It's foolish to go peak-bagging in Erie County, but I happened to be there and wondered if there were any unclaimed hilltops or summits to add to my collection.
For my online peak-bagging club, I've bagged 53 previously unclaimed peaks--including this virgin summit on the grounds of a convent...appropriately enough. That's to say, no member of the club had climbed it yet...until I did. But it's hardly a climb at all.
The Mount Saint Benedict Monastery, just east of Erie, has trails through the woodlands on its grounds. But the actual summit of the so-called "Mount Saint Benedict" requires a bushwhack through lots of poison ivy.
The Benedictine Sisters of Erie are a progressive order, and their emphasis is on peace between nations and peoples. There's actually a famous sister living here by the name of Joan Chittister. She's writes inspirational books and supports women's ordination in the Catholic Church as well as the use of birth control. In popular culture, nuns are usually depicted as austere and cruel, but I've never known a nun I didn't like...
It takes a lot of moxie to resist the prescribed dream for an American woman--the husband, the children, the suburban home, the career--and instead choose a life of celibacy and service.
The blue dot is the main monastery complex, and the red summit is the peak of Mount Saint Benedict. At 640 feet above sea level, it's barely any higher than the earth that surrounds it. But one odd thing about nuns: they like to name their convents after mountains--even in places where there are no mountains, like Mt. Mercy (Carlow College, Pittsburgh) and Mount Saint Benedict.
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