This post may contain affiliate links. Meaning, at no extra cost to you, we may earn a commission, or miles and points from the companies mentioned in this post.
Yes, there’s even a high point in Rhode Island.
Our summit day for Massachusetts’ Mt. Greylock at 3,491 ft. was a cold, rainy, dreary one. I’m not always a fair weather hiker, but being in the van makes getting wet a rather displeasurable affair. Yes, I’m just sure ‘displeasurable’ is a word. I knew better than to suggest anything that would make sense because in true man fashion G Hammer would veto it immediately, so in true woman fashion I suggested a picnic breakfast up in the mountains to get our day started right. Well, as you can see… oh wait, you can’t see much. We sat in the car and ate peanut butter and apples for breakfast and shortened our hike considerably to 1.2 miles round trip- just enough to avoid paying the parking fees at the summit.
If you don’t want to drive to the top, but want to hike a bit more than a mile, you could always walk in from Georgia on the AT. I have no desire to hike it, but if there were more lodges along the way like Greylock’s Bascom Lodge I’d be a lot more inclined to.
It was a bit too damp and the coffee a bit too expensive to hang around long. By the time we drove down from the summit the fog had lifted and it was a beautiful blue sky day and we could see the monument from miles away. We were on our way to meet my mom, my sister, and my sister’s partner in Boston but we made a bit of a detour south so we could hit up Jerimoth Hill, Rhode Island’s high point at 812 ft.
Jerimoth Hill hasn’t always been so easy to get to. Although Brown University owned the land the high point was on, that land was surrounded by crazed New Englanders “protecting their private property”. Hikers reported gunshots and verbal abuse, one got their camera snatched away, and two unlucky hikers got held up at rifle-point after summiting (the rifle-toting father and son both got a suspended twelve years plus twelve years probation). Before 2000 it was deemed the most difficult high point in the entire country. But, people die or move on and new owners took over the adjacent property and opened a path to the summit so now everyone is free to walk the 100 yds from the highway to the rock pile and declare Rhode Island conquered.
After six days without showering and all those bikes and hikes, we were ready for a little downtime in the big city. To a Walmart parking lot and the Triple Crown! Then Beantown.