A Grand Southern Italy Journey

I don’t recall when and how we came up with the idea to go on a trip to Italy with our friends the Cornejos and Corrigans. I suspect it happened during JC’s surprise birthday party in Las Vegas in early 2025. There was some debate on when we should go and what the trip would look like. I thought RV’ing through Italy would be a good idea. The Cornejos wanted to book a few Airbnbs in a few cities and the Corrigans were open to anything. Right around the first of the year, we picked some dates and started planning.

I pressed for southern Italy as Mandy and I have been to northern Italy a few times and while I love that part of Italy, I thought this was a chance for me to see something new. There was group buy-in for the most part, and the planning commenced.

We decided to go late April and early May to avoid the summer heat and hopefully the crowds. I liked the idea of flying directly into Rome since I had never been south of Rome. Also flying direct and avoiding some of the travel struggles of other trips to Europe was very appealing. I thought we could drive directly east toward the Adriatic Sea and then follow the coast clockwise for two weeks, returning to Rome at the end. The Cornejos wanted to go to Florence which was going to throw a wrench in my plans but they said maybe they would go there first and meet us. So we then all agreed we would buy tickets and we were really going to do this.

Late in the planning, I got a call from Rick Cornejo on a Sunday to say that he and Julie were not going to be able to go because he had a state audit at work that he would need to deal with and was going to be during our selected time. We tried coming up with a few other options so they could be included, but it just wasn’t going to happen. I then suggested that maybe we invite our other mutual friends the Reeves. They expressed interest, but there were going to be some challenges for them, and they were unsure. The Corrigans had some friends from Sarasota who had gone to JC’s 60th birthday in Las Vegas and thought they might be interested. That didn’t work out either. So relatively quickly, we realized it was just going to be the Farquhars and the Corrigans. I wondered if that was going to be less fun and if we would tire of each other after two weeks. The short answer is that a group of six created some logistical issues that became apparent during the trip, and the four of had a grand time with no issues.

Here is a link to our original itinerary and the map we intended to follow. We did not adhere to it exactly, but pretty close. I offer it up as a good starting point for anyone else who might like a head start in planning. The map below is where we really went.

Click the image to go the the Google map of the places we actually went. We tagged them all but two.

As a basic summary, this was a tremendous trip. It will probably be a ‘top 5’ in my life, and I have been lucky enough to have been on some good ones so far. The scenery, culture and companionship were great. The following is A LOT of detail, mostly for my own reference in the future so I can reminisce.

Sunday 4/26: Mandy and I arrived in Rome a little before noon, met the Corrigans in the baggage area. We then got our rental car. They gave us a new Volkswagen T-Roc, which was nice and just big enough. We drove through Rome heading East toward Sulmona where we had an Airbnb reservation. We drove through most of Rome since the airport is in West side of the city. Finally we started to hit some rural areas and could see the mountains we were going to be entering. There were lots of mountain towns which were perched high on a hill with generally a church and castle at the top and the rest of the town surrounding it. They were picturesque and JC was particularly impressed by them. This was his firt time in Italy. Our first stop was at an Autogrill which are gas stations and a store. The stores have quite a reputation for being unlike the American experience and this one did not disappoint. I had an Espresso and an ‘Americano e Latte ToGo’ which I really started to need as I was beginning to hit a wall from effectively a red-eye flight. Another interesting thing was that the urinals were placed quite high, which was noteworthy in the moment, but I would soon discover over the next two weeks that it was a rule and not an exception.

We had just finished our three-hour drive from Rome and began exploring Sulmona. This is their famous aqueduct that was on the edge of their Piazza. It would prove to be a really good beginning of our grand journey.

We continued on through the Abruzzo region through the mountainous landscape that is the Sirente-Velino Natural Park and Parco Nazionale del Gargano. After about three hours, we could see Sulmona in the distance and made our way down into the valley and into Sulmona’s Piazza Garibaldi, which is quite lovely. We arrived at roughly 4 PM. The town is surrounded by beautiful mountains which are in the Della Maiella National Park, and the city itself is at the foot of the Majella. We parked and walked around the piazza and the local shops. Sulmona is the City of Love and is known for its Confetti which is sugar-coated almonds. We stopped at an outdoor cafe called JAMM’ mo and had some drinks. The waiter gave us mountain spring water from the city aqueduct and a public fountain. He also gave us a dinner recommendation, which we walked to, but found that they did not open until 8 PM. We made a reservation.

We stopped to have drinks at essentially the first place we found called JAMM’ mo. The waiter brought a great little tray of bread and prosciutto. He was very proud of his town and made a wonderful suggestion for dinner. This was the start of quite a bit of eating and drinking for the next two weeks.

Our Airbnb, the Blue Owl wasn’t available until six and so we drove over after doing a little more walking. It was a lovely apartment hosted by Franca and Nello. We got settled in and made sure we could make it through all three locked doors to get back in. We then returned to the piazza and went to another outdoor cafe called Bar Piazza Maggiore for more drinks. The waiter insisted on a meat platter which we agreed to. It was impressively big and could have been dinner itself. We had another round of wine and did some damage on the sausage, prosciutto, cheese paninis and something that looked like small hot dogs. We went to another cafe called the Italian Bar down one of the main thoroughfares, which was across from the church. We people watched which included a of Italian men on the church steps. We surmised they must be part of the ‘almond mafia’ since that was an important local commodity. We also recognized a couple from the Budget Rent-A-Car line in Rome, which we thought was very surprising.

This was a great start to a lot of good food. We also really tested my theory that there is no hangover with Italian wine.

It was now essentially 8 PM, so we made our way to the recommended restaurant Pizzeria Ristorante Il Vecchio Muro. We had lots of wine and the meal started with a complimentary fire-roasted potato spinach appetizer which was a surprise and awesome. We then shared pasta with white pepper lemon sauce in a bowl made of cheesy pasta and a fabulous meat tray. The atmosphere was great and the restaurant really filled up by the time we left. We wanted gelato but were too full from dinner, not to mention all the gelato spots we had spotted earlier were now already closed. We made our way back to the Airbnb, managed to get back in through the three locked doors and went to bed pretty quickly as it had been a long day with little sleep the night before.

There was a really big balcony on our Airbnb with a great view of Sulmona and the mountains. When we woke up in the morning, there was a lot of sun and we enjoyed coffee as we began to get ready to continue our journey East.

Monday 4/27: We woke up at a pretty reasonable time in the morning all things considered. No hangover from the abundant amount of wine consumed the night before. My theory that Italian wine doesn’t come with hangovers continues to be supported!

We had a nice little breakfast provided by our host Franca which included bread, pastries and fruit. The coffee pod machine was a challenge and we could not seem to make it work. We ended up making coffee in a pot which worked but was not ideal. After spending some time enjoying the view and the sun on the balcony, we showered in a typically very small Italian shower, packed up and hit the road for the East Coast to see the Adriatic Sea.

The first town we went to was Termoli. The drive through the town was not particularly scenic and the town was a little rough. We did find a section that seemed more historic and tried to find parking which was challenging. We found a spot but it was “merchant only” parking, and a policeman nearby said we couldn’t park there. We looked around a little more without much luck. The portion of the town we saw was not a very scenic place, so we decided to hit the road and skip Termoli.

What we would find in a lot of these towns is that, as you drove in, there were newer sections that were not particularly interesting or attractive. However, Italy being really old, the towns all had older historic areas that were generally nice and interesting. The challenge would be getting to those spots by car. In some towns, this was easier than in others.

We had gotten our recommended wine from the owner. The red was not great. The wine order you see in this picture repeated itself throughout the trip. JC and I ordered red, and Yvonne and Mandy would get white. Ristorante Pizzeria Bistró fed us, but it was maybe our second-worst meal on this trip.

We started heading south and traveled to Lesina, which was the next coastal town on the map. It was early afternoon and we were getting hungry. We did find the older part of the town and parked. We started to walk around looking for a restaurant. Lesina was very quiet and there was hardly anyone around. It was a bit of a ‘ghost town’ and in retrospect, some towns we visited really embraced the siesta and that could have also been the issue when we were there. We were struggling to find a restaurant but traveling to the next town was going to take too long so we were determined to find something. Lesina sits on a large lagoon and has some history around this body of water. They are famous for the eel dishes apparently. We walked around looking for places we could see on Google maps. We saw a Nonna cooking down the alley which was close to a listed pizzeria. We approached and her to aks where the pizzeria was but a dog on the balcony scared us away before we could get close. We then walked towards the lagoon but still no people to be found. We saw a cafe on the lagoon called Ristorante Pizzeria Bistró. It was empty but we asked if they were open and they said yes, even though in retrospect they really were not. We ordered some wine, a salad and a couple of pizzas. The food was not great. The salad was all iceberg lettuce and fennel. The pizzas were very average and the wine was not so good despite being recommended by the owner. It filled us up which was half the battle. We presumed the town would be busier in the summer.

We left Lesina and headed to Vieste. We would look for places to stay as we headed to our final town each night. Yvonne found one called the Pizzomunno Vieste Palace Hotel which looked a bit high-end and we thought we would splurge a little. The hotel was not in the city of Vieste but down the main drag a little in a beach area, which seemed fine. We asked for their rates and it was a bit overpriced for what you were getting. We decided to move on.

We made it down to the harbor and Vieste was quite nice.

We want back toward the city and found some other hotel options. We asked for availability and pricing in a few of them and ended up staying at the Hotel La Caravelle. The price was good, the hotel was reasonably nice and they suggested there were water views from the rooms balconies. They were technically correct but you really had to lean out to see it. This was clearly a family-owned hotel. The hostess was very helpful and her two brothers drove us to the off-site parking which was not particularly close and a bit of an effort to make that all happen. We settled in, rested a little and then after getting a restaurant recommendation, headed into the ‘centro’. We walked through a bunch of alleys and down to the water. Vieste is full of alleys with stores and restaurants. We checked out the church right on the water. On the way there, I think there was church housing for kids and we heard someone being smacked by what I presume was a nun; Hail Mary! We continued exploring and I found the pergola called Bar Gelateria Maggiore at the top of the ‘Heart Stairs’ for the City of Love. We had spotted this earlier but did not want to walk up the stairs. We had some cocktails and enjoyed a good view of Vieste Harbor. We then proceeded down the ‘love’ stairs for dinner at Al Vaporetto Antipasteria Troccoleria di Mare which was recommended to us by the lady at the hotel. We ordered steak, whole sliced prawns, orchiaetta with mussels and tricolor pasta. The dinner was not very good. This was a bit disappointing and as time went on, meals at hotels were not as good as those at just regular restaurants. Al Vaporetta was close to the water with nice outside seating and a view of the chefs. We were optimistic, but in the end, I think it was mostly a tourist spot. We did have good gelato at one of the many stores selling it on our way back to the hotel.

Tuesday 4/28: We woke up the next morning and had the complimentary breakfast in the hotel. It was pretty good and the unlimited handmade coffee drinks were quite good. The La Caravelle hotel was a very acceptable experience.

We came around the tip of Vieste to get a really good view of the cliffs that the town sits on. Shortly we would see the famed 25-meter-high Pizzomunno white limestone monolith.

We had booked a boat tour the night before to see Vieste's famous coastline that spans roughly 30 kilometers. We had packed up, left our bags in the lobby and got driven in the hotel golf cart to the harbor to get on “the love boat” for a three-hour tour of the coast. Francesco was our guide and really added a nice touch to the experience. We enjoyed the scenery which included the transition from long, golden sandy Pizzomunno Beach to the many rugged cliffs, hidden natural sea grottoes, pebble coves, including Baia di Campi, Cala della Pergola and Grotte Marine.

This is the Architiello of San Felice and really representative of a lot of the shoreline we saw. They positioned the boat perfectly so we could get the castle Torre di San Felice in the middle of the natural arch.

We headed back to the hotel to check out. Our host drove us in the golf cart to get the car. Getting it out of their underground garage was quite an adventure. We got on the road heading south for our journey to Bari. We decided we would do a little driving and then look for a place for lunch. The roads were very windy and high up on the cliffs we just saw on the boat. We came up on a roadside restaurant and quickly decided to pull off and try our luck. Monte Bamone Ristorante would turn out to be very good with a beautiful cliffside view overlooking the Adriatic. We of course ordered some drinks. We spotted an old man cooking fish over an open fire so JC decided to order fish. I ordered linguine and clams, Mandy ordered sausages that looked like hot dogs and Yvonne had a caprese. We really lucked out as this checked all the boxes. The restaurant also by chance happened to be right next to the entrance of a fabulous hotel we saw from the boat called Baia delle Zagare which seems to be a place we all agreed if we were to come back, it would deserve a visit.

Our view at Monte Bamone Ristorante was awesome along with the food.

After lunch, we had about another hour of windy roads until we finally got to the flat land on our way to our destination today, Bari. We decided that this agriculturally intense area was the Iowa of Puglia, despite being very close to the ocean. We thought it would be prudent to stop for some gas. We found a gas station in the middle of nowhere which was actually called Eni Station in Cerignola Campagna. We were told by the gas attendant that they only had diesel. We decided that we would use their bathroom and took the opportunity to get some coffee. Most gas stations in Italy all have coffee bars which I think is amazing. There were a bunch of pretty scraggly men in two groups, one outside and one inside killing time and shooting the breeze. I ordered an espresso and an Americano to-go. The two baristas wanted to know where we were from. I think we stood out from their usual clientele as this location was definitely not a tourist destination. We let them know we were from America and they were very impressed by this. They asked if we had US dollars and I obliged giving them some of the singles I had. We then went outside and as we were getting in the car, the gas attendant’s Cane Corso, which was quite impressive, came up to us and we gave him a lot of attention and love. We departed and pressed on. For some reason the route we took brought us inland somewhat, and because of this, we missed Barletta and Trani which is unfortunate in retrospect.

