Mount Washington

Thursday morning we drove to Mount Washington in New Hampshire. It is the tallest mountain in the Northeast at 6288 feet per our map. You have four options of getting to the top of the mountain (driving your personal vehicle, riding the cog train, hiking, or taking a tour van). Since the road is very narrow, they would not allow any vehicle larger than a standard pickup so we opted for the tour van. We had a very knowledgeable and experienced guide. He had been doing this for 25 years. He managed to squeeze by cars coming the opposite direction while we hung to the edge of the mountain. We saw some beautiful views. As we ascended the vegetation changed from deciduous trees, coniferous trees to tundra. It was windy and cold on top (48 degrees with wind chill about 40 degrees). Clouds were coming in while we were there, but we had a very clear view of the Atlantic ocean, Canada and the Green Mountains of Vermont. Due to cloud cover we were not able to see New York. They have a weather station year round on top. In the winter even though it snows the wind blows the snow away but leaves a thick coating of ice on top of the mountain. The weathermen work a 7 day on/off shift and ride a snow cat up and down the mountain. The Appalachian trail goes up and over the mountain. The trails are easy to follow in the lower levels where there are trees growing, but in the tundra particularly in the winter when snow is on the ground the trail is very hard to follow. They have devised a way to mark the trail with stacked stones so the markers won't be blown away. There is an old stone hotel that people used years ago on the top. It is open to view by the public. There were numerous hotels built on top, but they all were blown away. This one is made of stone and still remains. Allan saw the cog train arriving on top which he got pictures on his camera, to be developed later. At the base of the mountain we visited a museum of old transportation vehicles from the past that were used in climbing Mount Washington.

We drove the Kancamagus highway and stopped along the way to see several waterfalls. Sabbaday Falls was an easy walk for me and very pretty. We stopped and watch younger kids play in the Swift River.

We found our cabin that we had rented which was in Lincoln, NH. It was small but very adequate for us. Had a bed, bath, couch, table and chairs, small refrigerator and microwave and TV. What more could you want? We heated a vegetarian lasagna in the microwave that I had prepared the night before. I was looking forward to watching some TV since we don't have it here in our campground, but found I became very bored with each change of the channel. We went for a short ride after dark looking for a moose, but only found one in the campground which we got a picture of. Sorry but no picture of a real moose yet. There was a deck in the back which overlooked a creek. The sound of a babbling brook through the windows lulled us to sleep. More adventures to look forward to in the morning.