Mount Washington

Today I experienced the awe and wonder of the White Mountains and the true beauty and power of nature at it's best.
I travelled up the historical Mt. Washington Cog Railway to the summit of Mount Washington. This is a trip never to be missed. I highly recommend it.
There is the drive up Mt. Washington (where you get a sticker to put on the back of your car to say that your car climbed it) but being a solo traveller and the summit was in the clouds I decided early on to spend a little more (oh yeah, it costs you $25 to drive up) and take the century old cog railway (which was $62 and worth every penny).
What an experience!!
Dressed for the summit, where I knew it would be much colder than the base, I was ready to go exploring.
Wearing shores AND socks, pants, heavy sweater, wind jacket and hat I was prepared for the -4 C wind chill. I'm so glad I had so much on when I reached the summit. There was a 50 mile per hour wind, wind chill and the whole summit was shrouded in fog (cloud??) for the most part but for a few minutes it cleared. What a view! It was truly breathtaking (the temperature helped that too).
Some people didn't think and were wearing really inappropriate clothing for up there and were really feeling it.
I loved every second I was there.
The 50 minute ride up the mountain was at one point on a 35% grade. It was fun to try and stand up during that part of the ride. As I look at my pictures I see that they are all at an angle. I thought I was sitting straight when I took them but the horizon is all askew in all of them.

I'm sitting on the summit, the rails and cog of the railway behind me, the edge of the cloud is above me to the left. The wind was just howling!!!

The cloud is just coming over the summit and the valley below is showing up. I am facing south east towards North Conway where I'm staying. How cool is this????

  Can you believe this?? Above the clouds (actually in them) above the trees, above everything. The mountains in the distance are the Presidential ridge, I believe it's Jefferson, Adams and.....I think my brain froze when I was up there but what an outstanding view.

After an hour at the summit we were transported down the mountain by the cog railway again and it was so strange to come back "down" to the trees and the warmer temperatures.
We started at 2700 feet and the summit is 6299 feet.

It was nearly 4 pm when we completed our journey and I headed off to the Red Parka Pub in the heart of ski country. I had seen it on the way to the cog railway and decided that looked like fun. In side the walls are covered in licence plates, the ceilings and posts with skis and poles and the fence outside is made solely of skis. What a fantastic idea!!!
Little league ball game on the TV (Canada was playing Japan in elimination round) and the food awesome. What a great place! Tucked away in the middle of New Hampshire. Fun!
(oh yeah, Canada lost but played a good game....)

I've had it all in this trip. Sea level and playing in the ocean and now playing on the highest peak in the east. Really something!
The rocks at the ocean were so smooth they felt like velvet and the rocks at the summit of Mt. Washington are rough, jagged and very sharp to the touch.
I've been in the peacefull waters of an inland lake of New Brunswick and the roaring shores of Cape Breton and the gale force winds of the mountain summit.
This has been a great experience. Truly a once in a lifetime thing to do.

New Hampshire has been a fantastic change to everything I've been seeing...

Off to Vermont tomorrow.....