We started to get out of the agricultural area and into the outskirts of Bari. As we drove in, Yvonne and Mandy had been looking for a place to stay. We ended up booking an Airbnb that was advertised as being within easy walking distance of the city's historic area, which is obviously where we wanted to be. The drive into Bari was a little startling as the way in is filled with areas that looked a little rough. We had encountered this before and would continue to do so during the rest of the trip and began to expect it. We ended up getting to the Airbnb called The Rooftop. Before could get access to it, we needed to get them a bunch info like passports. This proved to be quite challenging. We found the actual Airbnb around 5 PM and it would not be ready until 6 PM. We drove around some to try to get a lay of the land. We saw a pretty industrial harbor area with a giant historical fort, and several high-end hotels on the water. There was an area with high-end shopping near these hotels and it looked pretty interesting, though we never ended up going to this area. We worked our way back to the Airbnb and found a temporary parking spot to finish our reservation and finally get into the apartment. It was on the top floor and Mandy went up first to make sure we could actually get in. After we confirmed that, we wheeled in our luggage to the lobby, sent it up a very small Italian elevator and got situated. They told us we could park in a public parking lot a few blocks away. Yvonne volunteered to go with me to get the car parked. We lucked out in that we spotted a space right on the busy city street where our apartment was and we grabbed it. We then tried to pay for the parking on a public app which wouldn’t work and debated how safe our car would be. Parking was free from 8 to 8 and we figured that with all the cars, it would be highly unlikely that ours would get picked out for ticketing, or much worse, towed or stolen.

The apartment was very reasonable and clean. It had a rooftop terrace which was pretty nice and had a very interesting view of the many local buildings. JC went to a wine store right down the street and bought a bottle of red and white to bring back to the apartment. We thought we would relax and sit in the rooftop terrace and kill some time waiting for Italy’s late-ish dinner time. What was strange was that you could not buy a corkscrew and the apartment didn’t have one. We ended up opening the wine bottles with a knife. JC spilled a lot of the red wine all over the kitchen in the process.

Finally it was time to venture out into the city of Bari, and it was definitely a city. We headed for the old town by foot. As advertised, it was not far from the apartment at all. We walked down along Castello Normanno-Svevo which is a 13th-century fort. When we got to the end of that we saw the entrance into ‘old-town’. Pretty quickly we were impressed by this area and it was what we were really looking for. Bari is famous for Nonna’s handmade Orichetti in the alleyways which is a specific type of pasta. We finally found a few of them and bought a couple of bags. We enjoyed watching them make it. As we were wandering around we walked into a piazza with a bunch of restaurants on the edges. One in the corner had a bunch of outside seating and they had the whole crowd singing. We watched this for a little while as it was pretty fun. We then heard the sound of church bells and walked toward it. We ran into the Basilica of St Nicholas which was built for this saint in the 11th century for the original Santa Claus. As we walked around we found another piazza for the church where they were having this big ceremony for St. Nicholas. Our timing was quite lucky and this was quite the sight. There was a big crowd of people, a band and a delegation of the church led by the father addressing the crowd. Behind him was the statue of St. Nicholas which had been carried out of the church by a bunch of parishioners. They then turned around and the procession went back into the church with the statue to do a mass. We continued to watch for a while. It was quite the spectacle.

This was our table in the alleyway at Cucina Carletto. They brought the pre-determined five-piece meal that we ate family-style. The items were a little surprising but were fantastic. This was one of our best meals with good drinks.

It was now time to find a place to eat. We wandered around for a while and finally found a little restaurant called Cucina Carletto that was in one of many tight alleys in the part of the old town. There was outside and inside seating. While we were waiting for a an outside seat, a kid on a bike was nearly run over by a guy on a motorcycle. The traffic in the old town was very curious with pedestrians dodging bikes and mopeds. We also witnessed a young shirtless boy arrive at the restaurant looking for something to drink and was given a Coke by the waitress to then scurry away to wherever he came from. We finally got a table outside and there were only about five available. The waitress was less than thrilled when we figured out it was a bit late for them. She definitely wanted to go home. The proprietor was an older man and I suspect the waitress’s father. He was great and definitely was going to take care of us. We selected a family-style meal with five parts to it that we would all share. He brought out these old carafes of red and white wine which was very good. The old man brought out eggplant, buffalo mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes and a big tray of pasta and meat sauce. We really enjoyed this meal! We left and walked around a bit and started to head back in the direction of our Airbnb. We ran into this great bakery and gelato store called Gelateria Gentile which was very popular. We bought pastries for the next morning’s breakfast. I got a very good gelato. We walked back to the apartment and drank some more wine on the rooftop terrace. We had more great conversations and finally went to bed.

Wednesday 4/29: We all woke up at a reasonable hour somewhat motivated by our understanding that car ticketing started at 8 AM. We all showered in the one bathroom, packed up and headed out. I brought the car closer to the front door and we actually were able to park right there. I wanted a coffee before we departed and went to a cafe up the street on the next corner that allowed me to pee the prior evening as we were waiting to get into the Airbnb. It was a good ‘modern’ Bari city experience.

We got back in the car and headed south towards Polignano a Mare. Yvnonne’s friend Nick had sent her a link to a hotel called Grotta Palazzese and there is an amazing restaurant in a cave at sea level looking out on the Adriatic. We arrived and found a parking lot which turned out to be south of the old city. We checked that out for a little bit but then decided to drive and park closer to the old city. We worked our way through classic Italian narrow streets and found a spot that we thought was pretty good and close to the Grotta Palazzese Hotel. Across the alley from our parking space was a very old lady hanging out her window doing what I call Italian security. She thought we needed to move our car closer to the one in front of us and so we did.

This is a view of the many options in the old city to see the Adriatic in Polignano a Mare. The cliffs are probably 40 to 60 feet above the water. It is stunning. The Grotta Palazzese Hotel was right around the corner and we could see the famed ristorante from the railing to the right.

We headed towards the Adriatic to try to get some views and there were several options that we found easily. Walking through the alleys of Polignano a Mare was very picturesque. We decided to track down the Grotta Palazzese Hotel and see if we could wrangle a lunch reservation at the famous grotto restaurant. We did find it and there was a security guy at the entrance. We asked him about getting a reservation and he said you had to do it online. The entrance was close to a sea wall and view, so there was a fair amount of pedestrian traffic and distractions. We milled around a bit and then came back. I waited until the security guy was distracted and bolted for the door to see if I could get down to the restaurant and at least see it, and maybe wrangle a reservation in person. I made it in but missed the correct stairwell down to the restaurant, and this delay allowed the security guy to track me down and tell me to get out: I was shoo-shoo’d away Italian style.

We decided we would get a coffee and pastries and landed at a nice outdoor cafe called Sporcamus Bakery. We then continued to explore and found our way to Lama Monachile which is the visual highlight. We spent a good amount of time soaking in the beauty and activity. We then decided to walk to the other side of Lama Monachile. We could see an interesting long cliff walk we wanted to check out and maybe find a lunch option with a great view. We found a nice hotel and restaurant, but they were not open. We bumped into a Chicago couple who told us about a hotel in Matera which was a potential spot to stay at in the next few days; it turned out to be not available. We returned to the other side of Lama Monachile. There was a great rooftop terrace at a restaurant called Acquamarea right next to the picture we took below. The view was great as was the wine. Lots of fish options which is a problem for the ladies. The food ended up being very acceptable. Polignano a Mare was only a point of intrigue on our itinerary and it turned out to be one of the best places on this trip. It would be a place I would return to for a couple of days.

This is Lama Monachile which is the most photographed part of Polignano a Mare. It was pretty amazing and lives up to the hype. I would have really liked to go down and swim but I started to catch a cold and couldn’t muster up the energy to do it. My loss.

We returned to the car to head to Monopoli. Our old lady security guard was no longer at her post: it must have been her siesta time. We arrived at the outskirts of Monopoli and the rugged experience we had earlier in other cities was true for Monopoli. We had put in the hotel I identified on the itinerary into the navigation and had a few directional misses. We then found the entrance to the old city. We saw the ZTL signs which mean you really shouldn’t drive in. There was a narrow alley that we thought we should head down, but there were cars coming out. We tried another alley and the car did not like this and when things got really tight, the car auto-braked really hard a couple of times. It was very startling, and everyone else was thrown off by this and thought we should move on. I thought we should try harder but got outvoted and so we got out of Monopoli and started to head south. l took a quick look at the map and there appeared to be long beaches just a little south with big hotels and so I thought this might be a good alternative to the hotel in the heart of old town Monopoli. We checked it out and it was okay but they were closed for the season. In retrospect, I think we missed out by not staying in Monopoli, as I have seen a number of videos showing how nice it is.

After we settled into our L’Angola Ostuni Airbnb, we explored the streets of Ostuni armed with many recommendations from our super host Massimo.

We decided to move on to Ostuni which was going to be part of a day trip the following day. This turned out to be a very good decision! Yvonne hopped on Airbnb and the first recommendation was a listing called the L’Angola Ostuni. We decided to pull the trigger. The host Massimo responded almost immediately and said he would meet us after he stopped at the laundry for fresh towels. We could see the white city on the hill which was pretty spectacular. Before we knew it, we were working our way up to the city and heading to our new home on 81 Corso Giuseppe Garibaldi. We found the location, although we were a bit unsure if it was right. We found a parking spot relatively close on this narrow street and saw Massimo waiting for us with fresh towels and a bottle of cold white wine. Massimo opened a narrow door which was the entrance to reveal the steepest set of stairs I have ever seen. The home was two stories and the stairs were effectively a ladder. That being said, the place was very nice and Massimo showed off this beautifully restored apartment. He told us he was studying to be an engineer and did all the renovation work himself. The Corrigans defaulted to the lower bedroom because of Yvonne’s giant purple suitcase. Mandy and I took the loft at the top which was also the living room. This stay had the best bathrooms of our trip. As Massimo left, he said he would offer us an extra night at half the price if we paid him directly. We thought about it for a little while and decided to take him up on his offer.

This was on the patio of the La Sommità Relais Hotel which we spotted and decided to explore. What a find! Maybe the best view in Ostuni not to mention great drinks and service.

Massimo proceeded to give us numerous recommendations for dinner and cocktails with a view. Before going out, JC stopped into the mercato a few steps away from our Airbnb and picked up a couple of bottles of wine. He spotted a very local social club in a back room and we wondered what really goes on in there. We then proceeded to walk down the hill to the piazza and head towards the church we saw from our rooftop terrace which seemed to be the high point of the city. We found our way to Massimo’s first recommendation for drinks with a view. The place with a view had no availability and so we moved on and wandered around a bit. We stumbled upon a nightclub called Ricardo’s which was quite nice and a bit unexpected for me. It seemed incongruent to have a nightclub in a very old historic city. We came upon a small cafe/bar called Bar Perso with a very interesting feature of beanbag chairs in an alley with a nice view. We had a cocktail on beanbag chairs and chopped it up with some locals. We moved on and decided to climb up to discover a beautiful hotel called La Sommità Relais. I asked if they had a bar and they offered up a terrace with the most amazing view of the agricultural land below Ostuni and all the way to the Adriatic. This was considerably better than Massimo’s recommendation. We had a round of drinks on the patio and watched an amazing sunset. We then moved into a nice room for a second round of drinks. We met a couple from Baltimore on their honeymoon and had a lovely conversation with them. We finally moved on and tracked down a restaurant we had spotted earlier which appeared to be in a cave. Osteria del Tempo Perso looked very nice and had a table. The atmosphere was great and this made up for our miss earlier in the day in Polignano a Mare. The meal was quite good highlighted by JC’s Octopus order. We also met an American man who was a former professional volleyball player. We left and wandered home. There in the living room, we had a long conversation about how each of us met our significant others and our many adventures in San Francisco all fueled by the wine JC had gotten earlier.

Our resident red wine sommelier JC gives the offering from Osteria del Tempo Perso in a cave a test. Very good!

Thursday 4/30: We woke up the next morning in pretty good shape. My theory of no hangover with Italian wine was still holding true. Unfortunately, I had caught a cold and this was the peak of my sickness. Mercifully I was able to press on but not at peak powers. JC would catch it a few days later as I was hacking on my co-pilot in the car for hours every day. Up until this point, the weather had been perfect but today was going to be rainy. Our plan was to take a day trip to Lecce and the southernmost end of the heel: probably Gallipoli. Mandy and I were a bit ahead of JC and Yvonne from a schedule perspective so we wandered around a little in Ostuni along with coffee and pastries at Caffè Trieste in the piazza.

There was seemingly an infinite number of alleys and things to do in Ostuni. Mandy and I wandered around in the morning exploring and killing some time.

We were all ready and got in the car and made our way to Lecce. JC saw an archaeological museum he wanted to visit so we checked that out. It was quite interesting with all sorts of crazy ‘rooms’ dug into rock and earth many years prior. We had worked up a little bit of an appetite and we wandered around a bit and found a nice restaurant called Osteria 203. It took a little effort and some luck to wrangle a table. A little wine and more good Italian food. We departed and Yvonne fell out of her chair on the way out.

We then found more destinations and walked to Palazzo del Seggio o Sedile which had a number of things to look at like an old preserved colosseum or amphitheater type structure: I believe it is Le Camere dell'Anfiteatro. There was a great church so we of course peeked our heads in there as well. There was also a big sculpture behind glass which we could not figure out who they were recognizing but he clearly was important: Saint fill-in-the-blank. We continued to walk the alleys of Lecce. We found an area that mixed high-end stores in the historic section of the city. We were thinking we were heading back to the car, but we had overshot it by a bunch. At long last we found the main road we had parked on and walked back towards the car.

We found a nod to my wife’s maiden name in Lecce.

We got on the road to head south to Gallipoli which was made famous in the First World War, I believe the Trojan horse, the Ionian Sea and the westernmost point of Italy’s heel. We worked through the newer part of the town to the old town which I think is technically an island. We found some parking in the harbor area. There was definitely real fishing and other seafaring activities going on here. Yvonne and I needed to use a bathroom and there was a cafe in this industrial harbor area which seemed a little strange but we got some coffee in exchange for use of their bathroom. That hit the spot but Yvonne said she would buy it and then proceeded to walk out without paying. The proprietor tracked us down and we paid. It was raining off and on, but not too hard. We proceeded to the centro after a stop at the ‘pharmacia’ to get cough drops. We then went to the Olive Oil Press Museum. Apparently in Gallipoli there were approximately two thousand of these operations. They were dug underground and the whole thing was enlightening and very curious. We then saw this nativity exhibit where you walk through and it recreates the nativity scene. This was quite interesting: it was like a ‘Small World’ at Disney only for Jesus. It started to rain and there was a gentleman outside a bar that waived us in and we took him up on his offer which was good since it started to pour shortly after. I don’t recall the name of it but it was very interesting with horse carriages and an open atrium area. The cocktails and conversation were good. The rain let up and we then walked to the most western point of Gallipoli and checked out the Ionian Sea. We proceeded to walk around the entire seawall and back to the car. We got another coffee on the way out of Gallipoli at the cafe we went to earlier. And use their facilities! We got in the car and returned to Ostuni. I wish we were able to spend a little more time in the heel but this trip worked.

