Minnesota's 2000 Foot Peaks

I have two plans, now that I've got racing trail ultras out of my system. One involves running, the other involves getting out in the wilderness. I'll get to the running one sometime in future posts.

I thought it'd be fun to climb all the peaks in Minnesota over 2000 feet. At first, I thought there were about a dozen. It happens that no one has ever thoroughly (read: obsessively, as only I can obsess) looked at how many there are. One very good attempt was made by Brian Rachford, whose work is here; I got a lot of good ideas from him. The USGS has measured nearly 150 points over 2000 feet in Minnesota [I'm sorely tempted to list them here] and the task then became to compare them to the saddles between them to see if they were worth climbing, according to the 300 foot rule.

From west to east, here's the list (lat. and long. in degrees and minutes, to the nearest 0.5 minute; elevation according to a survey not most recent; name):

47 14;  95 30; 2006 Height of Land Lookout Tower
47 36; 91 26; 2080 Stony Tower Hill
47 39; 91 10.5; 2062 Wanless Tower (eliminated on further research)
48 3.5; 91 3.5; 2019
47 51; 90 56; 2110
47 55; 90 56; 2110 Kelso Mountain
48 5.5; 90 50.5; 2064 Gunflint Tower
48 1.5; 90 50.5; 2065
47 49.5; 90 47.5; 2093 Lundeen Mountain
47 57.5; 90 45.5; 2174
47 52.5; 90 44; 2114 (eliminated on further research)
47 59; 90 37.5; 2197
47 54; 90 36.5; 2163
47 54; 90 33.5; 2301 Eagle Mountain
47 58.5; 90 31.5; 2260 Misquah Hills (true) High Point
47 54; 90 29; 2223
47 59; 90 28; 2245 Gaskin Mountain
47 55.5; 90 27; 2226 Brule Mountain
47 59.5; 90 24; 2238 Lima Mountain
47 56; 90 22.5; 2266
47 57; 90 20.5; 2027
48 5; 90 20; 2023
47 54; 90 19.5; 2189 Pine Mountain
48 6; 90 18.5; 2081
48 4.5; 90 18; 2020
48 0; 90 16.5; 2194 (actual unsurveyed high point is 48 0; 90 13.5; 2210)
48 5; 90 13.5; 2045
48 6; 90 13; 2065
48 6; 90 9; 2017
48 6.5; 90 8.5; 2012 Moose Mountain

Anyone checking the list would wonder about some exclusions. Devilfish Tower (47 59; 90 6.5; 2189) is actually connected by a ridge to Peak 2194/2210. At the Stairway Portage, there are twin peaks (48 5.5; 90 26 and 48 5.5; 90 27) that are connected by a complicated several mile ridge to Peak 2197. Peabody Hill (47 28; 91 36.5; 2019) and the Cloquet Lookout Tower (47 25; 91 21.5; 2067) are connected to Stony Tower Hill, which does fit the 300 foot rule. The path from Winchell Lake to the official Misquah Hills High Point (47 59; 90 37.5; 2230) does not go to the true high point, but to what was believed to be the highest point in Minnesota at one time.

To my knowledge, only 15 of these peaks have ever been climbed and no more than three by any one person! I've only climbed Eagle, but didn't document it well, so I'll do it again as I climb the rest - and... prepare yourself... take pictures.