Samson and I are now standing on the highest point in Ohio; Campbell Hill at 1,549 feet. I’m a little concerned about altitude sickness so I’ll be descending soon.
While the Highpoint itself is not particularly inspiring the drive through picturesque farm land getting here was worth the trip.
This marks 4 state highpoints for this trip and is #37 of my goal of 50.
I decided to take a more circuitous route through the farmland.
It seems that soybean & corn are the prevalent crops, but there are others.
Many of the farms are currently harvesting and witnessing the monstrous combines tear wide swaths through the fields is an awesome sight.
The throaty exhaust burble of the big turbo diesel and the abrupt forward lurch told me that Susan had once again engaged the exhaust brake in an effort to hold back the 32,000 lb motor coach cum bobsled as we made our way through the Allegheny Mountains. It takes a concerted effort to manage this thing through up and down hills and Susan did a fantastic job allowing me to get some work done while we traveled.
Welcome to Ohio
We crossed into Ohio late yesterday, and it was a beautiful drive through the mountains and surrounding farm country. Today I’ll be completing the Ohio highpoint, Campbell Hill, while Susan does her hair, and I’ll probably be finished before she will.
Backbone Mountain Trip Report
You will find the complete Backbone Mountain report here. To view a sortable table of all of the highpoints with completion dates, trip reports, photo galleries, blog entries an GPS tracks, visit the US State Highpoint Progress Page.
We have spent the last 2 days in West Virginia in secluded and heavily wooded campground with the fall colors starting to come in. Deer are walking right up to the coach and the weather is cool and comfortable.
I’m heading up to Maryland to Backbone Mountain in the Jeep, while Susan and Samson relax in the coach in West Virginia.
To get the best photos, I’m planning a Sunset summit which is around 7:15. It’s a short easy hike, so I’ll be back in 5-6 hours.
We just passed the 1,100 mile mark on this trip and things are going well. Susan hasn’t broken anything yet and has only caused me to make a single wrong turn.
Buddy Can You Spare a …
We took a break from driving yesterday and spent the day in the historic town of Chattanooga. Chattanooga interestingly enough is the town that my good friend Rick Overholt who started me down the highpointing path, tried out life as a street bum when he ran away from home as a child.
“I like to get me summa dat essential oil n’ rubit on my elbows real good.” – A Louisianan discussing essential oils with Susan.
Susan and I are off on another adventure in “BigByrd” our 41′ motor coach. Typically we plan every leg and make reservations ahead of time, but this time we decided to go totally unscripted. This will give us the freedom to be a bit more exploratory along the way. We need to be back in town by October 5th, so time permitting we intend to visit the highest points in 6 states; West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri. We will be driving through those states in that order, so if you know of anything cool along the way, reply to this message and let us know.
Welcome to Louisiana
We set out yesterday afternoon and spent the evening in The Frenchman’s Wilderness Campground in St. Martin Parrish Louisiana. While exploring the area we happened upon a tiny backwoods pub called the Levee Rat. The patrons applauded uproariously as we entered which we quite enjoyed. And as we were being seated, a local by the name of Leon approached and commented on how nice we smelled. While I was basking in the glow of all of the positive reinforcement, Susan explained to Leon that it was Citronella, an Essential Oil we were using to keep the mosquitoes away. Leon who was apparently intimately familiar with essential oils said; “I like to get me summa dat essential oil n’ rubit on my elbows real good.” Susan cut the conversation short and proceeded to be seated. I never got a good look at Leon’s elbows, but I’m sure they’re very impressive.
It did not dampen our spirits when we later learned they were not applauding for us, but for a particularly clever joke, at least by Louisiana’s standards of humor. I never heard the joke, thus cannot comment on its jocularity. I was however glad that I resisted the urge to take a bow. We also are pretty sure that Leon was insane.
We are currently guiding our earthship towards Houston and will dock this evening concluding our 4 state highpoint north central trip. It was the longest trip we have taken in the coach, and except for a few minor mechanical challenges all went smoothly.
It was a fun trip, and we experienced some parts of America that few people see, and created many new memories.
We are leaving Denver Colorado after a couple of pleasant days here. I enjoy the process of pushing some buttons to transform our home into a car, and pointing it towards the horizon of new possibilities.
Kansas Here we Come
We are headed due East to Mount Sunflower Kansas to bag that highpoint and then will make the journey south and back to Houston.
Panorama Point Trip Report
This one is short, so the whole trip report is duplicated in the blog in its entirety as well having the typical Trip Report page.
On Monday August 24th, 2015 I stood at the highest point in Nebraska which is Panorama Point. This was the third of the 4 state highpoints completed during our 2015 North Central Trip and it was #32 out of the 50 states for me.