Getting the lay of the land as we planned our walk through Gallipoli.

Upon our return to Ostuni, we tried to find a parking spot near our Airbnb and there was nothing. There was a park close by and we found a spot there. This sort of allowed us to see that there was a whole other side of Ostuni that we had not gone to. We returned to our Airbnb and drank some of our ‘house wine’. We then left and walked around looking for a dinner spot based on Massimo’s recommendations. We struck out a few times as these higher-end restaurants wanted reservations, but we had not made any. We ended up eating at Hosteria Pizzeria Regina which had a nice atmosphere and the food was good. We talked about the best movies and shows that night which was an interesting conversation. I had a gelato on the way home. A little more wine at home and we went to bed.

We really enjoyed coffee and pastries at Caffè Trieste in the Ostuni Piazza.

Friday 5/1: Woke up in Ostuni and got ready to leave. I went to get the car at the park and initially I couldn’t find it. I hadn’t walked far enough but had a big oh-oh moment thinking the car was gone. I was able to find a spot relatively close to the house and we packed the car up and were ready to leave. I had spotted a small farmer’s market getting the car so we went and checked that out first and then returned to Caffè Trieste in the piazza for coffee and pastries. We people watched and there was some sort of entertainment being set up. Now that we were fed and caffeinated, we headed back to the car for our trip to Alberobello and the Trulli houses.

We made our way to Alberobello on a pleasant drive through the countryside. As we got to Alberobello, the traffic picked up considerably and it quickly became clear that everyone was there to see the Trulli houses. We worked our way as close to the start of the walk as possible to find a pay-for-parking area in a tired-looking olive orchard. The proprietor was a very intimidating man who felt as though he should be a part of Hell’s Angels in the States. He was a no-joke tough guy made clear by his cauliflowered ears. Don’t judge a book by its cover as he turned out to be quite delightful.

We were working our way up through the many Trulli Houses. This area is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We started walking towards the Trulli houses, which were packed with a lot of people. We were oblivious that today was the beginning of a three-day May Day holiday. The basic story on these unique dwellings is that the local people would build their houses with ‘loose’ stones to avoid being taxed by the government. They would disassemble the houses leaving nothing to tax before the tax man would come around. As we were wandering around, I saw a rooftop deck that I was certain would have great views of the area. We tried to get up there but the viewing deck was above a store and you had to buy something to get entrance. So we bought tchotchkes and went up. It was worth the price of admission. We continued to wander around the Trulli houses and relatively quickly decided that we had the experience and proceeded back to the car to get out of all the people.

This was one of the views from the pay-to-play viewing deck. We had someone take a picture of all of us and try to get the houses in the picture and the results were not great. This one of Mandy turned out to be the best one.

We got on the road and decided to stop for lunch in a town called Puntignano. This was your typical town on a hill and was a small to medium-sized. We found a good parking space before the ZTL area which was right next to a public bathroom which was a plus as well. Things were very quiet which I suspect was some combination of siesta time and the holiday we just discovered. We walked toward the centro and quickly came across a group of Gen Z’ers partying it up at a bar and in the sun for what was a cool-ish day. We decided we wouldn’t raise the average age at this Gen Z’er party. Shortly after we came upon the Piazza Plebiscito which looked interesting. There was a church on one side, and on the other side there was a bunch of tables outside in front of a ristorante called Grieco - I think. As stated earlier it was a bit cool and windy so we went inside to a small room with about four tables. We met our waiter Massimo who encouraged us to come in as we were debating what to do. We took him up on his offer and went in. We decided to call him Massimo II and immediately liked him. He had great suggestions on everything. He told us his life story and was well-versed in all things food and wine with a worldly history to support his recommendations. We ended up having a great meal and the wine recommendations were awesome. His mother has a small olive oil farm and he gave us a can of his family’s olive oil. We became fast friends.

A picture of our new best friend Massio II after our great meal and conversation. You will also see the can of his family’s olive oil he gave us. We have subsequently ordered more because it was so good!

During lunch, we indicated we wanted to visit a winery and Massimo recommended a few. The one he really pushed was run by three sisters but it was in the wrong direction and too far away. We proceeded on a beautiful drive to one of Massimo’s other recommendations called Tenute Girolamo Winery. Massimo called the owner to let him know we were coming. Our timing was pretty perfect as they were just starting a tour. This was done by a young man who really knew his stuff and gave us a complete overview of the entire process. The highlight was down in the basement which was quite large and deep where they processed the wine and then below that, put it in lots of barrels for aging.

The underground aging room was very impressive, cool and damp.

After the tour we went to their tasting room and ended up tasting I believe nine different wines. It was a lot. Mandy hit her drinking limit about halfway through and JC started drinking her wine in addition to his. He would consume a lot of wine this day and absolutely tested the limits of my no-hangover theory for Italian wine. We were here until about 5 PM and we needed to start thinking about a place to stay.

We started tasting a whole bunch of wine after the tour. This was the beginning of a long day of drinking for JC in particular. By the end of the night, he was in rare form!

I had booked an Airbnb called Corte Lirice Paradiso through Booking.com in a town called Gioia del Colle. We drove into town following the GPS which was going to take us right to the Airbnb. We entered the old part of the town which means a lot of narrow alleys. We got to one point where there was a very subtle and quick left and right which was quite narrow. I got pretty good at working our way through narrow spots, but this was too narrow. The car literally got wedged between the two walls. I was convinced we could get through. JC got out to guide me and Mandy and Yvonne were in the back peppering me with suggestions. There was an old man who walked by shaking his head. Then there was a younger man who showed up and was willing to help us but his basic recommendation was to back up and not go forward. I really thought we could get through and how else are we going to get to the Airbnb? However it became obvious we were not going to make it through and so we backed out, which was not easy considering the wedge issue we found ourselves in. After some considerable effort, we got the car unwedged and were able to turn around after about a 40-point turn. This may have been the highlight and lowlight all at once, and probably the most memorable part of the trip.

We were able to find a parking space on one of the larger streets pretty close to the Airbnb but it required some walking. The Airbnb was not on a street but in a side alley and there was also some construction going on in the piazza that would have provided easier access. We finally found the Corte Lirice Paradiso Airbnb. We were provided a code to open the lock box but it didn’t work. I tried calling Booking.com, messaging them, calling the Airbnb directly but we couldn’t get a hold of anyone as it was later in the evening. We tried the code again and again, and it just would not work. We tried and tried and waited and waited, and nothing. Mandy and Yvonne had to pee so they went to a pizzeria/restaurant a couple of blocks away. Mandy and Yvonne started asking the girls in the pizza place where we could go. Their recommendation was the Svevo Hotel. So we made our way there and unfortunately it ended up being a bust because there was an entire football (soccer) team that had taken all the rooms. The young man at the front desk arranged for us to go to a hotel in the next town San Basilio. We got back in the car and headed to Hotel Cecere. We were greeted by a gentleman at the front desk who looked a lot like Kramer from Seinfeld. We apparently got the last two rooms in the hotel. These rooms were quite large and they had these extremely large patios with nothing on them. We settled in and went down to the lobby where Kramer greeted us with complimentary wine. At this point, JC was feeling no pain from the two gallons of wine he had at the winery. We finished our wine and headed to a restaurant called La Finestra sul Cielo recommended by Karmer in Mottola. It was more modern than anything we had been to previously. We sat down and it took a while to get served. The food was alright. There was a good view because Mottola sits on a hill which most towns in Italy do. On the way out JC had a funny fall where he was walking behind us one moment and then had fallen behind a car and seemingly disappeared. We made it back to the hotel and put JC to sleep!

Saturday 5/2: We all got up at a reasonable hour which was impressive for JC. They had a breakfast and coffee bar downstairs which was surprisingly impressive. We also noticed the hotel had a very large wedding ballroom that was quite dated but pretty impressive nonetheless. They must have hosted every event in the area. We said our good-byes to Kramer, packed up and headed out.

This vantage point greeted us as we got to the old part of Matera The whole thing was very impressive. The old part of the city sits in a hole and as we walked around we learned more about the colorful history of the third-oldest city in the world.

Today’s destination was Matera. To get there we drove through beautiful rolling hills and countryside. We worked our way into the town and this too seemed busy so we found a parking spot and took it. Turns out we should have gone further as we had parked a bit too far from the old city. After our long walk, we finally made it to the main attraction. Matera visually lived up to the hype and definitely felt like the third-oldest city in the world. From our initial view of the city we could see the Cathedral Basilica on the other side and decided we would walk around the top right edge of the city to the cathedral. It was stunning and at least on this side, the modern city had crept right to the edge of the old city. We went down a little into the old portion of the city and walked the alleys. We spotted a very interesting restaurant that was dug into the stone and essentially in a cave. I decided we should try to come back to that if we could.

This was the most ornate church we saw on our trip and we saw a lot of churches. I found it interesting that given Matera’s history of extreme poverty, its church was so magnificent.

We finally made it to the Cathedral Basilica which had a museum as well so we decided to check it out. We generally poked our heads into every church to check them out, but this one was particularly stunning. The history was impressive particularly because of the age of the city. We spent a decent amount of time in both the museum and the actual church which were quite interesting in different ways.

After finishing the church and museum, we debated if we should work our way down into the bottom of ‘the hole’ that is Matera but opted to enjoy the view from the top. Instead, we decided to work our way back to the restaurant we saw earlier for lunch. More wine and another great meal with very unique atmosphere that is an underground cave: even though we had sort of done it already in Ostuni.

The whole restaurant was dug deep into Mater rock creating a cave environment. There was a very large dining room at the bottom that was quite deep. We had a good meal and it was a memorable stop even though it was our second meal in a cave.

We had a long walk back to the car because of our earlier parking mistake. I had paid particular attention to the way we got there so we could find our way back. However, we pretty quickly hit territory that I did not recognize. We found ourselves on the main drag and I was pretty certain that if we stayed on it we would find the car. However as time went on, we thought we were one block off and mercifully we were correct and located the car which was a relief.

We got on the road and headed for Potenza. The rolling hills and mountains were beautiful as we made our way west toward the Mediterranean. We stopped for gas and I had hoped they had a coffee bar like every other gas station in Italy, but no. They did have a bathroom which was a good consolation prize. Yvonne and Mandy started to look for a place to stay. Pretty quickly they found an interesting listing which was a two-bedroom, two-bath Airbnb in the next town over called Pignola. We decided to pull the trigger and Marco the host was helpful with various details. Pignola is a beautiful small ski village next to Potenza. We drove by Potenza and took the next exit after and started driving up some windy roads and we were really gaining some altitude. We were getting close and went up a very steep street. When we arrived at the address, we went to turn into the driveway and I thought the car was going to roll over. There was a gate and two houses that were not looking great. We messaged Marco and he said his parents were looking out of their balcony and couldn’t see us. We finally figured out we were on the wrong street. With a little effort, we found the right address.

We were checking out the balcony with Marco’s dad. There was a great view out over the valley with mountains in the distance covered with windmills.

We were greeted by Marco’s dad who showed us to our apartment. This was a three-story house with a garage and storage on the first floor, Marco’s parents lived on the second floor and we stayed on the top floor. The home was quaint and they had a washer and dryer which we took advantage of. Marco’s Mom gave us an overview of everything we would need including a detailed how-to on another espresso machine. There was a koi pond in the back with a pretty sizeable patio. We got settled in and then poured some wine from the winery we visited yesterday. There was a sitting area out in front of the house with a fantastic view over the valley. Katy called Yvonne and we all had a long fun FaceTime session with her.

Le Fiamme was a very local restaurant recommended by Marco. This was the charcuterie board recommended by the owner. It was a lot of food and quite good. This was the beginning of a large meal.

Marco made us a reservation for dinner at 8 PM at Le Fiamme which was a local family-style restaurant. We showed up right on time after accidentally parking in the employee lot which made the entrance a bit concerning. When we got inside it was really nice. They took us upstairs which was a really big room that was a little bit austere. We were the only ones up there. The owner came up to greet us which was really nice. He suggested a bunch of things and we got a little swept up in his enthusiasm. After he left we realized we ordered too much. The wine came and then a huge charcuterie board showed up. There were a bunch of different things and we tested them all. It was all quite good! It became obvious that we could have just ordered that but we had ordered much more. The rest of the meal showed up which included a huge amount of ribs for Mandy. Yvonne had pistachio pasta and JC and I split a big meat tray and a pasta ravioli with cod! It was all really good but way too much. As we went down to pay, we decided to have some after-dinner drinks. We had a great conversation with the bar staff. There was a young man who greeted us early in our meal and liked that we spoke English. We saw 18-year-old Valentino again and we encouraged him to visit us in the States. It was a great deal of fun. After one last after-dinner drink, we went back to the house, finished our laundry and spent a bunch of time debating which bands were the best and showing each other what we each thought were amazing performances on YouTube. Yvonne had the craziest notion that the Eagles were the best American rock band!

Sunday 5/3: We woke up and started to get ready. Despite the detailed training on the coffee maker, we couldn’t make this one work either. JC was starting to feel bad after finally getting my cold. We lugged our luggage down and packed up the car. We said our good-byes to Marco’s parents.

We found a nice little coffee shop in Potenza. We were enjoying the sun and listening to the locals chat and greet each other. They also had Halls cough drops, which we bought a bunch of for JC and my colds.

Since I thought we were going to stay in Potenza for the night, and it looked pretty interesting as we drove by the day before, I suggested that we should go get some coffee and drugs for JC. Potenza like most cities in Italy was perched on a hill. We worked our way to the top and found a good parking spot. We had spotted a coffee shop right before we parked and so we headed there. This was a very small shop called Bar Caffeteria Vittoria. We ordered our customary Americanos and Cappuccinos, which were good but all their pastries were gone. There were a bunch of locals and we enjoyed watching the post-church activities of the town. There was a gentleman who understood English but he had not disclosed this until the end so hopefully we didn’t say anything stupid. Mandy really didn’t understand his Italian and he would later convey that he speaks a Naples dialect. We walked around the town a little and then got on our way to Salerno and the Mediterranean.

The coast and harbor area of Salerno was picturesque and impressive. We walked up and down the ‘promenade’ checking the city our and trying to get our bearings.

