We kicked off the New Year with our sights set on bagging three more state highpoints: Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. So we set off for the hills of Appalachia – no shorts and flip flops this time, as the Northeast produced some properly winter weather for our road trip.
Pennsylvania’s highest point is Mount Davis, standing at 3213ft above sea level. At the summit, there is a tall observation tower from which there are supposedly beautiful views on a clear day. Alas, all we saw was fog and snow.
Maryland’s highest point, Hoye-Crest (3360 ft), is a summit along Backbone Mountain. Interestingly, the majority of the hike up to the summit is in West Virginia! Once again, we had to allow our imagination to fill in the beautiful view at the summit.
We rounded off our Highpoint hat-trick with Spruce Knob, West Virginia’s highest point at 4,863 ft above sea level. Due to the high winds that hit the peak, the trees are small and gnarled, giving the summit an alpine feel (and making it really cold). We couldn’t find the USGS summit marker in the snow, nor could we find the supposedly gorgeous view from the observation tower. It was a theme for the day.
The Adventures of Tait & Phia 
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