As my knee is not quite ready to hike super rugged terrain like the White Mountains just yet, I was thinking about a side quest to work on to build things back up and discovered an interesting peakbagging list in Massachusetts to start with – Massachusetts 50 Highest Public Peaks.
This list was curated by Patrick Browne with the goal of avoiding private property or ridiculous bushwhacking. Despite many of the peaks in Massachusetts being fairly short (Mount Greylock, the highest, tops out at less than 3500 feet) it’s a big enough list that it’ll still take a lot of work. In addition, many of the peaks are close to each other so this presents some interesting big mileage options which hit multiple peaks, which I’m excited to get to once my knee can tolerate 30km or more days (will also help me decide if I want to start doing ultras lol). The unfortunate thing is that almost all of these peaks are in Western Massachusetts (1.5+ hours away from home) which means a lot of driving.
As of the time I decided to start this list, I had climbed two of these peaks – Wachusett Mountain (closest one to me) and Mount Frissell (which I climbed while going for the Connecticut state high point last year). I immediately began studying the list on Peakbagger along with plotting routes on my backcountry app. I plan to repeat both Wachusett and Frissell as I work through this list (Frissell is part of a pretty wicked 38 km route I mapped through Mt Washington State Park which hits 6 peaks and one I’m looking forward to banging out, hopefully in the fall).
I’ll also look to complete as many of the Massachusetts county high points as well along the way – some are on the 50 list but others are not ( either too low – hello Cape Cod – or too close to other peaks to meet the prominence requirements).
50 Highest Public Peaks
Current completion: 6/50
October 17, 2025: Wachusett
October 26, 2025: Frissell
June 13, 2026: Todd, Adams
June 27, 2026: Massaemett, Peter Hill
County High Points
Current completion: 1/14
October 17, 2025: Wachusett
Veg 'n' Alpine 