View Full Version : what's your favorite summit on the AT?
So what's your favorite Mountain summit I ( or summits) along the Appalachian Trail? if a mile or less of the trail that's ok to. tell us how wonderful the views were. Do you climb it often?
Myself I will chime in with:
North Twin
Mount Bond
Bond Cliff
Mount Moosilauke.
It is worth a night at Guyot Campsite (White Mountains) to enable you to visit Mt Bond, West Bond (Great Sunsets) and Bond Cliff. Bond Cliff is especially nice. Onobstructed views, alpine, and being lower than many of the surrounding peaks the perspective is quite dramatic. It is considered by many to be among the finest view points in the whites.
For those in the south....are there any side trails to peaks just off the AT that I really should not miss?
David
Blood Mtn, Cowrock Mtn, Siler's Bald (Just N of Winding Stair Gap in NC), Wayah Bald, Wesser Bald, Standing Indian, Cheoah Bald, Max Patch - that's off the top of my head for the Southern Part of the trail. With the exception of Siler's and Standing Indian, all of the others on right on the AT.
OUr rule of thumb we went by for summits on our thru-hike: Any summit < than 1 mile was worth going to. So we pretty much hung out on all the ones we could; just can't remember them right now. They had a meriache band at Montery's Mexican tonight and cheap margartias. I'll get back to ya.
Gray Blazer
01-27-2006, 09:00
My favorite mountain summit ( it must be because I've camped there more than once and I've been to most of the summits) is Big Bald, NC/TN. I love to wake up there. I'll be back there cecause I'm still waiting to get clear sunrises from there.
Check out Abraham in Maine but you need to take a side trip. It has a huge alpine zone, views that stretch for hundreds of miles from Washington to Katahdin. Very intresting sculpture made with the alpine rocks and the Maine Applachian Land Trust just bought it so it will be protacted forever. Alpine cranberries and blueberries in season and a very strange frog or toad that lives above the timberline. I've seen all the summits on the AT and this one just off the AT is one of the best. The southern balds are beautiful but my favorite is the alpine zones of New Hampshire and Maine. In Maine you do not run into the huge yuppie mobs the AMC brings to the Whites.
My favorite "summit", is Franconia Ridge in NH (I am bending the rules here slightly!). I've always enjoyed ridge walks. This strech was my introduction
to above treeline hiking, and I've been hooked ever since.
The raw beauty, the views, the wind whipping around you. A high in so many ways. I think my initial time on Franconia Ridge was eventually lead me to Colorado. I love above treeline. And in the East, you don't get any more above treeline than Franconia Ridge.
Lafayette (on Franconia Ridge) was also my first hike on a mountain as well. Suspect that is another reason why this area means so much to me.
A blurry pic of a 12 yo old mags:
http://www.magnanti.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=7725
The story behind it:
http://www.magnanti.com/miscwritings/troop_71.htm
Footslogger
01-27-2006, 11:50
Tough one ...cuz there were so many.
Katahdin, because it was the climax of the hike. But, I'd have to say that Moosilauke was a very memorable moment. First day above tree line with a view that went on forever.
'Slogger
My favorite mountain summit ( it must be because I've camped there more than once and I've been to most of the summits) is Big Bald, NC/TN. I love to wake up there. I'll be back there cecause I'm still waiting to get clear sunrises from there.
Big Bald is my favorite so far, too. A real "The Hills Are Alive..." sort of place.
Squeaky 2
01-27-2006, 13:28
springer mountain.......history gets made there
Gray Blazer
01-27-2006, 15:00
The one bad thing about Big Bald is that if you wake up late, you are likely to have a bunch of Day Hikers watch you crawl out of your tent and try to decide where to do your morning duty.
jackiebolen
01-27-2006, 15:10
I also loved the balds...Max Patch, Cheoah Bald, Big Bald. Serious climbs but beautiful once you're on the top. Sunset and sunrise from the top of Max Patch in beautiful weather was especially memorable
Big Dawg
01-27-2006, 15:13
I'll be coming across Big Bald on my next section hike, 2/10/06. Hope I have good weather to take in the views!! I imagine it's a "Max Patch" kinda feeling?
Favs.... Springer, Blood Mtn., Standing Indian, Clingman's, Max Patch,,,, camping 3 out of 5! Yeahhh :D
Can't wait to take see the northern summits!!
Big Dawg
01-27-2006, 15:18
Sunset and sunrise from the top of Max Patch in beautiful weather was especially memorable
Absolutely!!
Katahdin physically is the greatest summit, marred only by the crowds that crowd the area every good summer day. Otherwise Maine has numerous great summit ridges that are little recognized. I love the rarely climbed triple summits of Bemis, the more cluttered but still great peaks of Bigelow, the incredible crops of blueberries every August on Moxie Bald summit and surrounding ridges, Whitecap, and of course the incomparable Maine section of the Mahoosuc Range.
Sadly, all these summits with the exception of Katahdin are threatened by encroaching development now that the paper companies have sold all their lands to potential developers.
Have I told you that the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust was founded to help protect these summit ridges? Yup. It's true, You can help by opening
WWW.matlt.org
Weary
Absolutely!!
Hey Big Dawg...that picture of Max Patch is awsome! gets one dreaming!!
I sure hope the weather is good when I hike over it!
David
MoBeach42
01-28-2006, 10:00
I spent my entire hike looking forward to Franconia Ridge. I had been up there once before, the previous summer, and it was rainy and nasty. This summer, the mountian didn't dissapoint. It's probably the hill that I feel most deeply connected to on the trail.
Other than that I really liked Roan High Knob, and Unaka. And Goose Eye, and Bond Cliffs, and Race Mountain, and Graylock. And of course Albert and Wayah, and Cheoah. And Rocky Top. Yeah.