Jack Ash Project – Big Apple Adventure

Highpointer Club Founder Jack Longacre’s wish to have his ashes scattered atop the highest point of each state started auspiciously with his August 14, 2003, arrival in New York City just as the power went off from New York to Michigan to eastern Canada in the biggest power black out in North American history.

Could he get some more rocks for his collection? Who’s taking him to the moon? This is actually a model of the command module that was used in the “Apollo 13” movie. It was part of the Centennial of Flight exhibit in New York’s Rockefeller Center.

The ashes of Jack Longacre in front of the Centennial of Flight exhibit in New York City’s Rockefeller Center. A small model of the Wright Brothers plane is on a manmade sand hill in the foreground. In the background is the Redstone Rocket (actual height) that carried the original Mercury astronauts.

U.S. flags flew around the rink at Rockefeller Center in New York City as Jack arrived in the Big Blackout. Was this to honor Jack after the Club’s Fifty Flags Above America project? You be the judge.

Jack Longacre contemplates the climb to the top of the Empire State Building. You have to climb it. The power is off and the elevators don’t work.

Jack Longacre contemplates the lazy susans display in Rockefeller Center during the blackout..

Jack is always one for understatement. Ironically, the generator powered zipper at Fox News studios in Rockefeller Center put them on the zipper.

With the power off and radios immediately available the only news available was at Fox News Studios in Rockefeller Center where zipper was running on generator power and the newscasters were on the street. In this shot, they actually were focusing on the crowd and the camera actually zoomed in on me taking this shot. (you can see the cameraman in the background). If you were watching Fox News about 6:30 p.m., you saw Jack!

There’s some debate about Jack’s church attending habits. After everything witnessed today, the sunset on St. Patrick’s Cathedral was just the prelude the sights of NYC at night with the Great White Way blacked. We headed home past all the gathering campfires (candles) to light our own and then go out and enjoy the three-quarter moon rise and watch Mars at its closest point in hundreds of years from darkened Times Square.

Jack also visited the Empire State Building, Yankee Stadium, Broadway and the Hamptons

Is that Mars from the Empire State Building on the day (Aug. 27, 2003) that it was closest to earth in 60,000 years? Or was it just a blimp as haze obscured the sky.

Hey, the lights are on at Yankee stadium at the top of the shot above Rockefeller Center. Maybe we should take in a game.

Looking for the Statue of Liberty on the Wall Street and Downtown skyline.

This is a Jack adventure and we had to walk the stairs of course!

Does it count that you’re on top of the Empire State Building if you’re not really at the highpoint?

Jack apparently has accolades on Broadway!

Yankee Stadium looks pretty good from on high.

O.K. the Missouri team (the Kansas City Royals) lost. Is it time to switch hats?

Did you really bring that hat to Yankee Stadium?

It is more relaxing watching sunsets on the beach in East Hampton. This means I will be going from New York’s low point to its high point.

Those who have become very superstitious about the adventures associated with the scatterings will find this the grand finale! Jack’s ashes are scheduled to be scattered on the last state highpoint — New York’s Mount Marcy on Oct. 4. Roger Rowlett, who was at the first scattering in November 2002 in Missouri will lead the group. There’s also some symmetry in that four of the original highpointers were New Yorkers (Don Berens, Clark Hall and Jack and Joyce Parsells).

Snow and ice blew in on the scheduled scattering date. There were no Marcy summits that day. However there was a great sunset even as the storms raged in the mountains.

The season’s first big snow was obvious from Marcy Dam and still raging.

This was the last stop on Jack Longacre’s New York adventure. The plaque on the summit was ice coated. The snow now covered the ice which yesterday made the summit too slick to summit

There’s not much really required in the scattering ceremony. It’s not like you have to stand on your head or anything! Mario Locatelli from Montana did stand on his head though! Mario, who is 70 and from Montana, didn’t know about the scattering. He caught up with me just above Indian Falls. He was to become a 48-state completer the following day on Mount Washington. When Mario caught up, I was hiking alone with Zephyr and was wondering whether I would complete the hike because of the snow. Mario is a mountain goat and in the snow and in personality I swore he was Jack himself! (photo by Stony Burke)