windows. When I opened the windows I let in a swarm of mosquitoes; that wasn’t going to work. I had to keep the windows up. The result was a combination of the humidity from my breath with the humidity levels outside and a build up of my body heat. It was like sleeping in a very uncomfortable sauna. I did get a couple of hours of sleep, but when the lightning that had been striking in the distance finally struck the actual rest area, knocking out all of the lights, I had had enough. Checking my route for the next day, I decided to drive the 130 miles or so to the highpoint and see if I couldn’t get away from some of the storm and humidity.

I made the drive and arrived at the parking area of the trailhead at around 3:30 am. I was tired again, so I tried to bed down and sleep a couple more hours until dawn. I did get a bit more sleep, but was up by the time the eastern horizon was growing light. I wasn’t much more comfortable, but there wasn’t as much light (from the rest area lights and the lightening) and it wasn’t quite as humid.

I got up at around 5:30 and spent about 30 minutes getting everything ready. I knew that I had about a mile hike to the highpoint. I did put on my headlamp, but really didn’t need it. It had grown light enough that I didn’t have any problems. The trail to the highpoint seems fairly unused with quite a bit of overgrowth. Also, I was covered by spider webs by the time I actually made it to the summit. The hike time was about 20 minutes. I didn’t find a GSGA marker on the summit, but there was a cairn of rocks, a registry, and a little tribute to Jakk Longacre, one of the founders of the highpointers club. I spent a few minutes snapping pictures, which didn’t turn out all that well in the dim light, but I did my best.

Packing up my camera I headed back down the trail. Twenty minutes later I was back at my car. I did see a pretty sunrise as I neared the trailhead and snapped some pictures of that. Otherwise, it was getting light, I had a long way to drive, and I was feeling pretty crappy from my horrible night’s sleep. I took off my hiking boots, switched them for sandals, and headed out, looking to make it to Mount Magazine in the early afternoon so I could make it to Oklahoma City that night.

Panorama

Directions
Here’s a map from Arcadia, LA:

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Summit Date
July 18th, 2003 around 3:00 pm

Party
Ryan Cragun

Trip Report
I visited Louisiana’s highpoint early this morning and drove straight from there to Mount Magazine. The area surrounding the highpoint is actually very beautiful. Also, it appears that quite a bit of time and money has been invested in the Mount Magazine park. There were a number of new signs, the roads are very nice, and the trail to the highpoint along with the actual highpoint were all very well kept.

The only problem with the highpoint was that despite the trailheads (yes, there are two places where you can begin the hike) being well marked, there wasn’t a specific place for parking. I ended up parking in what I think might have been a campground, but there weren’t any people in there. The hike to the summit took about fifteen minutes, though I stopped for about five minutes to snap pictures of a bunch of butterflies that were in a large group on some flowers right next to the trail.

The highpoint itself is actually very nice. There is a nice wooden sign and monument on the summit. The registry is perhaps the nicest I’ve ever seen, also made out of wood and nicely finished. The GSGA marker is set in a rock monument that is also very nice. I snapped a bunch of pictures and headed back down to my car. This is actually a park where it would be nice to spend some time camping and hiking. There are lodges, campsites, and hiking trails all over. There is also a decent sized town, Paris, AR, not far away, for supplies. I also wanted to stop at the abbey/school in Subiaco, which was very beautiful, but didn’t; maybe at some point in the future.

Though there isn’t much of a view from the summit, the whole experience (other than the parking) was very enjoyable and impressive.

Panorama

Directions
Here’s a map from Paris, AR:

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