We worked our way into the city and got to the coast. We drove around a little to get the lay of the land and finally parked in a public parking lot right on the water. There was a long walkway and an ‘avenue’ right on the water. We decided we would walk down it and then move into the city to find a hotel. We wandered around quite a bit trying a bunch of options without much luck. I had seen a somewhat modern hotel when we drove in called the Grand Salerno which was just south of the old part of the city. Despite my earlier bad experience with Booking.com, I thought I would roll the dice again and try to get a reservation through them for the Grand Salerno as their pricing was quite good. We pulled the trigger and went back to the car to check in. Getting out of the public parking lot was a little tricky but we found our way to the hotel. We were instructed to park in the garage below and after doing so, finally got checked in. The hotel was very acceptable but it had clearly peaked sometime late in the last century. We decided we would nap a little before venturing out.

We started to walk towards the old part of Salerno and stopped at this open bar on the waterfront called Madegra. Interestingly enough, this is the first place we paid a tip for a meal or drinks.

We started walking North towards the old section of Salerno from our hotel down the promenade which had lots of restaurants on one side and the harbor and Mediterranean on the other. There was a nice outside bar about halfway down so we stopped to have some drinks. Today was our day to have a long chat with our daughter and so we FaceTimed with Sara while having drinks at Madegra. This restaurant was our first tipping experience meaning they asked for a tip and we hadn’t had that happen previously. I believe this was an indication that we were in a more touristy area than we had been in previously. We left and worked our way to the older section of the town which meant moving inland some. There was a great pedestrian promenade called Corso Vittorio Emanuele. We happened on a Renaissance performance which had a lot of people dressed up in historical costumes performing music and dancing. We moved on and checked out another large church which was not far away from the performances. When we were done checking it out, the celebration came to the church and so we watched a little bit more. We then moved on and started walking through the many tight alleys of Salerno and found this ‘hole in the wall’ wine bar with great prosciutto called Dolci Ricordi. We got a little table on the street and enjoyed the offering. While we were there, a gentleman sat at the table next to us who turned out to be a Norwegian mathematician. Shortly thereafter, a lady and her dog grabbed a table. She was a biologist now living in Rome and visiting her parents in Salerno. We all started talking and they seemed to hit it off. When we left, we wondered if a connection had been made.

The ‘local’ lady made a restaurant recommendation called Cici Rinella. She gave us the owner’s name and told us to ask for him. We did and were welcomed with open arms. This restaurant was sort of a cave as well. We met a bunch of other people in there one of whom was an American couple, Renee and her husband Bob. They were from upstate NY and Florida. The restaurant was good but not amazing. We left and took a leisurely walk back through the promenade, people watching and looking at the many stores and restaurants. We did stop for gelato and dessert cocktails at bakery and gelato cafe with outside tables. While we were eating, these really young African kids were trying to sell necklaces and other tchotchkes. We just gave them money. We walked back to the Grand Salerno and called it a night.

Monday 5/4: We woke up and went downstairs to the free breakfast at the Grand. It was a decent offering in a very big room but the whole thing was a blast from the past. We got packed up, checked out and made our way down to the garage to venture to the Amalfi coast.

This was right off the main dag looking into Maoiri. We really liked this town and had one of our best lunches.

Getting out of Salerno was pretty easy and we quite quickly entered the narrow, windy roads that would be our experience for the next few days. Our first stop was the coastal town of Maiori. The trip here was visually amazing and very exciting from a driving experience. Yvonne has a friend in Sarasota named Masood who had a house in Maiori for quite a while and had provided Yvonne with lots of travel advice prior to the trip. We found a parking spot right on the main drag and grabbed it. We walked around the water area and then headed inland up the main boulevard. This was a really nice little town full of shops and restaurants. We stopped in the local church as we did in every town and there was a great garden with these deep pools full of fish, which was quite impressive and a bit surprising. It was getting close to lunch so we stopped at a deli called La Tramontina. We ate at their outside tables. Mandy ordered a focaccia sandwich with prosciutto and mortadella, JC ordered lasagna and Yvonne got a huge bruschetta. This lunch was really good and supported my theory that the best food was in the little establishments. We returned to the car and continued with the goal of getting to Ravello.

One of the stores in Maoiri just sold pork and it was out for inspection! Give me the prosciutto!

We almost missed the turn to Ravello. There was a split that came real quick and I froze a bit but at the very last minute went up the right way to Ravello. We climbed and climbed up a very twisty road. This was our first introduction to one-way roads. We got to the top and there were two choices and I opted to go through a tunnel as it seemed that would take us higher, and being high is good when traveling in Italy. This brought us to a dead end which was full of vehicles. Trying to turn around was a challenge. I then proceeded down the way we came but this was going the wrong way on a one-way raod. We were told in Italian that we were idiots. I managed to back up and go the right way. We went back through the tunnel and I parked right on the other side of it where the other turn was. The parking spot was on the side of the road and marginally legal, but my thought was we should walk up particularly after the car struggle we just had. There was a gentleman helping with traffic that I had walked over to ask if he thought my parking spot was okay. He said there were seven more spaces up above. We scrambled back to the car while four cars went by and motored to the promised parking. Sure enough, there was a public parking. We got our space but it was super tight.

This is the Piazza Centrale in Ravello which was quite the revelation as we walked up some stairs and were greeted by the very picturesque public square. This was just the beginning of our love for Ravello.

Our plan was to check out Ravello and pursue an Airbnb we had seen in Furore that touted great views and a hot tub. We had an issue with a car on the other side of the parking and we let them out and then reparked. While all this was going on, Mandy and Yvonne noticed a hotel right near the public parking. They walked around looking for someone to talk to and found the cleaning lady. She told us ‘uno momento’ and our new friend Pietro arrived within minutes on his Vespa. He was very welcoming and gave us two rooms at a great rate at Il Ducato Di Ravello. One room had a really great view that JC and Yvonne got. The room we had was quite nice as well, and these were some of the best rooms we had to date. There were two little dogs that roamed around and provided ‘security’. They were both in kind of rough shape but very friendly. We settled in and relaxed a little bit and then walked up the stairs to the Piazza Centrale and wow! We were amazed at the beauty of it!

This was our perfect table at the Hotel Rufalo. This would be a nice place to stay if I came back.

We walked across the piazza and saw the Hotel Rufalo which was really nice so we checked it out. There was a great patio that overlooked the Mediterranean. The view was amazing and there were plenty of tables. They gave, we asked for, the perfect table in the corner with a view that could stop time! We had cocktails and drinks there. Honestly I could have stayed there all day. During our drinks, we noticed a tower and we could see people on top. It turned out to be the Fondazione Ravello. So we headed over to check it out and it was a museum with a bunch of history and of course the view at the top of the tower. We checked everything out and climbed to the top. On the way up, there were a bunch of displays and the stairway up through the tower was steel and glass which was a nice aesthetic. The top was more of the great view we had already seen, just a little higher and quite impressive. After we went to a beautiful garden. We saw a bride and groom and realized this has got to be the prettiest place to have a wedding.

I found my perfect store in Ravello!

We continued to explore and ended up at the Hotel Giordano which looked nice. Down some stairs we spotted a pool and bar so we headed there. This was a nice setting. Our waiter was Tomosso and we became fast friends. He was showering us with pleasantries including JC looking like Sean Connery. At the end we asked for a dinner recommendation and Tomosso suggested to Hotel Maria which was a sister hotel. We would take his advice, but headed back to our rooms first at Il Ducato Di Ravello. We got some wine we still had from the winery and other acquisitions along the way. JC and Yvonne’s room had a ‘vista veranda’ perched up high with a terrific view of the parking lot. We spent some time there before heading out to dinner.

Our new friend Tommoso at the Hotel Giordano.

We worked our way to Hotel Maria. It was a very nice establishment. They had great outdoor dining with a great view looking north with the Mediterranean in view. There was a row of tables right on the edge but they were all taken so we got the next row over. The prices here were definitely a notch higher than what we typically had seen thus far. Welcome to Amalfi! We struggled a little with the menu but ended up with a good, but not great meal and some really good wine. All in all, it was a very nice experience. We took a leisurely walk back to the Il Ducato and went to bed.

Tuesday 5/5: We woke up at Pietro’s place to a very early farmer’s market setup at a crazy hour. The two ‘guard’ dogs were doing their job by barking quite a bit as well. Pietro served us a delicious breakfast with “the best coffee in all of Italy.” He told us about the celebrity weddings that had taken place in Ravello, including John Legend and Usher! After breakfast, we separately returned to the Piazza Centrale and checked out the eastern end of the town which we had not visited the day before. We returned to the Il Ducato and Pietro pulled our car out of their private parking which was just a grass patch below the public parking. He got us out of the public parking for free and we were on to Positano!

Holy cow! The trip into Positano was even more exciting from a driving perspective. It was certainly a test of nerves with endless tight squeezes! We drove by two young men in a bad scooter accident. As we closed in on Positano, there was a turn we needed to make to head into Positano that we missed. We continued on that road for a while and then there was a fork which allowed for a pretty daring U-turn that allowed us to head back and make the correct turn into Positano. We made our way down to the Hotel La Bougainville where we had a reservation for the next three days. When we planned this trip, we only made two hotel reservations: Salmona and Positano. There was a private parking lot right across the street which was very easy and pretty reasonable from a price perspective. One complaint I see about Positano is the work to get your luggage to wherever you are staying and this was quite easy for us.

Positano was/is a feast for the eyes! And a bustling Disney World of sorts! We could only imagine what it was like in the summer. We walked up the stairs to the hotel lobby and finally got to meet Salvatore who had helped out Yvonne quite a bit with her booking a couple of months earlier. Salvatore arranged for our luggage to go up their elevator from the street level to our rooms. Mandy and I got a room with a balcony and a view, whereas JC and Yvonne’s room was not as nice. This is why I defaulted to the lesser rooms for a few of our previous stays.

This was our view at the Rada Beach Ristorante and was perfect place to kick off our next few days in Positano.

Positano loves lemons and we were greeted with at least a couple of stores right outside of our hotel that had every possible version of lemon-themed housewares and clothing. It became clear that Positano is very touristy! We had lunch a few doors down from the hotel at a restaurant called Ohima Brasserie. We had a very nice meal and were now primed to explore. Right by the hotel is the main walking thoroughfare to the beach which we headed down. We touched the Mediterranean for the first time. I saw a restaurant at the very end of the beach and thought we should check it out. The establishment was called the Rada Beach Ristorante. There were two couples talking to the hostess and it was clear they were going to be there for a while. I just walked past and headed up to a terrace I could see from below figuring they must be serving drinks with a great view. Sure enough, I was right. We got a great seat and ordered. The two couples showed up a little biut after us as well and we had a conversation with the ‘annoying’ dog lady and the rest of their crew. We would bump into them a few times in the next couple of days. As we were enjoying the view, we saw at least one marriage proposal on a boat and people in boats taking ‘couples’ pictures. It was quite entertaining. Young love!

This was our table at Da Vinzenzo the first night in Positano. The location, view and food was excellent. Maybe our best meal in Positano.

We received a dinner recommendation of Da Vincenzo from our new friends from the Rada. After checking out the beach and the harbor, we decided we would make our way to Da Vincenzo. This required climbing A LOT of stairs, which we knew coming into Positano that you are either ascending or descending. We finally found it and we were able to get a nice table right on the road with a great view. The local traffic goes right by you on this one-way street. The whole thing was awesome and it ended up being maybe our best meal in Positano. Our waiter was the son of the proprietor and the whole thing was owned by the Rafaella family. I forgot his name but he was great and passed on a lot of interesting info. He did not like the way we pronounced ‘Grazie’ and said real Italians put more emphasis on the ‘e’ at the end. We corrected ourselves accordingly.

We walked down the hill back to our hotel via Yummy’s for a gelato stop. JC was still struggling a little with the cold I gave him and he and Yvonne went back to their room for a little rest. Mandy and I thought we would go up Cristoforo Colombo which was the road outside our hotel and the main drag in Positano. We found an outside deck that was nicely decorated and served drinks called Franco’s. The drinks were very fancy along with their price. We each ordered something and they were quite good. There was a couple to my left that was roughly our age from Boston and a young couple to my right from San Jose. We had a great conversation with them both. JC and Yvonne showed up and we had another round of drinks and more conversation. It was a great way to cap off the night.

There is no doubt that Positano is unique and VERY picturesque.

Wednesday 5/6: We had a lovely breakfast at our hotel Bougainville. We got bus tickets to go up to Nocelle which is at the top of Positano. This bus ride was one for the ages. I had to stand and Mandy got to sit. The bus driver drove very quickly which was crazy and the road was full of really steep drops which seemed more extreme than our drive in, which is hard to believe. On the ride up Mandy made friends with a fellow passenger named Cida who was from Brazil. She was going to work and wanted to show us the restaurant she was working at. She told us to follow her which would prove to be a fair way down the Path of the Gods stairs. We noticed at the top of the stairs before heading down, that there was a mule tied to a wall. We would later find out that you can ride it up or down the many stairs which is the Path of the Gods.

She took us to La Fresella Ristorante owned by Vincenzo. This was a family affair as we saw his Mom and daughter along with a bunch of workers. We got the full tour which consisted of a pizza oven, outdoor dining room and table on the roof of a building with a spectacular view of Positano. It was looking a little rough but we got swept up in enthusiasm by our newfound friendship with Cida and now Vinzenzo and could ‘see the possibilities’. I thought we were going to eat there but it turns out we just got a tour. They showed us their Instagram page (La Fresella Ristorante). I followed them and they really have cleaned things up and made it quite nice.

Our new friends Cida and Vinzenzo from La Fresella Ristorante, we made our way down a lot of stairs for the lower half of the Path of the Gods.

After saying our goodbyes, we started down the 1,000 steps of the Path of the Gods as we didn’t want to climb back up to where we started. The end result is we never really got to see the town of Nocelle which is a little disappointing not knowing what we missed. The trip down was long and of course full of stairs. JC struggled some but after a while, we finally made it down. It ends on the road which was a good way south of Poistano. In light of JC’s struggle down, we elected to flag down a taxi and get driven back in to Positano. After a little effort we found one who had to circle back to pick us up and head in the right direction. The driver’s name was also Massimo and we dubbed him “tre”. The taxi experience is exactly what you would expect in Italy and particularly in Positano. Massimo tre was no fan of our current American political situation and also thought all tourists suck except Americans and Australians. We returned to the Bougainville for a little siesta and prepared for dinner.

