This was a really cool trip I did with my father and my 4 sons a couple weeks ago. I thought I’d start posting my journal entries here along with pics and the videos I uploaded to YouTube in case anyone wants to do the trip.

My father did this trip with friends about 20+ years ago. It was the brainchild of my former Scoutmaster who was one of the friends my father accompanied 20 years ago. My former Scoutmaster has always been known for his crazy, fun, adventurous and somewhat spontaneous (not much pre-planning) trips. He would just drive and go. He lives here in Virginia but is originally from New Jersey. I’m not sure if this was a trip he took as a youth or one he had just dreamed up.

The trip was to climb the highest peaks in each New England state with Rhode Island being an optional stop if time permitted. In the trip 20 years ago, they skipped Rhode Island and also skipped Bear Mountain in Connecticut.

All of the peaks are on the Appalachian Trail except Mansfield in Vermont which is on the Long Trail about 100 miles from where the AT veers eastward from the LT at Killington. Jerimoth Hill in Rhode Island is not on any trail that I am aware of.

The highest peaks of each state in New England are:

Mt Katahdin in Maine | 5,269’

Mt Washington in New Hampshire | 6,289’

Mt Mansfield in Vermont | 4,393’

Mt Greylock in Massachusetts | 3,491’

Bear Mtn in Connecticut | 1,283’

Jerimoth Hill in Rhode Island | 811’

I planned the trip from Virginia up to Maine (Katahdin) and then to New Hampshire (Mt Washington) in some detail making campground/hotel reservations, etc, but left the rest more loose in case of weather delays, etc. instead of the 10 or 11 days I originally planned, I shortened it to 8 with the possibility of 9. It turns out it could’ve been shorter than that, especially if you experience good weather every day.

My father stayed in hotels/inns and we camped most nights. He manned base-camp and did not hike.

I knew ahead of time what route I was going to take up Katahdin and up Mt Washington, but I had not made a final decision about Mansfield. I was less sure of what we’d do at Greylock and had a fair idea of the route to the Bear Mtn summit from hikes available online. It’s fair to say we figured the last 3 (Mansfield, Greylock & Bear) on the fly.

Right now I’m editing my daily journal entries which I typed on my phone each evening. I’ll add them here in this thread and post pictures with the YouTube videos of each climb in case there is interest.

I’ll get them posted in the next several days.