I have made it to a pair of record-holding continental USA peaks. Yesterday, I stood at the 6,684-foot summit of Mount Mitchell, the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi River. In 2021, I climbed to the top of Mount Whitney, the tallest peak west of the Mississippi at 14,505 feet (disregard the number on the sign). Whitney was part of my 246-mile trek on the John Muir Trail in California. Sue and I drove most of the way to Mount Mitchell, located 4.6 miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway and 19 miles northeast of Asheville, North Carolina. We managed to hike the final 300 yards from the parking lot. Elisha Mitchell, a University of North Carolina professor, died in 1857 as he proved his claim that the mountain was the eastern USA’s tallest. He fell to his death from a nearby waterfall.