We made our way to the next recommendation we got which was called Ristorante Mediterraneo. We got a nice outside seat and enjoyed another good meal highlighted with a singer taking requests for Italian songs. His name is Pietro Rainone who was a lot of fun. The waiters and almost everyone in the restaurant participated and made requests. Generally I am not a fan of this type of thing but this was good. We had to dig deep for Italian songs we knew. After dinner we cabbed home to the Bougainville.

When we go to the hotel, we decided we would check out a wine tasting room very close to the hotel called Le Tre Sorelle Wine Room. We met our sommelier whose name I have now forgotten and her not-mom. She was very nice and quite helpful. Mandy and I tried some grappa to confirm that it is tough to get through. Two young couples showed up and we talked to them for a while. One was from Orange County CA and newly married. The other couple was from Jacksonville and our guess was probably going to have a proposal in the next few days. They were all in the medical field. The couples left and it seemed like our hosts were anxious to go home so we moved on as well. We returned to the hotel and had drinks on the veranda and watched the elderly manager at the front desk fall asleep at his desk.

We were returning from Capri and the ferry really gave us a great view of Positano.

Thursday 5/7: We woke up and had breakfast at Bougainville. We then walked to the port and took the ferry to Capri. It was really nice to be able to see Positano from the sea and see it in its full glory. We met a mother-daughter combination from Boston and talked to them for a while on the way over. We finally arrived, got off the boat and decided we would take the tram up to the ‘center’ of town. We walked around a bunch checking things out and scoping a place for lunch. We of course went to look at a church which got us into a back alley that was off of one of the main roads and perched up high. I thought this might be a place where we could find a restaurant with a view, and I was right. We selected a place called Capri Capri which had a covered outside patio up high with a perfect view toward Italy and out over the harbor. This place is apparently the outpost of a famous pizzeria in Naples. Yvonne liked the young male waiters. We had another good meal.

This was our view at Capri Capri Pizzeria in Capri. Another good meal with another great view.

We decided we would check out the area toward the other side of the island and happened on a very posh section with high-end hotels and shops. Sort the Rodeo Drive of Capri. We checked out all the stores and decided that when we win the lottery, we could return and camp out at one of the hotels for a few days.

We got a nice view leaving Capri. You definitely could make an entire visit out of Capri, and maybe one day we will. We met a couple who also recommended Isola d’Ischia, which apparently is a lesser-known and just as beautiful island.

We had two ferry options to return to Positano, which were either 3 or 6 PM, and decided that we had gotten a good feel for Capri and would elect to take the 3 PM ferry, particularly since this was our last day. We took the tram back down to the port. We killed a little time at one of the cafes right at the port, which had these huge ‘franken-lemons’ on the table. Mandy and I thought we found someone’s ticket, and in point of fact, it was one of ours to return to Positano on the ferry, which I stupidly put down and almost didn’t get on the ferry back. The ferry ride both ways was very nice with lots of Mediterranean views.

This is JC at the top of Cristoforo Colombo looking for a last great restaurant for our Positano visit. It would also show us what our drive was going to look like the next day.

We returned to home base at the Bougainville. We got dressed in some fancier clothes for a last hoorah fancy dinner, despite not really having a firm destination. We met in the balcony and our hosts at the Bougainville, Rosa and Antonella served us preseco on the veranda. We then ventured out for our last dinner in Positano with a shaky reservation at Don Giovanni’s. I went to see if we could really get in there and they only had a table indoors. I really wanted this meal to be at a memorable location, so we pushed on heading up Cristoforo Colombo. We struggled a bit finding something. At the top of the road we found a couple of places but the location was not perfect. One called the ROC which was a bit of a hike and only served uncooked meat which you had to cook yourself.

The last supper in Positano at the Terrazza Celè restaurant.

We headed back down Cristoforo Colombo. Walking on the outside sidewalk which showed us a good view of everything below, we could see a patio restaurant that looked to be a part of a hotel. It appeared to be very high-end so we presumed we could not get in without a reservation. You had to take an elevator down so I volunteered to check it out. Sure enough, they would seat us so I texted everyone to come on down to Terrazza Celè at the Hotel Marincanto. The atmosphere was a ten but the meal was a six. The last confirmation that meals at hotel restaurants were not as good as those at regular restaurants. We walked back to Le Tre Sorelle Wine Room and talked to our favorite sommelier, whose name we still can’t remember. She told us her life story which was interesting and an insight into life on the Amalfi Coast. There was an Austrian couple that walked in and we thought we were going to have a repeat of the night before with good conversation with other tourists, but no, as I think we scared them and they left. Mandy and I had some excellent port wine. It had gotten pretty late and we eventually went to bed.

We got a great view of the northern end of Positano on our walk home.

Friday 5/8: We woke up and went down to our last breakfast at the Bougainville. The hotel was perfect and an ideal spot for our three days in Positano. We checked out and said goodbye to Salvatore. We got everything in the car and pulled out of the parking spot and were ready to leave. After Yvonne and Mandy bought some Positano tchotchkes and ornaments. Goodbye Positano!

We hit the road and headed north to eventually get to Rome and the airport. We first drove through Sorrento which seemed to be pretty nice. It was a fairly sizeable city. Then we drove through Napoli where the Pope was planning to visit that same day. We were hoping to miss any additional traffic he may be creating and for the most part, it was clear sailing. Napoli was a decidedly big city and came with a reputation of being hardscrabble, poor and Mafia-influenced. We did not stop. We also could see Mount Vesuvius and debated whether we should stop and also see the Lost City of Pompeii. We really didn’t have a lot of time and so that was a somewhat easy decision.

We debated whether we should head straight to Rome, which would take us inland or we should go around Naples and head to the coast and drive the highway that hugs the Mediterranean. We opted for the latter and made our way to Pozzuoli. We worked our way in town towards the harbor where we ended up parking. We got out and walked through a nice but a bit rugged old town and ended up at the Piazza della Repubblica. We stopped at Mapò Wine & Food for some coffee. Afterwards, we headed back to the car and JC found what appeared to be a really authentic Napoli pizza. He was upset he did not get a slice, as this was one of the few places we found in Italy that sold pizza by the slice.

We continued up the coast and came upon Mondragone, which was a small, sleepy beach town that was very deserted. We drove around a bit going right to the water. We did eventually find an open restaurant called Ristorante e Pizzeria Cielo e Mare, which was a bit of a challenge as no one was around and it was siesta time as well. We were the only ones in there and they said we could come in. We got a good table right on the edge of the beach. This was clearly a family restaurant, and there was a Nona who was doing the cooking. There were some other relatives who were working which we guess was an effort to get ready for the summer. The meals were surprisingly good. JC ordered a mystery seafood dish. The family was very nice and we talked with them a bit.

We returned to the car and headed for Rome. We opted to go inland and abandon the coastal drive. We arrived around 5 PM. We had a reservation at the Hilton, which was right at the airport. We dropped our bags off and got our hotel rooms. The hotel was quite busy. I drove the car back to the rental return. Some kid inspected it and did not see any damage from our wedge situation in Gioia del Colle.

JC and Yvonne went to the executive lounge for free drinks. We met them there and decided we should have dinner as Mandy and I needed to get up relatively early to catch our flight. The meal was very average and it was like we were not in Italy anymore. This is why I ended up ordering a burger, as getting Italian food didn’t seem appropriate! We said our goodbyes on the 5th floor executive wing of the Hilton hotel!

And with that, the journey was officially over. Hard to believe! What an amazing two weeks it was! It really could not have worked out better. Southern Italy was a combination of ancient beauty, warm and generous people, all delivered through our spontaneous itinerary.

And again, the purpose of this accounting of the trip is selfishly for my own reference when I have forgotten the details of what really was a trip of a lifetime, filled with discovery, amazing views, wrong turns, characters, food and wine, and most importantly, good friends!

A few of the standout recurring themes:

• Italian towns require a hill to build a church and a fort at the top with a town to surround it

• Italians love convening in public areas to catch up and pass the time

• The search for locals and authentically Italian spots

• Ching ching - lots of food, wine and good conversation

• Lucky a number of times to run into a few cultural events

• Unexpected kindness from locals

• Narrow roads, alleys and some interesting parking

Kansas, South and North Dakota, Nebraska and Colorado High Points

Over three days, I bagged five state high points. Not bad if I do say so myself. I flew into Denver on Tuesday, July 3rd and got in at about 10 PM. I checked my bag, which I knew was a mistake and took forever to come out; although I was at the wrong carousel for a while which did not help. I got my vehicle which was another Nissan Rogue and would allow me to sleep in the car. I took my sleeping bag this time so I would not run into the hotel issue from last Fourth of July weekend and my trouble in Stowe last Fall. I drove for about an hour and a half on I-70 East until I ran into a random rest area, parked, peed and went to bed.

This was my kind of high point. Essentially a drive up. Nice location and I had it all to myself.

I woke up fairly early the next morning, got dressed and got on the road. I found some coffee at a local gas stop and kept heading east towards Kansas’ high point. You drive into Kansas and then head south shortly thereafter. I had to drive on some pretty rural roads and the second half after getting off of I-70. In short order, I rolled into the road in Mount Sunflower. A little part of me thought maybe I should walk in but I opted to drive. It was a nice spot and there was a fairly significant marker for this high point. That it is the highest is hard to tell as you survey the land around you. And the overall altitude is just over 4,000 feet which is hard to believe. I took the requisite pictures and headed north toward South Dakota.

I worked my way north on State Highway 385 towards Rapid City. I went through Nebraska and even though I was close to the state high point, I decided to get that one on the way back to Colorado. The scenery was very interesting and I saw a lot of coal coming out of Eastern Wyoming through the Platte River Valley by train. This was a little depressing.

You enter the Black Hills National Forest shortly after entering South Dakota. The terrain started becoming interesting. I arrived at Sylvan Lake Campground which had an entry fee and was pretty busy. That caught me off guard a little, but I got in and put on my hiking gear to start what appeared to be a somewhat easy but interesting loop to Harney Peak or now Black Elk Peak. The scenery was nice and within about 45 minutes I had arrived at the peak. There was a very elaborate entrance carved into the rock and a tower to climb and see a 360-degree view of some pretty remarkable sites.

There was quite an impressive lookout tower at the top of Black Elk Peak in South Dakota.

I had a very pleasant hike out. I saw a bunch of deer which was nice and then found my car. I got into my driving clothes and started heading north to White Butte in North Dakota. I was really close to Mount Rushmore and they were having a big Fourth of July celebration. That would be really great to see but I was on a mission to bag these peaks! Driving through Deadwood was a bit of a surprise. What an interesting place. I thought maybe some time in my life I might have to return. I grabbed some food and kept driving.

I arrived in Bowman, North Dakota and decided that this would work for an easy and early effort to hike White Butte. I found a back lot near a gas station where a bunch of semis were parked and found a good spot. I looked around scenic Bowman and this seemed to be the best spot. They were lighting off fireworks seemingly all night which made going to sleep a little challenging but I finally managed to get some rest.

I woke up in the morning after a pretty good night and got dressed. I walked over to the gas station and got some coffee and a little food and headed north. The scenery on this drive was really nice on a sunny summer day. Rolling hills of grass with buttes popping out here and there. I started down onto some farm roads and slowly worked my way to the entrance of White Butte. You had to drive essentially three sides of a square to get there. This high point is on private property and there is some conflicting information about access. I drove into the road as far as I felt comfortable. In retrospect, I probably should have walked in that last portion. I got dressed and headed up the road to the trail.

The landscape here is a bit strange. There is erosion that exposes this white sandy rock. I was heading up, there was a deer against and all-white background which would have made a pretty dramatic picture. I missed it though because I could not get my phone out quickly enough. The trail up is pretty short and before I knew it, I was at the top. The views were great and I really soaked it in.

I thought it was odd the elevation here was below Kansas. None-the-less, White Butte was memorable.

I headed back to the car and was back pretty quickly. I spotted someone hiking in as I was getting out of my hiking clothes; which was probably unnecessary for this hike. We chatted and he was doing the same thing I was. He had just been to the Nebraska high point and recommended I stop in at a ranger station for that one. I never did.

I started heading south and towards Panorama Point in Nebraska. I had to cut into Wyoming for a bit and attack the high point from the west. The directions seemed pretty straightforward so I just went straight there despite the advice I had gotten earlier in the morning. I arrived there mid-afternoon and like Kansas, this one was a drive-up as well. Very nice and the buffalo one the way in was interesting. I took the pictures, soaked in the scenery, made a donation on the way out and started heading for Twin Lakes in Colorado.

This was pleasant and easy one to check off the list.

I headed due south to I-76 and then 1-70. I grabbed some gas and a Chipotle bowl and then headed to meet my buddy at Twin Lakes campground. I managed to find the campground and his spot. It was good to see Clay Cox and I had not seen him for a while. Since I had gotten there at a somewhat reasonable hour, I wanted to climb in the morning. I had stopped at a store for food and water for the hike. Clay seemed up for it. We finally went to bed for a 6 AM wake-up.

The morning arrived and it was sunny and cool. I was ready to go. Clay, on the other hand, said his gout was acting up and he was going to bail. I was looking forward to having a partner for the third-highest peak. He gave me a ride up the road as far as he could get in his Lincoln Navigator, but it was not to the trailhead. This was a bit of a rough start and I wondered if I was going to actually pull this off. I had extra days so it did not need to happen this day. I kept walking up this road for about a mile and a half and finally got to the trailhead. This was good. There was no one around so I forged on.

I began my journey up and things were improving. I finally got out of the treeline and could see the top. I was able to do what I do best which is grind through it, and Mount Elbert turned out to be a grind. There was a section toward the top that was pretty steep. As I got to the top there were a fair number of people up there. I could see the top and the end, but it proved to be harder than it looked. I finally made it to the top. I was happy. I enjoyed some snacks. Someone had fashioned a sign made out of cardboard which I posed along with the official marker. I then went down. This was a bit taxing but I was happy to be done with this adventure and perfect on the peak bagging!

This was a good one and I had to push to get it done.

Cirque Peak Overnight

I had signed up with a Facebook group called SoCal Hiking. I was interested in doing some hiking with someone other than myself. Not too long after I signed up, they had posted an overnight trip to climb Cirque Peak in the southern Sierras. This looked interesting to me and so I indicated I would go. I was looking forward to something new and meeting new people.

