Introduction to a record of my hikes

I'm starting this blog in addition to the blog that Erika and I already have at willanderika.blogspot.com so that I can have a record of my trips to the highpoint in each county in Utah. I started the goal to climb to the top of each county last spring (2007), and I now have 7 of the 26 hikes done. There are actually 29 counties in Utah, but 3 peaks are on the border of two counties. Two of the county highpoints are not actually even peaks, but they lie on the side of a mountain. So those aren't really too exciting to climb to and GPS is needed to know when you've arrived. Most of the peaks are at least 3 or 4 miles one way and pretty steap, so they are challenging, but there are a few that you can drive right to the top of. I enjoy bagging those peaks though because I like driving places in Utah where I've never been before. My goal was originally to be done by the time I was 30, but with the arrival of our new son I'm not sure if that will happen anymore. We'll still shoot for it though.

I bought the book High in Utah which has been a good reference and there are a few good websites like http://www.summitpost.org/list/171195/utah-county-highpoints.html and http://www.peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=13209. http://www.cohp.org/ut/utah.html is another but I haven't really read into this one much.

You can go to http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1140133&page=0&vc=1&PHPSESSID=#Post1140133 to download the Google Earth file I made that has each county high point marked.

Items of interest taken from from High in Utah:

"Alaska is our biggest, buggiest, boggiest state. Texas remains our largest unfrozen state. But mountainous Utah, if ironed out flat, would take up more space on a map than either."

"If you measured the highest point in each county, which of the fifty states would have the highest average elevation? You probably didn't say Utah, but in fact the average elevation of the state's county high points is approximately 11,222 feet (Colorado is second at 10,971 feet)."