An obsessive Pa. odyssey to the top of every state

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It's been a decade since Mark Burd got bit by the climbing bug. 

It happened on a trip to the highest point in Pennsylvania — 3,213 feet atop Mount Davis in Somerset County — and snowballed from there.

As St. Louis-based travel writer Jim Winnerman reported this week in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a plan was quickly hatched for an annual Burd family trek to the highest point in every U.S. state. 

Ten years later, they're well over halfway there. 

Burd, a freelance communications consultant from Butler County, and his sons have covered thousands of miles, climbed thousands of feet, found a community of like-minded humans — the Highpointers Club, and successfully reached the summits of 35 states.

Their hardest hikes are yet to come. 

We spoke to Mark about the draw of higher ground, gazing down on creation, and the western peaks looming large on his to-do list.

Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length. 

PA Local: Hi Mark. Where are you now? 

Burd: I'm in my office at home, overlooking the backyard.

PA Local: How high is that? 

Burd: I'm on the first floor of my house and we live in Saxonburg, so roughly 1,200 feet above sea level.

PA Local: Not a towering height then.

Burd: Oh no, not at all. 

PA Local: But you know a thing or two about those, having climbed to the pinnacle of most U.S. states. Tell me: Is it lonely at the top? 

Burd: No! There's lots of people who do this. If you went and hung out at a state high point, you'd be surprised how many people you'd run into. 

PA Local: Which is worse: The walk up or the walk down?

Burd: That's interesting. I think the walk down. 

PA Local: Really? 

Burd: Yeah. You always have a certain degree of anticipation and adrenaline on the way up. Not to mention you're using different muscles. 

PA Local: What do you do when you reach the top? 

Burd: We always take a selfie and do a toast.

PA Local: Can you describe the feeling? What am I missing as a lowlander? Is there a natural high, no pun intended?

Burd: Definitely. Even if it's Mount Davis, which is basically a 100 yard, mostly level walk from a parking area, there's this notion of conquest. And every one gets a little sweeter because you're closer to that goal of 50. At a certain point you realize just how massive this country is. 

PA Local: What was the last mountain you climbed? 

Burd: Black Elk Peak in South Dakota, not far from Mount Rushmore.

PA Local: Which was the hardest climb so far? 

Burd: Mount Katahdin in Maine. It's like a 10-hour roundtrip journey and by far the most difficult climb east of the Mississippi River. You don't have to use crampons and ropes, but you have to climb some large rocks. 

PA Local: What about the easiest? 

Burd: Britton Hill in Florida is 345 feet of elevation. You park and walk over to it. Delaware's is very easy. It's actually a marker on a sidewalk.

PA Local: Now we're talking. What's your favorite one so far? 

Burd: Georgia. They have a beautiful visitor's center at the high point. Just fantastic views. State and local governments have gotten wise to this trend since we started. South Carolina was the first we visited and it was just an old gravel road. Now they have a visitor's center and have paved things because they obviously realize this is a tourist attraction. 

PA Local: How do the accommodations at Pennsylvania's high point rank? 

Burd: Mount Davis has a fire tower with a beautiful view. They also have interpretive exhibits at the high point there.

PA Local: The high points get much higher out west, where the rest of your list is. Any of them worry you? Denali? Mount Rainier?

Burd: Denali is a major mountain and would require us to hire guides. There's a whole list of things you have to have to make that happen. 

PA Local: Does that mean you won't do it?

Burd: We know our limits. We're gonna go visit and we will get to the mountain and go as far as we can. It's as much about the travel for us. 

PA Local: Journey over destination?

Burd: There's nothing at the top that you didn't bring with you.
 

—Colin Deppen, PA Local editor

Sachs Covered Bridge in Adams County, via Don N. Pennsylvania's official tourism agency says the commonwealth has nearly 200 covered bridges left, the most of any state. Lancaster County has nearly 30. Send us your photos, use #PAGems on Instagram, or tag us @spotlightpennsylvania.