The Great Wander of 2026 - Stats and Rankings

 Miles - 154.9

Elevation Gain - 11350

States - 17

Mountains - 7

Miles hiked in each state

PA - 30.2

ME - 19.4

WI - 17.9

VT - 16.6

MD - 15.8

MN - 13.8

RI - 5.8

NY - 5.6

CT - 5.3

OH - 4.8

VA - 4.8

MA - 4.4

NH - 3.0

IN - 2.2

IA - 1.8

MI - 1.8

WV - 1.7

Elevation gain per state

VT - 3763

PA - 1616

WI - 1559

MD - 1214

ME - 890

MN - 522

NH - 407

IA - 348

NY - 277

RI - 236

VA - 233

OH - 72

WV - 69

CT - 62

IN - 59

MA - 49

MI - 43

Verified completed trails

Annapolis Rock via Appalachian Trail - MD

Appalachian Trail: Boiling Springs to White Rocks - PA

Bicentennial, Hickory, and Birch Loop - WI

Big Rivers Regional Trail - MN

Burlington Bike Path - VT

Burnt Mountain via Westline Trail - NH

Burrows Trail - VT

Camel’s Hump via Forest City, Long, and Burrows Trails - VT

Confederate Flank Trail - VA

Cornfield Trail - MD

Crown Point Trail - NY

Fish Farm Mounds State Preserve - IA

Forest City Trail - VT

Fort Adams Bay Walk - RI

Fort Preble and Spring Point - ME

Fort Williams Park Loop - ME

Green Point via Quoddy Head Light - ME

Inland Trail - ME

Kent’s Ledge Trail - VT

Loon Lake Nature Preserve Trail - IN

Marshall Point Lighthouse Nature Trail - ME

Methuen Rail Trail from Hampshire Road - MA

Middlesex Township Park Trail - PA

Oak Trail to Hickory Trail to Bicentennial Trail Loop - WI

Owls Head Lighthouse - ME

Plym Park to Riverfront Park via River Valley Trail - MI

Quoddy Coast Guard Trail - ME

Snavely Ford Antietam National Battlefield Trail - MD

Stone Bridges Trail - CT

Third Winchester Battlefield Park - Red Bud Run Trail - VA

Two Lights State Park Loop - ME

Wainwright Recreation and Greenbelt Walkway - ME

West Quoddy Head Lighthouse Trail - ME

States ranked

#1 - Vermont

#2 - Maine

#3 - Pennsylvania

#4 - Maryland

#5 - Minnesota

#6 - Wisconsin

#7 - New York

#8 - Virginia

#9 - New Hampshire

#10 - Rhode Island

#11 - Connecticut

#12 - Massachusetts

#13 - Ohio

#14 - Indiana

#15 - Michigan

#16 - West Virginia

#17 - Iowa

Mountains/Bluffs

Camel’s Hump - 2536 ft. elev. gain - VT

Hixon Woods Bluff - 1152 ft. elev. gain - WI

Kent’s Ledge - 1040 ft. elev. gain - VT

Annapolis Rock - 837 ft. elev. gain - MD

Center Point Knob - 771 ft. elev. gain - PA

Burnt Mountain - 356 ft. elev. gain - NH

Fish Farm Mounds State Preserve - 348 ft. elev. gain - IA

The Great Wander of 2026 - Day 11

The Great Wander of 2026

Day 11: June 3rd, 2026

States Hiked: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts (11 total so far)

Trails Hiked: Two Lights State Park, Methuen Trail

Distance Hiked: 2.2 miles, 4.4 miles

Elevation Gain: 161 ft. elev. gain, 49 ft. elev. gain

Cumulative Wander: 75 miles

Duration: 48m, 1h 22m

Day 10

Day 9

Day 8

Day 7

Day 6, Part 2

Day 6, Part 1

Day 5

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1

In retrospect, doing Vermont and Maine this early in the Wander was a mistake. 

I've probably said that already, but I wrote those other posts, like, days ago. And when someone quotes something I said back at me, I'm always like, "who said that? Where'd you get that from?" By then, I've hiked another seventeen trails already and forgotten where I was.

Other states just gotta suffer in the ratings as a consequence. I'm sure they're devastated that some meandering queer that made a ranking system of the Sparks they stayed in didn't regard their states as highly as others. A wanderloon's gotta dream...

Two Lights State Park, once again reminding me that Maine is wonderful but Minnesota trounces it in the State Parks department (if only I'd made a ranking system of those...), was perfectly adequate for a park equal to the size of a welcome center in one of ours. The ninth and penultimate Maine lighthouse on the tour gave as much room for hiking as it did idling in the parking lot and contemplating the difference between "sand roads" and "subtle vengeance on my ex that referred to my lifestyle as 'homeless lite' but that's not important right now." 