The plan was to meet at Horseshoe Meadow Campsite near Lone Pine at 8 AM. I got up very early at home and drove there on Saturday morning. The drive up Horseshoe Meadows Road was pretty dramatic. You could see it from 395 snaking up a steep incline, and the trip up was pretty and did not disappoint. I got to the parking lot of the campsite and saw someone who looked as if he was waiting for people and sure enough, Johnny was part of our group. Another gentleman showed up named Mario and he was going to hike with us as well. We were still waiting for our leader Eylene Pirez. She showed up shortly after with a young man named Sante Kotturi and his dog Sitka. Our group was assembled and we started up the Cottonwood Lakes trail.

This trip was an out-and-back of about twenty-two miles with about 3,500 feet in elevation change. There was some discussion about making it a loop but it was decided that we would make that choice on Sunday after summitting Cirque Peak. The trail up was pleasant and we all got to know each other a little bit. Johnny and Mario were sort of new to hiking and overnight camping. Eylene and Sante were clearly very experienced. We got about halfway and it started to rain. Shortly thereafter it started snowing but it was more like frozen rain. I was a bit surprised as the day started very sunny. The Eastern Sierras are notorious for afternoon showers and I guess I should not have been really too surprised. I figured it would let up in about ten or fifteen minutes, but it did not.

We got to the first Cottonwood Lake and hiked along the shore. The second Cottonwood Lake was close to the first and we then found an area out of the wind which was important in these seemingly wintry conditions. Everyone set up their tent and got out of the wind and frozen rain. I did not want to put my tent out and have my tent get all wet and then have to deal with that all night. So I decided to wait it out. I could see the blue sky in the cloud breaks. It had to end soon, or so I thought. I ended up waiting under a pine tree for close to two hours. There were a couple of moments where I thought maybe I would just hike out and call it a day.

I finally put my tent out and cleared off the snow down to the gravel so the floor of my tent would be dry.

Things cleared up quickly and we spent a fair amount of time hanging out. Sante had a drone and we played with that for a while. After dinner and some drinks, I called it and decided to sleep. It proved to be pretty cold. I had purchased a liner for my sleeping bag after the Mt. Whitney experience, and ended up pulling that out and using it sometime in the evening when it was clear my bag by itself was going to be cold.

Finally, morning arrived and we all got up and had some hot oatmeal. This was very welcomed. We had talked to some people the day before that had attempted the New Army Pass but there was a cornice that they could not get over. We headed towards Cirque Peak and ditched the trail pretty quickly as it was all snow. We just headed towards Cirque Peak to see how far we could get by going straight up it. There was a fair amount of snow interspersed in what was a rock field up a pretty steep incline. After some determination, we made it to the top. Mission accomplished despite not being the recommended route.

Summit conquered!

We headed down after enjoying the peak for about half an hour. We knew where our campsite was and just bushwhacked our way back. This required a river crossing that was way more exciting than it should have been. There was a lot of post-holing but at long last, we were back to our tents. We packed up and started down to our cars which was another eight miles. This took a while and I must confess that the last few miles were tough. I was ready to get back and sit on my ass. And at long last, that goal was achieved.

This was a good trip for me as I went to a place I probably would not have done on my own and met some really nice and interesting people.

Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York

I flew to Boston for two reasons. The first was to knock out the state high points of New England that I had not ever done previously despite living there for twenty-plus years, and the second was to spend time at my favorite place.

I landed at Logan around 8 PM and got my rental car which was a Nissan Rogue; much better than the sedan I had earlier for my other peak bagging trip this summer. I drove to Killingly, CT and found a cheap motel. I woke up bright and early, grabbed some Dunkin’ Donuts which is what one does in New England, and drove to Jerimoth Hill, the high point in Rhode Island. Within fifteen minutes I arrived and started to hike to the high point. Boom! I made it to the marker in about two minutes. I took my requisite pictures at the ‘summit’. I looked around to take it in and then left and got back to my car. I had recorded it on my All Trails app and the entire trip was just over eight minutes in total. From an ease perspective, very memorable, but that was about it. Rhode Island checked off.

The craziest part was that I got in my hiking clothes on the side of the road for this one.

I then started to drive northwest toward Mount Greylock which is Massachusetts’ high point. This was through familiar territory for me as I was born and raised in Connecticut. By about eleven, I arrived in Adams and made my way to the Bellows South trailhead. This hike was a five-mile out-and-back and 2,244 feet of elevation. The day was overcast and looked like it might rain. I headed up and the trail was quite nice. Definitely in the woods with very few vistas. This is pretty much the condition in the Northeast. I made it to the top to discover that you can drive to the top. I was greeted in the parking lot by three school buses and a horde of school kids. There is a fair amount of infrastructure at the top culminating in a very impressive granite Veterans’ War Memorial tower. I definitely checked it out but opted not to go up it as there was a fair number of people in there. I went down to a lookout and enjoyed the scenery of the Berkshire mountains. It was nice, but I then decided to get back down. Within short order, I was back at my car.

The pinnacle of Mount Greylock is quite impressive. I salute the service and the ultimate sacrifice of others.

I grabbed a Subway sandwich in downtown Adams and then headed towards Mount Marcy in New York. I arrived in Lake Placid after a pleasant drive. I spotted the road into the Van Hoevenberg trailhead which I had planned to take and seemed to be the most popular route. However, I wanted to find a place to stay first. I worked my way into Lake Placid and saw the skiing facilities including the impressive ski jump ramps which are remarkably close to the road. There were no great motel options so I went back closer to the road to the trailhead and found a very funky motel that was going to work. I drove into the trailhead so I would not have to do it for the first time in the dark the following day as I planned for a 6 AM start. Everything looked pretty straightforward and so I went back to the motel and watched some crappy TV options and went to bed.

I woke up in the morning and it was pretty gray. The weather forecast was a little iffy but I was going to forge ahead as I could not waste time waiting for good weather. When I arrived at the trailhead at about 6:30 AM, things were pretty busy already. I finalized my gear, signed in and started up the trail. This hike is a 14-mile out-and-back with about 3,500 feet in elevation gain. The first part of the hike was pretty flat and nice. I arrived at a river with a bridge that was out. There was a slight detour. The trail at this point began to climb as it followed a stream. After a little while, there was a hard right-hand turn that was not particularly obvious, and with the assistance of someone else heading up the wrong way through the woods, I was able to figure out where the trail was. The climb started getting a little more serious and the trail became wetter. The wind also started picking up and there was constant mist growing stronger into rain. I finally got to what a ranger doing some trail work had indicated was close to the top. Two trail runners came down to say it was very windy and wet. Sure enough, they were right. I made it to the top and found a place out of the wind. My fingers were cold and wet enough that I was having a hard time getting my phone to turn on through the fingerprint swipe. I could not find any recognition of the top which I was clearly at because there was nowhere to go further up. Regrettably, I did not investigate what the official marker was for Mount Marcy before the hike, so I did not know what I should be looking for. At the time, my conclusion was that maybe this high point did not have an official marker. So the result is that the only picture I have at the top is me in the clouds and I could honestly be anywhere.

I could not find an official marker on Mount Marcy. Unfortunately, I looked into where the plaque was after coming down, only to find that I was very close. The plaque was on the windy side of the peak which I was avoiding.

After about fifteen minutes on top, I had enough. I was the only one at the peak so I could not ask anyone about a marker. I saw two guys coming down as I went up and then as I was coming down off the rocky portion, there were some teenagers working their way up the last portion. The wet rock at the top coming down was a little tricky. Once I was back on the trail portion, I was in a rush to get down because I wanted to get to Mount Mansfield in Vermont and try to get that done today. The Van Hevenberg trail was one of the wettest and muddiest trails I have been on in quite a while. After what seemed like a really long two and a half hours coming down, I made it back to the car a little after 2 PM. I was happy to be done with that hike but pissed that I did not get a more meaningful and conclusive picture at the top.

I motored east toward Vermont. My thought is I would try to knock this last hike out today as I wanted to get to my place in Maine. I found a trail called the Hellbrook that was a little under four miles but very steep. This seemed to be easily the best option for the limited time that I had. After about an hour of driving, I realized that Lake Champlain was going to interfere with my ‘as the crow flies’ hope for getting there early. I drove south and around Lake Champlain as the ferry seemed would be much slower. I drove and I was getting close by six-ish. I had not realized that Mount Mansfield was also the Stowe ski resort. This time of year all the leaf peepers were in full force. The area was quite busy. I finally made it to the trailhead and started up, but by now it was 7 PM. I went for about fifteen minutes and the trail was steep as advertised, but lots of roots and slippery rocks. I knew I would be coming down in the dark. This trail in the dark was going to be rough so I headed back which was very disappointing. If only I had gotten there an hour earlier.

My plan was now to find a place to sleep and attack the mountain in the morning. I drove around for about an hour trying about twenty motels and everything was booked solid. I finally gave up and decided I would just drive to Maine tonight. This was very disappointing, but at some point, I will go back and get this one. I might also do Mount Marcy again in hopes of getting a picture that shows the plaque in the rock at the top of the mountain which I had to have been within about fifty feet of, but could not find.

Redemption - Bagging Mt. Whitney

Everybody loves a redemption story and it is especially meaningful when you live it. As previously documented in this journal, my son and I tried to climb Mt. Whitney last year. I will not recount the shortcomings of this effort here, but I will summarize that trip as optimistic and overly ambitious. Needless to say, I wanted another shot at it!

There is nothing like getting the lay of the land to build some confidence which was certainly the result of the first attempt. After that experience, the next attempt would be different. The first change is that we would do it within the permit window. I put my request into the lottery system within minutes of the window opening up. I requested an overnight permit in September. My thinking was that doing an overnight broke the hike up into two pieces thus improving our chances of success. Second, September seemed an ideal time in that it was certainly better than November when we first tried, but also it would be clear of snow and still somewhat warm.

Unfortunately my lottery request was rejected. They offered up days where there were still openings, and I quickly elected an overnight permit starting Monday, September 25th to the following day on the 26th. That it was a weekday did not bother me whatsoever. I just wanted a second chance. And my son would miss some school, but in my mind, these two days were going to be significantly more meaningful to his ‘education’ than any days in a classroom.

My son and I checked out the Mobius Arch again in the Alabama Hills. We took the obligatory photo with Mt. Whitney in the background.

Finally the day arrived to leave for Lone Pine. We had all our equipment and were ready to climb Whitney. We drove up on Sunday and spent the night in a motel. We woke up at a sane hour unlike the year before, had breakfast, packed up and headed to Whitney Portal. We had met some other people at the motel who were climbing as well. We then met them in the Whitney Portal parking lot. One of them would be with us for the majority of our trip. We got everything together at about nine-ish, we started our journey. We showed our permit to the ranger and away we go!

It was nice to start on a sunny day and we were feeling good. We worked our way up over the next couple of hours to High Camp where we had planned to spend the night. This was the highest point on the mountain where you could camp legally. We were a little anxious about getting a spot, but we showed up early in the afternoon and had our pick of spots. We spent some time thinking about finding a spot out of the wind. We ended up with a really good place.

This seemed to be about as ideal as we could do from a wind perspective. We built a wall around the tent as well. Cold was one thing, but adding wind to it and I thought we might be in trouble. The wind never came.

We had a lot of free time and did some exploring. We spoke to someone who told us that the previous night had gotten so cold that people got up in the middle of the night and headed down the mountain. This was both alarming to me and a little stupid. Our sleeping bags were three-season rated to the mid-twenties. It seemed that we should be fine, but we were definitely a little nervous. We spent the remainder of the afternoon exploring, resting and enjoying the nice weather.

As evening approached, our plan was to stay up and out of the tent for a while so we were good and tired when it was time to go to bed. The sun was setting behind the mountain so it got dark early. By six the sun was gone. There were people standing around talking and we did this for a while. The temperature really dropped quickly and we really did not have heavy jackets like some of the other people. They had definitely thought through this part of the experience. After about half an hour, we decided to get into the tent, stay warm and do some reading and look at our phones. Although I was worried about my battery and did not want to run out of battery so we could not take pictures at the top, that would have been a fate worse than death. We had decided maybe we should put on a fair amount of clothing in our sleeping bags to stay as warm as possible.

Finally we went to sleep. However it only lasted for a few hours. It was definitely cold. I could feel my feet getting cold. We slept back-to-back as that was helpful. When we were in town the day before, the local hiking store had sleeping bag liners for rent which I thought about for a moment but did not get. I thought about those liners all night wishing I had pulled the trigger. Only my nose was sticking out of my bag and I could feel the cold air in my lungs. We tossed and turned the rest of the night waiting for the next day to arrive. It seemed as though it would never come.

Finally we could see a little light through the tent and we began to hear others rustle around. Shortly we mustered the energy to get up and start to get ready. We scrambled around and got ready. We were pretty much dressed so much of the effort was about getting the blood flowing. We ate some food, put things away so the Marmots and Chipmunks would not get into our stuff. I did my morning business which horrified my son but was necessary. We were as ready as we were going to be. A bunch of people had already headed up. And so we started for the peak.

The infamous Chains. This area on our first attempt was all snow and ice. There were only single foot prints to walk in and a very steep snow field down to the right. It was a deciding factor for turning back last year.

We had a clear day and there was very little wind. We could not ask for much more. The conditions were about the exact opposite of what we had the previous year. And so we began our march toward the 99 switchbacks. We worked our way up to Trail Crest pretty quickly. This was a milestone as it was where we turned back last year.

We rested a little at Trail Crest. The view was amazing both from where we came from, but also Mt. Hitchcock and the Hitchcock lakes were very impressive on the other side. We had also met up with the friend we made at the motel and the three of us started our push to the top.

There were some pretty dramatic drop-offs and views particularly in the first portion of the trail. We slogged our way past the needles. This portion was definitely taxing on our bodies. The trail itself was not particularly hard but the altitude began to be felt in a serious way. We pressed on. You work your way across the backside and you can see the top. There is an area where it turns hard to the right and you are at the last portion. When you can really see the Shelter at the top in a real way, you know you are going to make it.

The best part of this was doing it with my son. A close second was redemption after failing the first time.

It was not a sprint, but there was a point where we knew we were going to make it and the pace for the last few hundred yards definitely picked up. Finally, this peak was officially bagged! What a great feeling. At least a year in the making and really longer when the notion of making this attempt first cropped up in my mind.

The weather at the top was about as perfect as I think it could be; sunny, little wind and a very comfortable temperature. We spent about a half-hour soaking it all in. The views were pretty amazing. I remember thinking that I really needed to absorb it so I could remember it. My efforts to save battery life up to this point paid off and we documented all aspects of the top. I am glad we did because I rely on those pictures to really recall the experience. After a while, we realized that we were only halfway done and that we needed to get going. And so after some reflection, we headed down.

