After being rejected for "Survivor" three times and "The Amazing Race" once, Paul Reynolds found himself doing a reality check of his own in 2004. He needed a goal -- "Goals are important," says the fourth-grade teacher -- to help channel his energy. But what?

"I thought to myself, I should create my own adventure," Reynolds said last month during a training climb up Mount Rogers, at 5,729 feet the highest point in Virginia.

So he did.

"Why don't I just hike the highest point in every state?" he asked himself. "That sounds like fun."

He didn't realize it, but he had just joined a select and eclectic group known as Highpointers -- folks whose goal is to stand atop the highest point in each of the United States.

According to the Highpointers Club, only 157 folks have ever stood on the highest ground in all 50 states, the first being John Vincent "Vin" Hoeman who topped out in 1966. Even among the Lower 48 club, the total number of summiters is only 277.

Why climb to the highest point in every state, be it Florida's 345-foot Britton Hill, the lowest of the high, or 14,497-foot Mount Whitney in California?

"It's kind of like any athlete," says Reynolds. "You want to push yourself. You want to see what you can accomplish."

For Reynolds, that push began in October 2004 right here in North Carolina -- when he drove to the gift shop parking lot atop Mount Mitchell, parked and strolled 30 yards or so to the 6,684-foot summit.

And that prompts a clarification about what, precisely, Highpointing is.

"The primary goal of highpointing," says Reynolds, "is not the same goal as hiking. The primary goal is to reach the highest point of each state, and each state has certain approved ways to the summit."

In the case of Mount Mitchell, there's the Mount Mitchell Trail, one of the most challenging hikes in the state, covering 11.2 miles and gaining 3,670 feet of elevation. Or there's the gift shop ascent. Both are sanctioned by the Highpointers Club.

This certainly isn't to suggest that all state summits are a walk in the parking lot.

Working east to west

Reynolds makes clear that his goal is the Lower 48. Jetting to Hawaii to score 13,796-foot Mauna Kea is a bit pricey on a teacher's salary. And Alaska's 20,320-foot Denali, the highest point in North America? Since 1932, 100 climbers have died on the mountain.

Temperatures of 95 degrees below zero have been recorded -- and that's at just 14,500 feet -- and wind gusts have exceeded 150 mph: Climbers have literally been blown off the mountain. Reynolds has no interest in Denali, either.

After bagging Mount Mitchell, Reynolds began summiting in earnest in 2005, with a strategy of working east to west, lowest to highest. Early conquests included the likes of the 448-foot Ebright Azimuth in Delaware (located in a trailer park) and Iowa's 1,670-foot Hawkeye Point, which Reynolds says is "at the end of a pig trough on someone's farm."

Some of the summits have been anticlimactic. Mississippi's 807-foot Woodall Mountain "looks like a big zit in the middle of a field, but very cool." Some have featured artwork: "Mount Sunflower in Kansas has a big sunflower made of railroad spikes." And some don't even require that you get out of the car.

"In Nebraska, there was no hiking," says Reynolds, who is 50 and teaches at Burlington's Eastlawn Elementary School. It was a drive-up." (5,429-foot Panorama Point is along a dirt road a mile from the Colorado border. Watch for buffalo, cautions a commemorative marker.)

In fact, several high points fall into the drive-by category, allowing Reynolds to bag three summits in a day on three occasions: Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas; Mississippi, Alabama and Florida; and Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

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