Finishing the Vermont County Highpoints, Northeast P2Ks and New England Fifty Finest

[Puma concolor]

A couple of compilation-style trip reports I’ve been working on for several months now. Lots of obscure peaks here … perhaps someone somewhere might find some of it somewhat useful sometime. If not, there’s at least some halfway decent photos.

Pandemic Era Peakbagging Part 1: Vermont County Highpoints and Northeast P2Ks

Pandemic Era Peakbagging Part 2: Finishing the New England Fifty Finest

 

[KRooney]

A good read. Thanks for the effort of writing it up.

 

[maineguy]

A couple of compilation-style trip reports I’ve been working on for several months now. Lots of obscure peaks here … perhaps someone somewhere might find some of it somewhat useful sometime. If not, there’s at least some halfway decent photos.

Pandemic Era Peakbagging Part 1: Vermont County Highpoints and Northeast P2Ks

Pandemic Era Peakbagging Part 2: Finishing the New England Fifty Finest

Great write up as well as outstanding pics. As someone who used to climb Mt Shaw (as part of a traverse from Mt Roberts) twice a year in Spring and Fall, I'm curious how you wound up on Turtleback and Bald Knob. I'm guessing you used one of the trails that start from NH 171 vs leaving from the Castle in the Clouds grounds. Thanks for posting.

ps: You may be running out of lists back East. Time to come out West, there are more mountains out here than you could climb in a lifetime, as I am sure you, as a Highpointer, know.

pss: Last October I finished my last "list", being in all 50 states, by visiting North Dakota

 

[Puma concolor]

^^^^

A boneheaded mistake for sure partially borne from the fact that there exists a “trail” or path or something that cuts up to Bald Knob directly from 171 that is not shown of the attached trail map.

Although I never use a GPS or similar technology on the trail, I always use one while driving to the trailhead. Sooo … I found an address for the Mount Shaw Trail during my online research that I thought correlated with the Mount Shaw parking lot. I “arrived” at said address with no trailhead in sight and continued for maybe a mile with no good suspects. I then turned around and did the slow drive looking for anything resembling a trail. (Keep is mind that I was in a phase of peakbagging where I’m doing a lot of bushwhacking and unofficial trail stuff so this was kind of normal). I spied an unmarked cut and a pull-off big enough for two or three cars. This must be it … so a hiking I did go. It was definitely a real trail that was on the steep and rugged side and I really had no idea I was on the wrong trail until it leveled off and I wasn’t seeing what I felt I should be seeing. I reached Bald Knob first and then followed the trail system to Turtleback. When I got to the summit of Turtleback, I could clearly see Mount Shaw in the distance and considered just whacking my way over to it. But it was one of the shortest days of the year in terms of daylight as well as cloudy so I decided to leave it for another day.

 

[KRooney]

"Although I never use a GPS or similar technology on the trail"

If you don't mind my asking - why don't you use a GPS?

 

[Puma concolor]

And congrats on finishing your 50 state project, maineguy! Very cool … I remember our conversation about that from the spring. And I’m right there with you in spirit in terms of having had enough of the east. The New England Fifty Finest was probably my swan song, but my other half will never willingly leave this place. I’ve been blessed with many, many years of Northeastern US hiking without an injury or a rescue. But my interests have started to evolve away from hiking. That said, I will be dabbling with US Territory highpoints moving forward. I have a trip planned to St. Thomas in April for Crown Mountain and the Pacific Ocean territorial HPs are pretty bad-ass so I still have a few miles left in these legs …

 

[Puma concolor]

"Although I never use a GPS or similar technology on the trail"

If you don't mind my asking - why don't you use a GPS?

I went through a phase where I seriously considered on-trail GPS usage as they started to rise in popularity a couple of decades back. Would have allowed me to pursue the Adirondack Highest Hundred, for example, but I ultimately decided that I liked the map and compass game too much. So - as a solo hiker - that kind of changed the trajectory for me in terms of what was realistic in terms of risk and reward.