Highpoint Statistics:
Completion Date: Monday August 24th, 2015
State: Nebraska
Elevation:5,426
US Rank: 20
Hiking Distance: NA
Hiking Round Trip Time: NA
Highpoint Links:
Photo Gallery
Posts
Trip Report
Panorama Point is located in the heart of the aptly named Great Plains and surrounded by pastures and farmland which while mostly flat, has its own sort of charm. We also saw many wind farms turning lazily in the distance as it was a calm day.
This one is very remote and we drove miles of very dusty dirt farm roads to get there, and once at the turnoff I detached and took the jeep down the rugged 1.3 mile access road which would not have been healthy for the 30,000 lb motor coach.
Oh and ignore Google, it will take you through a farmers private land who will shoot at you.
At the Summit!
The highpoint itself is located out in a wide open plain and is a barely perceptible rise in the landscape, yet it is taller than 30 other states. There was a large herd of buffalo in the distance, but they seemed oblivious to my presence.
Time for a Beer and a Banana
So after the treacherous climb to the highest point of Nebraska, which happened to by the roof of my Jeep at the time, this seemed like as good a place as any for a beer and a banana.
All in a days work…
On Saturday August 22nd, 2015 I stood atop Harney Peak with my good friend and climbing partner Rick Overholt who flew up to Climb Harney Peak for the second time. Harney Peak was the second of the 4 state highpoints completed during our 2015 North Central Trip and it was #31 out of the 50 states for me.
It’s a dramatic mountain, and I understand why Rick went back again. The climb was easy but interesting for both of us and we found ourselves involved in rescuing lost hikers in the end.
You will find the entire Trip Report here.
Highpoint Statistics:
Summit Date:Monday August 24th, 2015
State: South Dakota
Elevation: 7,242
US Rank: 15
Distance: 7 Miles
Round Trip Time: 6.5 Hours
Highpoint Links:
Photo Gallery
Posts
Trip Report
You will find, status, photo galleries and trip reports for all of my adventures on the Highpoints Page.
Below are some of my favorite photos from the climb, and you can find the entire Photo Gallery here.
Rick flew in to join me on Harney Peak which we are climbing tomorrow. We are making an early start with the goal of a sunrise summit. Harney is a beautiful climb, and we will miss the ascent as it will be dark, but being at the summit during sunrise offers some spectacular photographic opportunities.
For the last few days we have been relaxing in the Black Hills of South Dakota. One of the best things about the highpointing is that it has taken us to wonderful places that we would never have gone otherwise. The Black Hills area is just such a place, and if you are looking for a great place to take your family, visit the Black Hills and tell them Danger sent you. It won’t get you any extra perks, but it sounds really cool.
On August 17th, 2015 I stood on White Butte the highest point in North Dakota. It was #1 of the 4 state highpoints of our 2015 North Central Trip and was the northern most highpoint of that trip. It was #30 out of the 50 states for me.
You will find the entire Trip Report here.
White Butte Statistics:
Summit Date:Monday August 17th, 2015
State: North Dakota
Elevation: 3,507′
Distance: 1.5 Miles
White Butte Links:
Photo Gallery
Posts
Trip Report
You will find, status, photo galleries and trip reports for all of my adventures on the Highpoints Page.
Below are some of my favorite photos from the climb, and you can find the entire White Butte Photo Gallery here.
Yesterday we stayed in in Chamberlain South Dakota and it was a fairly uneventful day. Today was much more interesting as we made the 368 mile drive to North Dakota.
We drove through miles and miles of beautiful farmland with rolling hills covered with various crops as far as the eye could see.
We had been seeing billboards for Wall Drug for the last 2 days, and after being on the road for hours having seen little more than crops and cows, we were ready for a stop so we dropped in the see what all the fuss was about.
Turns out Wall Drug is a great entrepreneurial story that dates back to 1931 when Ted Hustead & his wife bought a drugstore in the tiny town of Wall. After a few years with poor results, he was about to close the doors, when he had the idea to put signs on the road offering “Free Ice water”. As soon as the signs were up he had a store full of customers, and its been so ever since. Today 22,000 people a day stop in to Wall Drug and it has something for everyone.
Jack-A-Lopes
Shopping
Piano Playing Gorillas
Ladies of Ill Repute
Gunfights!
Chapels
We also drove through Sturgis which was a ghost town after the big rally earlier this month.
We are now relaxing in a very secluded and peaceful spot which is the northernmost point of the trip for our motor coach and Susan . In the morning, I’ll take the Jeep and continue North to the highest point in North Dakota which will be state highpoint #30 for me.
We just crossed from Kansas into Nebraska. Nothing else has broken, and FedEx dropped off the parts I needed to repair the hitch early this morning, so I was able to replace the broken part, and reclaim my hardworking screwdriver.
