It’s hard to go back in time.
I tried it once before and it out turned out to be a success. But it was a huge effort and emotionally draining.
In 2022, I finally decided to put pen to paper and wrote what turned out to be my best and most popular trip report to date. “Denali: The Ecstasy and the Agony” was an effort that chronicled my ascent to the zenith of North America for my 50 state highpoint completion in June 2015. Seven years after the fact.
I easily could have died high on America’s greatest peak but lived to climb and hike another day.
But this is different. I continue to live while they do not.
Twenty years after I traveled to the deep south with my Dad and brother to reach the tops of five fun but easy state highpoints, I have found myself with a similar kind of energy as when I wrote about Denali three years ago. The need to share the story. They are both gone now and just the mountains and memories remain.
The energy isn’t quite the same though. Unlike Denali, I had in fact written a trip report after our 2005 five state southern state highpointing trip to Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana (in that order).
But 20 years have passed and additional context is now needed. I have gone on to complete my life goal of reaching the 50 state highpoints, have hosted a Highpointers Club Konvention and now sit on the Board of Directors of the Highpointers Foundation. And my Dad and brother continued their rich and rewarding existences before passing on in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
This is a through the prism of the present look at the past.
My brother Jack had never visited a state highpoint before. To the best of my knowledge, he had never even hiked a local hill and would never hike another. But he loved New Orleans and had lived in Louisiana for a few years early in his radio broadcasting career that had by this point in his life morphed into more of an all-media profession. When he heard that my Dad and I would be flying both in and out of New Orleans, he expressed his desire to join us in the Big Easy for what turned out to be a memorable “boys vacation.”
My Dad – also Jack/John – had visited his first batch of state highpoints with me the year prior during a long road trip that took in the summits of Mount Arvon (Michigan), Eagle Mountain (Minnesota) and Timms Hill (Wisconsin). We made great travel partners in what turned out to be the first of many state highpointing trips my Dad and I would take together. But this journey featuring a deep south agenda would be just his second. Ultimately, he summited 17 state highpoints with me and enjoyed both talking about our journeys and “kid bragging” about my 50-state pursuit.
And I, of course, was a seasoned hiker by this point and found myself approaching the halfway point in terms of the number of state highpoints completed … although the big mountains and hard work of the western US highpoints still lay ahead of me.
At the time of our travel, I was “just” 35 years old with lots of forward energy remaining in my spirit. My brother Jack neared 40 years old while my Dad was a spry 65 years old and enjoying his retirement years.
So that’s the set-up. What follows is my verbatim account of our trip as it appeared on the long since defunct America’s Roof forum. I posted on May 15, 2005.
“Yeah, I know there’s a summit trip reports section, but I never know which state to post under for these multi-state trips.
So, anyway, after soloing on my first 20 highpoints, my Dad signed on last fall for my Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin trip. This time, my brother and father both wanted to come for this trip to the HPs of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana.
On Monday morning (5/9), my Dad and I flew out of Albany to New Orleans, where we met my brother and rented a car. From here, it was due east on I-10 to the panhandle of Florida for the lofty Britton Hill … which we reached at dusk. Britton Hill proved to be pretty much what one would expect of the lowest highpoint in the US, but nonetheless we enjoyed stomping around for 15-20 minutes on my brother’s first ever highpoint. We capped a long day by driving another couple of hours to Montgomery, Alabama to put us in good position for Cheaha the following morning.
Tuesday was an excellent and very warm day and we found the parking area for the Cheaha Lake Trail without much difficulty … although we did stop and ask a local to make sure we were heading the right way. I have to give two thumbs up to the Cheaha Lake Trail for anyone looking to add a little challenge to what many do as a drive-up. The trail ascends about 1,000 feet in a mile, where it meets up with the summit road. From here, we just kind of felt our way to the top through a mix of road walking and cutting through open woods. On top, I was happy to hand my father a five state patch, which he definitely felt he had earned after sucking some serious wind en route to the summit. Incidentally, this was HP #25 for me, marking the milestone halfway point.
We got right back on the road after hiking back to the car and were able to make Woodall Mountain, Mississippi with plenty of daylight left. We parked at the beginning of the dirt/gravel summit road and had a fun time stretching our legs along the modest hill. Not the greatest highpoint of them all, but what the heck. We decided to stop for the night in Memphis, where we got a hotel on the shore of the Mississippi and stayed up late checking out the scene on Beale Street at my brother’s urging.
Magazine Mountain/Signal Hill was probably as much fun as Cheaha the day before. We wound up settling on the Mossback Ridge Trail approach although it wasn’t until we were virtually there before we’d chosen this approach over the approach from the Green Bench Trailhead. In the end, the gentle rolling approach of the Mossback Ridge Trail was more appealing to my Dad and I thought it provided a good contrast to the previous day’s climb for my father, who enjoys travel but isn’t a big time hiker. Afterwards, I was VERY happy that we came this way as I had been intrigued by the elevation of Mossback Ridge, which has two closed contours of 2,720 feet.
This set us up nicely for a Driskill Mountain, Louisiana climb first thing Thursday morning. We didn’t have too much trouble following the maze of logging roads, but I was surprised not to find a true USGS marker on top. All we found was some sort of Louisiana TR marker on a cement pillar about 50 yards north of the summit. We spent a good amount of time looking for a traditional USGS tag without any luck. After getting home, I noticed summitpost.org has a photo of the marker we did find so I assume that’s all there is. Anyway, we signed the register on top.
This was the end of the highpointing but not the end of the trip. From here, it was on to Eunice, LA for the rest of the day for a reunion of sorts for my brother. About 15 years ago, he worked for KEUN radio in Eunice and they were only too happy to interview me for a segment to air on their coffee talk morning program. We then drove to New Orleans after fattening ourselves up at dinner with my brother’s old friends and flew back home Friday morning.
Fun, fun, fun. Next is some combination of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri in late summer or fall. August is the only possibility I could do one of the Illinois access dates this year. It will either be then or sometime later in the fall without Charles Mound.”
So as it turned out, my Dad and I did in fact visit the midwestern highpoints of Missouri, Iowa and Illinois (in that order) between August 4th and 6th, 2005.
As for my brother, the trajectory of his life would forever be altered when Hurricane Katrina ravaged his beloved city of New Orleans beginning on August 29, 2005 … just 3.5 months after our highpointing trip ended. Or, as I would later write in his April 2023 obituary:
“Jack was thrifty and minimalist, living his life by the mantra that he would never own more than what he could fit in the back of his car. Even after he later also swore off car ownership, Jack was indeed able to fit all of his belongings into the back of his brother Mark’s X-Terra when he moved to New Orleans in 2013 for what would become the greatest two years of his life. Jack became deeply involved in rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, spending all of his vacation time assisting in any way he could. He was eventually appointed to a supervisory position with AmeriCorps and became a leader in bringing New Orleans back.”
Mark’s Mountain Travels 