Extra Miler Club - 2010 Update

About a year a ago, I published a post on my association with the Extra Miler Club and progress toward entering each county in the United States, a goal shared by most club members. At the time, I had entered 689 counties, which was actually five less than the accurate count. I forgot to add Hawaii's five counties to the total. Over the course of 2010, I added ninety-two counties to bring my official total to 786 (25% of the total).

[Click image for pdf of entire country - 620kb]

Nearly one-third (30 counties) 0f counties added in 2010 came via a southerly drive home to Michigan from Pennsylvania for the Fourth of July holiday. I only have three counties left to complete Ohio. I added nearly as many counties (29) on a autumn trip to West Virginia. The least number I added on any single trip was one: Suffolk County in New York. It lies on eastern end of Long Island and is rated the 32nd most difficult to reach by people who rate such things. I even added one county, Atlantic in New Jersey, riding my bike. It's probably the last time I'll make that claim. The nearest missing county to me now is Tioga, 160 miles away in Upstate New York.

As planned I finished two states--Maryland & New Jersey-- to bring my completed states total to seven.

National Park Units

According the National Park Service, they administer 393 unit within the park system. It can be a little fuzzy what constitutes a unit at times. Great Sand Dunes Park and Preserve seems to count as two separate units whereas Jamestown, Yorktown and Cape Henry Memorial appear separate parts of the Colonial National Historical Park. I took to inventorying the parks I have visited in my life. Undoubtedly, the first I ever saw is Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore west of Michigan City Indiana, though I certainly can't recall the date. Since then I've visited ninety-five (plus or minus) of the units, approximately one-quarter of them.

National Parks are much more distinct. Fifty-Eight of the park service's charges are officially designated National Parks. I've visited both the oldest (Yellowstone) and newest (Great Sand Dunes). The first park I stepped foot in was Everglades on spring break trip with my brothers is 1998. Since then I've added another nineteen to my list.

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