The lighthouse itself was separated from the hiking trail (all mile of it!), and like many New England hikes, I wandered up a narrow road and found out just how committed to "leave no trace" I was when another oversized SUV piloted by a texting driver came around a curve. 

Two Lights ended up being the last lighthouse at which I physically walked, because when I got to the town of the Nubble and saw that the population looked like Gooseberry Falls if July 4th fell on a Saturday and the weather was perfect, I opted to nope the fuck outta there and retain some semblance of my ability to Human. 

Then I dealt with the 495 on my way to Connecticut and realized my inner Sartre would never fully be silenced. 

But hey, there was a GeoArt stop on the 93, and it was only a six-mile divergence, so that's almost like hiking, right? 

After pacing at the rest stop while people sat in their camping chairs in a parking lot but looked at me like I was the weird one, I realized that this wouldn't count for Massachusetts because arbitrary colonial technicalities. The closest town in Massachusetts was Methuen, and there was a four-mile out-and-back rail trail. Perfect.

I swear, everyone on that trail looked at me like I offended their existence by daring to walk there while breathing. I've officially lived in Minnesota too long. It used to be "gods, everyone is so nice out here in Minnesota." Now it's "holy shit, everyone out here's such a dick!" It took a decade, but Minnesota Nice has become my new normal, whereas the angry collective yelling of the East Coast is now the new weird.

I'll turn in my "East Coast Gives No Fucks" card momentarily.

The Great Wander of 2026 - Day 7

The Great Wander of 2026

Day 7: May 30th, 2026

States Hiked: New Hampshire, Vermont (9 total so far)

Trails Hiked: Burnt Mountain, Kent's Ledge, Burlington Waterfront

Distance Hiked: 3.0 miles, 4.6 miles, 4.7 miles

Elevation Gain: 358 ft, 1040 ft., 167 ft.

Cumulative Wander: 50.7 miles

Duration: 1h 20m, 2h 11m, 1h 37m

Day 6, Part 2

Day 6, Part 1

Day 5

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1

The first stop of the day was getting my New Hampshire state count. I planned to put in more miles than that, but... Well, I'll just let my AllTrails review speak for itself on that one. "You might enjoy this trail either if you've always wanted to know what it's like to hike up a cascading creek, or if you're a particularly ambitious frog." 

The third stop of the day was the Burlington waterfront, which was mostly because I'd done it years ago before I was a hiker and I wanted to see if it hit the same. It did, it's lovely. 

But this post was always going to be about Star's Hollow. 

If the entire wandering vacation had been about visiting this place and nowhere else, I still would not have considered it a waste. 

This may not mean anything to you if you don't start Gilmore Girls over from the beginning every autumn, but once Carole King's voice comes over those credits, there sits this idyllic New England town of Star's Hollow. While based on Washington Depot, Connecticut, it's visually represented by South Royalton, Vermont. 

I needed an excuse to go there beyond my vague kinship with Rory Gilmore as a social outsider who immersed themselves with the Ivy League trust fund kinds for four years, so I hiked up Kent's Ledge first. Maybe I was hoping the hill would present a good opportunity for a credits-like shot of the town, but I didn't have a budget and professional cameras. I knew full well the highway blocked out the angle from the credits, but it was worth a shot anyway. Maybe people only said that because they didn't feel like hiking up a 1000-foot hill first. No such luck.

Kent's Ledge is said 1000-foot hill, and probably abused my calves more with my alpine tundra decisions only the day ere, but alas. The entire climb builds up to a couple rocks the size of a living room overlooking the other side of the valley, and a friendly doggo ran up, and oh gosh when the humans attached to those dogs apologize to me for the best part of my day... 

This one had moved there from Minneapolis though. What are those odds?

The view was fine. Everything was fine. But then I descended into town, a population of which would've been scary in most states, but this is Vermont. Coffee shop, super gay. A town square like Star's Hollow sat dead center, but two gazebos adorned all the conversations about Dean-like creatures, appropriately. I grabbed a burger at the place next to the railroad tracks, Worthy Burger. The people were quirky and wonderful, it was the best burger I ever had in my life, the fries were great, the locally-bottled soda was amazing, and the 11-dollar coffee stout was worth every cent. 

In other words, this place was a perfect stand-in for "what if Twin Peaks but mostly nice things happened instead of rampant tulpa head blowy-uppy shenanigans?"