Not a difficult peak by any stretch of the imagination, since you can drive right to the following sign.
There's a register by the parking area...
...and a short path which leads to this...
and this...
And...we're done!
We still have to bag Vermont before the snow starts to fly, but that's an easy daytrip from New Hampshire. Next year, we'll tackle Maine and New York. Apart from those three states, we've now highpointed everything east of Colorado.
Number of states highpointed on this trip: 29.
Number of states highpointed before June 2010: 4
Grand total of states highpointed as of August 2010: 33
After Vermont, it'll be 34. After next year, it'll be 36.
After that, who knows, we'll see what happens as the girls grow. Maybe our total will stay at 36, maybe it won't. Whatever floats the girls' boats is fine by me.
Throughout the summer, I purposefully kept my posts short and sweet, usually with only basic trail info and pictures, as I did not feel it appropriate to fill this highpointing blog with long paragraphs of prose. For the sake of my kids, however, I will soon start to write of our many adventures so that, when they're older, they'll have a solid reminder of their accomplishments. Hopefully I'll be able to begin working on that within a month, after I finish taking care of some immediately pressing matters.
For now, I'll say the following:
If you ever get the chance to spend an extended period of travel time with your loved one(s), do it. Get in your car, spend many weeks driving on tiny back roads, camp out everywhere, get dusty and dirty, eat gas station food and farmers' market produce, reach peaks, see a rattlesnake or two, walk through herds of wild ponies, dodge tornadoes, escape lighting in the middle of the night, let an elk eat your campfire ashes, step lightly over horned toads, drive a tiny car through bison pastures, and swim in oil-infested waters. Well, okay, maybe not that last one. Tar doesn't fully wash out of swimsuits.
I am fortunate to have two kids that are best friends. Not once during our entire trip did they complain about the long hours in the car. They read to each other, played games of pretend, sung aloud with the music on the radio, and laughed (a lot). I know I'm their mom and all, but I have to say that both my girls rock.
I am also fortunate to have Hugh as the father of my children. When I proposed the idea of taking the kids all over the country for eight weeks, sleeping in tents at remote campgrounds and hiking in places we'd never previously visited, Hugh didn't bat an eye. He felt as I did, that this was a great opportunity for them, and for me. We worked together so that the timing of our highpointing whereabouts coincided with a few of his business trip locales. In this manner, the girls were able to spend time with their father every couple of weeks while I got a nice break from the road. I must say that I am very grateful to him for the trust he has in me when it comes to our kids. He has always had complete faith in my judgment, and I appreciate that more than I can properly express.
Next stop: Vermont (but not for a month or so).
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