Northeast 115 4000ft Mountains

***This page is a description of this peakbagging project, including both an explanation of the list itself as well as a bit of the story behind how it went and some nice photos!!! If you want to see an enumeration of all of the peaks done as part of this project, check out this page here!!!***

In the summer of 2022, I hiked a transgender pride flag up 115 mountains in New York and New England that were on the Northeast 4000fters list. This list is a fairly popular peakbagging project for hikers in the Northeast, and typically takes people several years to work through due to the difficulty and remoteness of these mountains (even if you live smack in the middle like I did, many are still 6+ hrs of driving away.) I was able to do the list in 115 days, which was largely unintentional but quite mathematically pleasing. I'm not going to run through every hike here, or post every photo I have from that project, but rather go through the highlights and try and tell a more coherent story than I was able to over the course of dozens of different reddit posts.

Before the project even started, I had to test the waters to make sure I was able to do it to begin with, so when one of my trans friends asked me to hike Franconia Ridge with them, I decided to take the flag up and give it a shot. And honestly, I got some really good photos out of it!

Lafayette was the first mountain that I took a flag up! (May 7)

After that, I knew it was time to start, and so I decided to formally kick off the project with a rather ambitious 20 mile loop of the Tripyramid range, and I utterly failed at it. I camped out at the trailhead the night before and got shit sleep due to some unusually warm weather and thick black flies, then I started the hike on a somewhat nauseous stomach, which only got worse with heat. Once I was 4.5 miles in I realized that both my boots and my pack were on the brink of tearing apart, I knew it was time to turn back. But not to worry! Cause I came back the next week ready to do a smaller version of that hike, and actually got to summit Whiteface... before being thwarted from Passaconoway by a thunderstorm.

This was the photo on Whiteface, which was bad because (a) it was taken vertically, (b) I was wearing clothes that didn't bring out my best features, and (c) I still had no idea how to pose properly (May 14)

After those two fiascos, I was starting to seriously doubt whether or not I was even competent enough to hike anymore - much less take on a large peakbagging project. So I decided to try one of the easiest mountains on the list, and headed up Tecumseh in late may. And this time I summited! And it was quite vindicating after failing at my previous two attempts.

First one of the project and this photo also sucked because (a) I didn't know how to pose and (b) I chose a terrible angle (May 23)

After knocking out about a dozen mountains in New Hampshire, I used a break from classes to spend two weeks in New York hiking! The Adirondacks are one of my favorite mountain ranges, and it was a great time to kick off my second round of the 46!

View on the side of Lower Wolfjaw, I believe (June 7)

Pyramid Peak looking toward the Upper Great Range (June 7)

A big widow maker I found on the trail, with my thumb there for size reference (June 8)

Classic Adirondack High Peak trail conditions (June 8)

Me before and after realizing I was standing on the side of a cliff on a mountain called 'Big Slide' on a slippery day (June 9)

The rather unfortunately - but entirely coincidentally - named 'Trap Dike' path up Mt Colden (June 10)

A snail I found on the side of the trail (June 12)

After my time in the Adirondacks, it was time to go back to school, as I was taking a full-courseload over the summer - but that didn't stop me from cranking through more mountains!

Cool photos on North Twin and Eisenhower (July 3 and July 10 respectively)

Cool grouse I found on the trail (August 14)

Dix, the last mountain in the 46 on the list (August 26)

Carter Dome with a great hair day (September 1)

Once the quarter ended, I was able to go hit the peaks in Maine, and I was entirely blown away with how great the mountains be up there.

A view of the Knife's Edge on Katahdin (September 7)

A view of the ravine between Hamlin and Howe (September 7)

Avery looking toward Bigelow (September 8)

Honestly, doing this project was one of the coolest and most rewarding things I've ever done, and it gave me the confidence I needed to pursue other projects like this. If you wanna see more photos, just click the google drive link at the end of the page!