Going down is always the hardest part for me from a physical perspective. We were moving at a good pace and got back to Trail Crest relatively quickly. This portion of the trail is pretty dramatic. Although the very last part of it you have to go back up, and while it was not really hard, going down was the mindset I had locked into. I again attempted to really soak it in and make it stick in my memory banks. We headed down the 99 switchbacks and back to our tent. We packed up our camp, ate some food and did some stretching to get ready for the last push. We worked our way down noting each spot that we had seen on the way up and the previous year. The first year we screwed up on the way down at Lone Pine Lake and made sure not to make that mistake again.

Victory!

Finally we made it back to the parking lot and our car. Wow, what a feeling. We were parked next to a van with a couple in it who were going to leave in the evening. They wanted to know what it was like. With the success and the trip in the rear-view mirror, the only thing I could say was ‘it was great’.

Southern California's Six-Pack Peak Challenge

This spring I was looking at Instagram and ran across a posting talking about the Six-Pack Peak Challenge. This looked interesting to me. There was a whole website that had a fair amount of information about the challenge. Interesting and challenge accepted! There was also a suggestion that it was good preparation for climbing Mount Whitney. I had secured a permit for the middle of September and I was not going to fail to summit the continental 48’s highest peak again. The site had prescribed a specific order, but I sort of did a variation.

This portion is a bit after the Devil’s Backbone but I think really shows the majesty of this mountain.

5/27/17 - The first of the six was Mount Baldy and it turned out to be a great mountain to start this challenge. From Manker Campground and the Mount Baldy Trailhead, I headed up the access road to the top where the Ski Resort is and the lodge at the top. From there you bang a left and go up the Devil’s Backbone and then on to the top. This portion, particularly right after the ski resort is some real work, but it is quite a nice tail.

I had people in front and back but they were at distances. This being Memorial Day weekend, I thought I would see a lot more people on the trail. There was a pretty healthy accumulation of people at the peak. There were some patches of snow still on the way up which caught me a little by surprise. We had a pretty dry winter and it seemed pretty warm for a while and I would have guessed it was all gone.

The top was nice and had good views. I spent some time up there resting a little and soon headed down the Ice Hut Trail. With all the traffic this mountain gets including a fairly high ‘yahoo’ factor, the trail was all over the place and the conditions were a bit rough with lots of loose gravel. This was particularly challenging for going down. Despite that, I really liked this hike.

The official peak bagging picture.

7/22/17 - I decided I would try to get back on the recommended order of mountains (lowest to highest) and climbed Mt. Wilson. I let some time go between this hike and in late July decided I would start banging them out. With my Mt. Whitney hike in September, I wanted to wait a little so I would be in shape for this goal. There are a number of suggestions to make this climb when it is cool like Winter. Today was not cool.

There is a loop option for this hike and I opted for the counter-clockwise route. You start at Chantry Flats and head down a paved road. This situation did not work for me; I never like going down when you are supposed to be going up. To start the hike with this was less than ideal and the down was somewhat significant. I knew I would be cursing it as I was ending the hike.

At the bottom, I went right and headed up the Gabrielino Trail and then to the lower Gabrielino Trail. The area in here was very curious as there were cottages, campgrounds and dams. This area was heavily wooded and quite pleasant. You then head to the Sturtevant Trail. There is a fair amount of infrastructure in this area and it is clear that it gets a fair amount of traffic. The hike to the top is very pleasant, but it is not until you get to the very top that you start to see views.

There is no real obvious peak on Mount Wilson, but this was the most official thing I could find. It was at the end of a parking lot which does not really provide a rewarding peak bagging experience.

When you get to the top, it is a bit of a city. There are a number of large observatories and countless communication towers. There is a museum that I went through and that was kind of interesting. I checked out the observatories and then made my way to the Cosmic Cafe. You then discover that you apparently can drive to the top which makes sense with respect to getting all the infrastructure up there. I saw a few cars but it appears that most people were riding their bikes up there. I worked my way to the parking lot that had the best views of Los Angeles. From there the Mount Wilson Trail went down and it was a reasonably good trail. I finally got down to the access road where I had to walk up which was a slug. I finally got back to the car. It was pretty hot and I was very sweaty. This was just an okay hike. I am glad I did it, but I am not sure I would do it again.

7/29/17 - The following weekend I climbed Mt. Cucamonga. The best part of this trip is that my youngest, and Mt. Whitney climbing partner, came with me. I had to pressure him into it as preparation for the big hike ahead. We went up the Icehouse Canyon Trail. This was just down the road from Mount Baldy. This was a very pleasant out-and-back with good scenery and views at the top. I would definitely do this one again.

My son Ben and I on the Peak of Cucamonga.

9/10/17 - I went on vacation and when I got back, it was time to get serious. I decided to climb San Jacinto next. I decided I would hike up from Idyllwild. I went up Deer Spring Trail to the top and down the Wellman Divide Trail on the way down. San Jacinto has the best scenery at the top. The view of Palm Springs and San Gorgonio is spectacular. So far this was easily my favorite. Views on the way down were quite good as well. There was a stretch as well where you are on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) which is a challenge I think about quite a bit.

I really liked this hike and mountain. The views East, North and South were amazing.

9/18/17 - The following weekend I climbed San Gorgonio in preparation for Mt. Whitney. San Gorgonio is the tallest in Southern California and is supposed to be the last hike of the Six-Pack Peak Challenge. This one is an out-and-back and definitely was a lot of work. I started at Mill Creek and then to Vivian Creek and to the top; this is the only way I know up the mountain. There is a very steep climb early on after crossing the Mill Creek wash. This was not bad going up but on the way down, my legs were screaming. The last third of the trail on the way up was a slug and there were a few times I thought I was at the top and was not. The top of the mountain is exposed and in an alpine environment. It was quite nice despite spending most of this time gasping for air. This was a long hike and definitely worked me. San Gorgonio was good preparation for Whitney.

The top! This one took a while.

11/25/17 - I felt compelled to complete the challenge and so I climbed San Bernardino late in the season. This was a really nice hike and quite enjoyable.

This was a nice hike and in some ways the trail itself was better than the view at the top.

Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arizona Highpoints

I work for a company based in Austin, Texas. I decided that I would drive home to California and climb four high points on the way home. I usually fly, but this provided an opportunity to knock out some state high points. My plan was to climb Guadalupe Mountain in Texas, then Mount Wheeler in New Mexico, backtrack a little to bag Black Mesa in Oklahoma and then finish up with Mount Humphrey in Arizona. Lots of driving!

This hike was surprisingly nice. When you think Texas, you don’t think Mountains. Guadalupe is definitely a real mountain.

I left work in Austin on June 29th at about four in the afternoon and started driving West. I work in North Austin so getting out of the metropolis was pretty easy and in short order, I was driving roads that had little to no traffic. For the next few hours, I enjoyed the vastness that is Texas. As the sun began to set, I began to enter West Texas and the oil and gas rigs started becoming more and more plentiful. For the next couple of hours, the orange glow and haze that our country’s energy demands have created was something of a hellish landscape or some apocalyptic movie scene.

I was not sure where I was going to sleep so I decided to drive to the trailhead for Guadalupe to get a lay of the land. When I arrived, there was not much around. I decided to drive to the closest town which was about thirty miles away and in New Mexico. I found a motel, spent a little time prepping for the morning and then went to bed.

I woke up the next morning pretty early and drove back to the trailhead. Things looked a lot better in daylight than in the darkness the night before. There was a young man, Romero, who was getting ready to climb as well. So we teamed up and climbed together. He was a student at the University of Houston who had an internship in the oil and gas industry and was living in a trailer about forty miles southwest.

The trail was quite good, challenging but not terribly difficult. We made good time and before long, made it to the top. The views were great and I was pleasantly surprised by the Texas high point. There was quite a marker at the top; it looked maybe like American Airlines contributed to the installation. We made it down pretty quickly which was good because the temperature was definitely rising pretty quickly. I said my good-byes to Romero and was anxious to start driving north to Wheeler Peak.

The trip north was visually interesting. Early on I passed the Carlsbad Caverns which I would have really liked to visit, but I did not have the time. Southeast New Mexico is very arid and what little human development there was certainly was not visually nice and the area appears to be broadly impoverished. I did drive through Roswell which is noteworthy from a pop-culture perspective, but it had a fair amount to be desired. I saw no life from other worlds, but the life I did see was somewhat alien. The farther I got north, the better things got. Santa Fe was nice and I finally got to Taos about five in the evening. I was able to have a casual evening, get a good rest and be ready for an early morning departure.

I woke up before daylight, grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and started heading to the ski resort parking lot. Halfway up the access road, there was an older gentleman with his thumb out so I picked him up. He was a consultant to the ski resort from Vermont and was looking to make the same climb. This was good because he knew where he was going. We started hiking and things were good. The area was very pretty. My new friend was not particularly fast and he told me to go on with him after about a half-mile. The beginning of the trail was fairly easy and in the woods. After a couple of miles, we really started heading up and got out of the treeline. The trail became steep and was a series of switchbacks. There was a little snow here and there, a fair amount of loose rock, but the trail was pretty good and the scenery was great on a crystal blue morning. After a few hours, I made it to the top. There was a fair number of hikers. The view from the top was really nice. I spent about thirty minutes up there and started heading down. I met my early morning travel buddy on the way down.

The official top and definitely one of my favorite high points so far.

I made it down pretty quickly but it definitely beat me up some. The last mile was rough and I had a little trouble finding my car in the parking lot which made things that much more painful. I was happy to get out my hiking clothes, get in the car and start heading to Black Mesa in Oklahoma. I stopped in Taos again and grabbed a burger. I ate it in the restaurant. In time I would wish that I got something to go.

My plan now was to get as close as I could to Black Mesa and then hike it in the morning. I headed down out of the Carson National Forest toward Eagle Nest. The scenery was great and as I got into Eagle Nest, it had gotten quite dark and poured. This area was really nice and I suspect it was a little bit of a hidden gem for the area’s summer vacationers. I motored on. After a couple of hours, I finally made it into Oklahoma. I had gone through several small towns and eyed motels I could stay at. It was starting to get late but I figured I would see how close I could get and then go back to the closest motel.

Around a quarter of seven, I was essentially at Black Mesa, which was really in the middle of nowhere. Finding the trailhead was difficult. My GPS was not cooperating. There were also some comments that GPS took you to the wrong place. I found a Bed and Breakfast that seemed to house hikers. I knocked on their door to see if they had space and any details on the hike. Unfortunately, no one answered despite it looking like there were people there. So I headed out on the main road and found a person riding a bike. They indicated the trailhead was a bit further down. So I figured I would drive to the trailhead, and in short order, I was there. It was seven on the dot and the sun was setting. All Trails indicated it was about nine miles out and back and the trail was moderate. And based on the surroundings which were rolling hills with scattered Mesas that were a few hundred feet high, I thought I could make good time. Could I do it in a little over two hours? Or so I thought.

So I got my gear on quickly and headed out at a brisk pace. The trail was easy but four-plus miles as the sun is setting quickly proved to be long. The scenery was quite nice and besides the cows, I pretty much had the place to myself. After a couple of miles, I finally got to the Mesa and started to climb. Pretty much during the first two miles, I was certain I knew what had to be the high point, but I was wrong a few times. When I got to the top of the Mesa, it was very flat and I thought I must be pretty close. Wrong! The high point proved to be two miles across and on the other side of the Mesa. I found it very frustrating. Where the hell was that monument? At long last, I could see it. I was doing intermittent jogging to go faster. And at long last I made it.

Finally the marker!

My hope was to get to the edge of the Mesa before the sun went down. Mission accomplished, but the rest of the trip back to my car was at best twilight, if not dark. I could hear a fox or a coyote following me for a while. This is after I sort of bumped into some stray cows after coming off the Mesa and they let it be known that they saw me with a fair number of moos. At long last, I made it back to my car at about 9:45 PM. I quickly changed into some driving gear and headed back to the closest town to see if I could get a room.

Coming down of Black Mesa, the sunset in the distance was pretty good.

I was feeling pretty good about myself as I worked my way back through some pretty remote prairie and farmland in the Westernmost portion of Oklahoma. Two high points in one day and a fair amount of mileage driven as well. On the way in, there were a number of small towns with motels and this point,I was happy to stay at any one of them. Little did I know I was in for one of my longest nights ever.

All the motels in the three small towns on the way back to I-25 were all booked. I checked about six different motels and to my surprise all were full. It was now about eleven in the evening and I was pretty tired. I finally got to I-25 and figured that the towns off this Interstate would be much better options. A little closer to Arizona wouldn’t hurt either. I then stopped in Springer, Wagon Mound and Las Vegas New Mexico certain I would find something. And to my surprise and disbelief, all these hotels were full all because it was the Fourth of July weekend. I thought to myself who is traveling to and vacationing in these towns. Not to be too snobbish, but there was nothing obvious that these locations had to offer that would warrant any vacation time. I finally got to Las Vegas, NM which had about twenty hotels. I pretty much stopped at everyone and they were all full. How can this be? Who are these people and why are they vacationing here? I was now forced to press on to Santa Fe and figured I would definitely be able to find something there. When I got to Santa Fe at about 2 AM, hotel row was all booked up as well. I spent about a half-hour going from hotel to hotel and hearing the same things, all booked up for the long weekend. So after a while, I gave up and decided to sleep in the car I had rented. Unfortunately, it was a sedan, so the best I could do was crank down the driver’s seat and make the best of it. I slept off and on for a few hours. After about four hours it was seven in the morning and I could not sleep anymore.

I got up, cleaned myself off as best I could and went to a Starbucks. I got a couple of coffees and some breakfast sandwiches. I started driving west towards Flagstaff, Arizona. In a few hours, I was getting close. I was constantly doing math on whether I would hike Humphrey this day or wait until tomorrow. The map shows that it is about ten miles out and back, so I was looking at five hours. However, I did two high points yesterday and effectively got no sleep so doing it today would be pushing it in a major way. I got into Flagstaff in the afternoon. I stopped at the local supermarket, got some hiking supplies and decided I would drive to the trailhead. The mountain is also a ski resort. It was one o’clock and I was feeling pretty good so I figured I would give it a try.