As for the alternator, were are still doing fine without it, so I’ll replace it when we get back home. I already planned an upgrade, so I’m ordering a 200 Amp PowerMax Large Case alternator that is more powerful than the factory one and has a computerized programmable external regulator, that will allow me to tweak the charging profile to support AGM batteries which I plan to move to.
Since Susan has gotten more comfortable driving, traveling in the coach has become much more enjoyable. At present I am lounging on the sofa eating organic animal crackers while Susan drives. Life is good.
Yesterday morning, after 30 minutes of driving I realized I was headed South instead of North. It was of course Susan’s fault as she is supposed to be my navigator, but she was otherwise occupied. So an hour after starting out, we passed the Pilot truck stop we have stayed at overnight.
The house charging system is having no trouble charging the chassis batteries, so the lack of an alternator is a minor inconvenience. I have been keeping an eye on the chassis battery voltage and manually charging them by connecting the two banks together when the voltage gets below 12 volts. I can now do this from the dash from a temporary switch I have installed.
So last night I tried to make a very tight turn and realized it was not going to happen. The jeep needed to be detached in order to backup, but the telescoping towbar was in a bind and I could not get it to release. I grabbed a rubber hammer, and whacked the release trigger which worked great, but the second which was now under even more stress snapped off.
This morning I took the locking assembly apart, studied and realized that all it needs is a screwdriver and duct tape to keep it locked. Really, I’m not kidding, see for yourself.
So unless I break anything else, we should be in Wichita Kansas this evening.
So we got as far as Huntsville and I noticed the voltage on the chassis batteries was dropping. After some troubleshooting I learned that the alternator is only putting out 3 volts.
There are a total of 6 batteries, 4 for the house and 2 for the chassis. There is a nifty emergency link feature that allows you to connect the chassis and house batteries via a relay (see the silver canister pictured with the yellow test lead jumper). I have used this feature many times when one or the other set of batteries needed some help and it works well.
Since the house batteries are charged via the inverter, and the upgraded Outlaw inverter has more than enough reserve to charge them all, I jumpered the relay to permantly link the batteries. It’s pulling 13.5 Amps through the relay to charge the chassis batteries, and the relay is getting warm but is holding and the chassis batteries are already much healthier.
I’ll check it it in a couple of hours, and if the relay holds, this should keep us on the road.
By the time you read this, Susan and I will be on the road driving clear across the country all the way to North Dakota. Good Lord willing, we will complete the highest points in Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota & South Dakota where we will spend some extra time visiting Mt Rushmore and other local interesting places of which there are many. My old friend and Rick Overholt and his girlfriend Kathy Glynn will fly into South Dakota and join us for South Dakota. Rick enjoyed it so much the first time, he wanted to climb it again.
We will be traveling in our 1999 motor coach we call “BigByrd” and have been remodeling since we bought it in 2012 and its now ready for prime time. We have taken a number of trips already in it, but this will be the longest one yet.
The sky is still looking unlikely here in Talkeetna but they believe a window is coming based in weather patterns. So once again we got the call to suit up and get to the planes.
No time to make a lengthy post, we have a plane to load.
We suited up, loaded 1,000 lbs of gear on the plane and watched the first Turbo Otter piloted by legendary Paul Roderick takeoff. Paul is the owner of Talkeetna Air Service and he took the first run to judge the conditions before he allowed more planes to fly.
Paul was able to land, but the hole immediately closed preventing takeoff. A bit later it opened up and he was able to get off the ground so one team got in and one got out minus thier gear which is still sitting on the glacier.
So we patiently stood by waiting for a green light that never came.
One Less Climber
We lost a climber today and are now 7. The dismissed climber was not integrating with the team well and repeatedly became agitated and hostile about minor issues. Everyone in the group agrees with the decision, and feel we will be better for it.
Vote for Danger
I’ve become quite popular around Talkeetna, and am considering running for mayor. The current mayor is a cat with no tail, and I think I can take him.
The weather lifted, planes are flying, pizza was abandoned and we are on our way to the mountain.
Several of you have asked about my gear list, so here is a link to Danger’s 2015 Denali Gear List.
We are halfway through the 3rd day and the weather has still not been cooperating, so the Talkeetna Hang Continues. They have however asked us to get ready and we are standing by the runway suited up, but looking at the skies, I’m skeptical.
In other news; as many of you know I have developed an interest in illusion and sleight of hand. Larry from the Historic Fairview Saloon saw me practicing and invited me to perform. There were around 30 people a mixture of locals and climbers. I did a 20 minute routine and produce hurling was kept to a minimum so I condider my first public performance a success. Need to work on my stage name now. Last night I used Danger the Magnificently Unequivocally Grand Eloquent and I think it was a bit over the top.
I’m open for suggestions on that matter
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