The trail starts from the parking lot and cuts across a ski trail before heading into the woods. There was a fair amount of traffic and I was following a few hikers which was good for pushing my pace which I thought was important based on the late start. Speaking to people, there was a saddle that was an important landmark on the trail. This day a few people were saying it was so windy that people were not going past the saddle. It was a bit of a slog, but I finally made it to the saddle and it was definitely windy. However, I had gone this far and there was no chance I was going to turn back and do it all over in the morning. I dropped my pack at the saddle to lighten the load a little and headed my way to the top. While the wind was quite strong, this portion was good terrain and it was quite clear. I finally made it to the top and was pretty proud of this last effort.

Maximum effort with a great pay-off. Check-off Arizona.

I worked my way back down which was rough. I was exhausted. I also almost got lost as I missed a switchback and walked out into a boulder field and could not spot the trail on the other side. I was definitely disoriented. I happened to see out of the corner of my eye someone making the turn I missed and was able to backtrack. If it were not for that person, I could have been in trouble.

Getting back to the car and getting my gear off was magical. I headed back into Flagstaff and had only three things on my mind: food, a shower and sleep. I went to Chipotle and got a giant burrito. I went to my hotel, ate it and took a shower. I got into bed and fell asleep in short order. I woke up the next morning at 8 AM, got some breakfast and drove home to Southern California. This trip worked out great. I was four for four on my high points without incident. The scenery was great and I saw a bunch of the country I really had not seen before. I can’t wait for my next trip!

Connecticut Highpoint

Despite living in Connecticut for twenty plus years some twenty years ago, it wasn’t until today that I bagged Mt. Frissell. The opportunity presented itself and I took advantage of it.

This is the official marker. The actual site is not particularly impressive.

Mt. Frissell is a bit of an odd high point because it is not actually the high point of the actual mountain. The actual summit of Mt. Frissell is located in Massachusetts. A portion of the mountain is located in Connecticut and that elevation is the highest point in the state.

I was visiting my parents and my boyhood home in West Hartford, Connecticut. They were planning to move to Maine after residing in Connecticut for about 40 years. I was helping them get the house ready to sell. We worked most of a Friday and Saturday and got more done than my father had planned for. We did some additional work on Sunday morning. I floated the idea that they could drive me to Mt. Frissell and let me bag this peak. And so off we went. It was a very nice day and it had been a while since I had been to this part of the state. Connecticut is classically New England. My parents had not been to this portion for a while either. We headed northwest toward Salisbury. The drive was very nice.

We drove to the trailhead which required about a mile drive on a dirt road that was in decent condition. The actual trailhead was a bit unremarkable and it was hard to know for sure if we were at the trailhead. Luckily there was another person who was also trying to bag this high point. He was visiting from Ohio and had just bagged the Massachusetts high point. We hiked together and within about 45 minutes reached the actual summit of Mt. Frissell. The hike up was moderate with an initial uphill, some moderate distance travel and then a short climb to the top. There is not much of a view.

The actual summit is not impressive. After many years of hiking out west, not being above the treeline leads to some degree of disappointment.

I then hiked about another ten minutes south to make it to the actual Connecticut high point. The trip was downhill which is understandable but a bit strange. High point bagged. Another fifteen minutes and I got to a very old marker that was the point where New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut all meet. This was kind of cool.

My new hiking companion chose not to go to the Tri-State marker and started heading down. I was able to catch him and make it down to the bottom pretty quickly. My parents were waiting for me. Mission accomplished on this five-mile out-and-back to the 1,059-foot peak and Connecticut high point. A good hike and very nice to bag my home state’s high point.

Trying to Climb Mt. Whitney

In my quest to climb the highest points and peaks of the continental 48, Mt. Whitney is the tallest at 14,505 feet. Why not knock this one off early in the process was my thinking in constructing a somewhat hasty trip.

This is not my picture but is a common view of the mountain. This makes it look a bit harder than it really is, but the mountain is impressive, and for first-timers, pretty intimidating. We had a fair amount of snow cover on our trip but not quite to the extent shown here.

I have been considering this hike for a little while but there is a permit requirement to access the mountain from March through October. I read a lot about it and the basic takeaway was it was a very long and laborious effort but doable in one day. So with that information, I convinced my youngest son to go with me and we drove there on the first Saturday of November.

We arrived at the center where you put in your permit pretty late but got there just before closing time. We then went into Lone Pine and went to a local outfitter store called Elevation. The guys there were very helpful and provided a number of good suggestions. We ended up renting walking poles which were a lifesaver on both the icy sections and coming back down; I ended up buying my own pair after this experience because I became convinced they were extremely helpful. We got crampons, good UV sunglasses and a number of different items. They recommended that we get going about 2 AM if we were going to day hike it; we purchased headlamps as well. This seemed awfully early based on the mileage, but we took their recommendation seriously.

We decided we would do a test 'drive' to the trailhead so we didn't need to figure it out at some crazy hour in the night. You climb a fair height in your car and after a while, we got to the trailhead. We saw a guy who had just come down and he said he day hiked but was just getting down around 7:30 PM and in the dark. He said he started around 2 AM. He looked to be an above-average hiker so we were now convinced we needed to start early.

We then had dinner at a ribs place and ate a lot in preparation for our long day ahead. The food was good but my son is not a great eater and he struggled a little with his somewhat 'slimy' ribs he ordered. We went to a store and picked up some more trail snacks for the hike.

We went back to the Whitney Portal and did a test run on getting dressed and ready to get out the door. We then went to bed with the anticipation of waking up at 2 AM and being at the trailhead no later than 3 AM to start the hike.

Unfortunately, my son soon after shutting the lights off developed a bad stomachache. He ended up throwing up a few times and had a little diarrhea. Unfortunately, we did not get much sleep. And there was some uncertainty as to whether we were actually going to be able to make a go of it with my son's condition.

The alarm went off at 2 AM and we decided we would try to get a little more sleep. We ended up getting up at about 3 AM, got ready, packed up and drove to the trailhead. We had a little hitch getting there as we had a seed of doubt that we were on the right road and did some backtracking. We got on the trailhead about 4 AM and we were just going to see how it went and how my son's stomach was going to handle it. We hiked a few miles through the dark and the sun began to rise. My son's condition was getting better. We kept pushing and got to Outpost Camp and the Mirror Lake area. We started to run into snow and ice and eventually decided we needed to put on our crampons.

I took this on our way up and about two hours into the hike. We really began to see what was around us and began to see some progress.

We got to a place where we could see Consultation Lake and really see Mt. Whitney as well. We were getting close to the 99 switchbacks. The weather was pretty good this morning and we were optimistic. We finally got to the 'chains' and this was pretty treacherous. There was a lot of snow and essentially one foot hole in the snow to navigate through this stretch. And where there were no chains, there was a steep snowfield for about 1000 feet down. It definitely forced you to be quite careful.

We kept pressing up the switchbacks and wanted to hit the Trail Crest by 2 PM. We met this guy who was not dressed properly and had run out of something to drink. We hiked with him for a little while but eventually passed and separated from him. We were starting to get tired and the weather was turning for the worse. Our legs were starting to get quite 'rubbery' and we were getting nervous about the descent particularly around this very narrow snow section near the chains. We got to the Trail Crest a little after 2 PM and talked to a gentleman who said that the peak was only another two miles but would take about two hours. We debated fairly vigorously about whether we should keep going or turn back. We were pretty tired, but at the same time, so close. A decision between what we want and what is smart.

This was actually on the way down and we had gotten through the majority of the snow. While the decision to turn back was a very hard one and anguishing, it was the right decision. We were happy to be at this point on our way out.

We decided to turn back. Ultimately a smart decision, but filled with lots of regret. We worked our way through the narrow and treacherous sections of snow near the chains. We were happy to be through this section safely. We worked our way down. The trail seemed to go forever. I could only think about my condition if we had pressed our way to the top. We got back to our car at about dusk and were very happy to be back and sitting down.

With some time between this attempt and penning this report, my basic conclusion is that this was overly ambitious. Our plans were firmed up only a couple of days before our actual attempt. And while I think we could do it as a day trip, it is long and a bit of a marathon. We in fact needed to start at 2 AM as suggested. Our physical condition, particularly my son, was not ideal due to our pre-hike dinner and lack of sleep. Everything being equal, we were happy with the attempt.

The new plan is getting a permit when there is little to no snow and maybe do an overnight. With these two differences, I am confident we will conquer the highest peak in the lower 48 states, Mt. Whitney!

A Quest to Climb the Highest Point of Every State

I have decided to try to climb the highest point of every state in America. Why? I am not sure I have a really meaningful answer other than I enjoy hiking. This will be a good way to see the country and I like a challenge.

This decision was made right around my 50th birthday, so maybe one could surmise that it is the result of a midlife crisis. And I am not sure I know what a mid-life crisis is other than the reality of death is starting to have some real meaning and for me, this is a way to stall that inevitability.

This was a trip to Mt. Katahdin at a tripping camp called Pine Island, where I worked for six summers during high school and college. I love this mountain and found that I was a pretty good hiker.

In high school and college, I worked at a summer camp in Maine called Pine Island Camp that sent out a lot of hiking and canoeing trips. I enjoyed both but excelled on the trail. There were a lot of good trips that I went on, but Mt. Katahdin was my favorite. The mountain was visually stunning whether standing at the shoreline of Chimney Pond, climbing Cathedral trail, the view from the summit, traversing the Knife's Edge or descending Dudley Trail and Pamola Peak.

I haven't done much hiking between the end of college and now, but I am lucky to live close to some pretty good hiking. So recently, I have started getting into 'training' for this challenge.

So my plan is to climb each of the highest points, not peaks in each state. In most instances, the peak and point are one in the same, but in a few instances, the highest point is really a peak that splits two states and the actual peak is not in the state that you are counting, and often not the highest peak in that state; my home state of Connecticut is a good example.

I did a lot of hiking at Pine Island Camp. When I was a counselor, we would take young men all throughout New Hampshire and Maine; a lot of it on the Appalachian Trail. After camp was over, some of the other counselors and I would go do trips on our own. This was at the Pinkham Notch trail head getting ready to go up Mt. Washington via Tuckerman’s Ravine.

Since this idea came about when I was fifty and I plan to do 48 states, I will need to climb about five peaks a year. I am thinking I need to have an endpoint to the challenge and I worry about my capacity to accomplish some of the harder peaks after sixty.

I do not have a specific order other than I am going to try to knock out as many of the biggest ones I can early in the process. And I will try to at least climb a couple at a time to make the associated travel costs as minimal as possible. I do not plan to do Denali in Alaska because I concede that it is beyond both my skills and capacity. So my general description is the highest points in the continental 48, although I can see adding Hawaii as both doable and a good reason to visit the state.

So away I go. You can follow my progress here or on PeakBagger.com

Mt. Katahdin was my favorite mountain and I climbed it many times. It was easily the most dramatic in my limited experience of hiking in Maine and New Hampshire. I thought I looked really cool with the red, white and blue bandana and the Ray-Bans.

Saddleback Mountain

I have stared at this mountain for fifteen years because it sits directly behind my house in the Cleveland National Forest. Saddleback is also referred to as Santiago Peak measuring 5,689 feet. I have always been impressed by this as it eclipses the height of my favorite mountain, Katahdin. I have often been struck that there is a significant peak right in my backyard just asking to be climbed. Unfortunately, it has taken me nearly fifteen years to actually climb it.

This is a typical view of Saddleback looking East in Orange County, California.

When I was young, I did a fair amount of hiking, mostly on the East Coast. Then life got in the way and with a wife, kids and a career. I got busy, but mostly tired, fat and soft. Starting to hike again was mostly a passing thought. Something I should get back into. Maybe next month.

I would be reminded that Saddleback was just waiting to be climbed nearly every day. Driving home from work, the mountain was right there just waiting to be climbed. On occasion, I would look on the internet to try to figure out if there was a hiking trail but never really could find anything definitive. I traveled a fair amount and most air traffic coming into John Wayne Airport flies right over the northern end of the Cleveland National Forest. I would study all the fire roads trying to see the route up and try to figure out where is a ‘trailhead’. My efforts were genuine but never resulted in any meaningful results.

Then one day, my wife came home and in her work travels met someone who was talking about hiking Saddleback. She shared this with me and I asked her to get the person’s contact information. If he knew a trail and a route, I wanted to tag along. One of the biggest obstacles for me was trying to go it alone. Wandering around hoping I was going the right way was not something I wanted to do.

The connection and trip were confirmed with this individual, Tex. He was planning to climb Saddleback over the July Fourth weekend. I was in. This was enough to finally get me to check this ‘To Do’ item off my list. Tex was going to meet me at a location not far from my house at 5 AM. He had four-wheel drive, so I was going to hitch a ride into the trailhead, called Holy Jim.

The best part was I convinced my youngest to come with me at the last minute; the night before. Generally speaking, when I ask my youngest to do something like this with me, he turns me down. For him, rejecting my request is somewhat reflexive. In this case, since it was around my birthday, I think I convinced him to do it by leveraging guilt to push him over the line to a yes.

We met with some others that Tex had included in this trip at Cook’s Corner. My son and I hopped into one of the four-wheel-drive vehicles and we drove to the trailhead. After about twenty minutes, we finally got to the trailhead. The road in was definitely a bit rough in parts. Everyone got ready and we were finally ready to start. We walked through a small collection of cabins where people were actually living and then got on the trail.

After a short period of hiking, it was quickly apparent that most of the group was going at a pretty slow pace. My son and I were definitely in front along with one older lady who kept our pace. Early on, we would stop and wait for others to catch up but after a few times, it was clear that this was not going to work. So we just forged ahead.

The trail was single-track for maybe two-thirds of the way up and then the trail changes to a fire road. It was a fairly long trip up. There was nothing particularly technical or steep, but it was a long trip up. I was very surprised by how vast the Cleveland National forest was. When I would fly over it, you never really sensed how big it was; probably because what you can see at 10,000 feet and going 500 miles an hour.

We finally made it to the top which is mostly a collection of communication towers. There is not an obvious peak, but we did find the marker. The best views tended to be during the hike. There was good visibility West, and hiking back down you got to see a good view looking East. The views were good, but there was not a lot of wow.

The trip down seemed to go forever. I was in decent shape, but not for long hikes. We got down at about 2 PM and I was pretty tired. My legs were quite sore. We had seen our party when we headed back down and there was some question if they were going to make it to the top. At the bottom, we waited for about half an hour. I got desperate to get home and we took the opportunity to hitch a ride out with some kids who had just come down. Getting home, showered and horizontal felt great.

Saddleback or Mount Santiago was a good hike and something I needed to check off my list, but I am not sure I would rush back.

The summit looking West. The Pacific is out there somewhere.