So, we entered New Hampshire, the live free or die state, I forgot that I had planned to ask a local what is the meaning of the slogan, well next time.
Right after the entrance we saw a big liquor tax free liquor store, where I loaded up on my personal booze, ice cream. We drove slowly because of the heavy traffic of bostoneers heading north (too many of them), until we went on a smaller country toad leading for the white mountains. We pulled over at a side pizza place, and surprisingly enough, had a soccer game on, I can on the 84th minute of the Spain Paraguay match, and the only goal that game was scored on the 83rd minute…I missed it by 1 minute! I am completely missing this world cup, such a shame.
I got a barbeque chicken pizza, something I recently discover and like a lot, and it was good. We kept going north till we stopped at north Conway, which was our lodging town for this trip. At the pizza place we saw an ad for a Bavarian chocolate haus, and the girls (we were 8 on this trip; with Irma and Debb in our car) really wanted to go, I cannot say no to chocolate, so when we passed by the store, we stopped. The house looks like a cute Bavarian house, the chocolate variety is not that big, but it was good enough. They had a nice sign saying “your husband just called, he said, it’s ok for you to buy whatever you want”. It was getting late, but the sun sets late, so we went to a water fall very close to mt Washington and did a little tiny hike to the falls. I like waterfalls. Then we went back to town to check in and go to dinner(pizza was at 4, chocolate at 6, this was already 8:30, we don’t stop to eat every 2 seconds, but the distances are just never ending…).
Oh, before that, we stopped for another little hike, which were supposed to lead to another waterfall. We got out of the car, put on our hiking shoes, put the stuff against mosquitoes and went in. Alla led the way and less than a minute after the start she jump high, due to a snake on the path just below her feet. The snake probably also screamed, but we couldn’t here, since none of us speak snake. The snake was perhaps 50cm long, tiny without clear marking of being poisonous, but hey, a snake is a snake, you stay away, and we did.
We kept walking another minute and hit a river, and the path ended on the other part, blocked by heavy vegetation. We walked the 2 minutes back, seeing the snake again.
North Conway is a ski town, but this is not ski season, but it is still a very nice small town, though bigger then a small town, it maintained the feel of a small town. We went to an Irish place overlooking the river. In this place all the employees had an Irish accent; I checked, the waitress said that all employees picked up the accent from the Irish owner. I waitress happened to be Polish. After eating Pizza for lunch, I settled for something Irish; a Gaelic Pizza, I don’t recall seeing this dish in Ireland; this Pizza has lots of potatoes in it and was good while all enjoyed a Pear and cheese salad , which looked and tasted better than what it sounds. After 2 days of driving, we crashed to sleep.
After a good simple breakfast at the nice lodge ( large green back yard, leading to a forest, and right there you have a little creek, and a pond in the back yard, a trampoline, tennis court and a hot tub which was closed for the day by the time we checked in) we drove to the mountain, parked, took a deep breath, took a before photo and began to climb.
The 1st leg is a 4 kilometer of mildly steep hike, not easy, but not that hard, with some steep parts, you walk in a forest of birch trees and some other kinds, we kept passing over the Tuckerman river, and it was pretty interesting (it also had some waterfalls). The wind was the story, this mountain was known to have recorded the strongest wind ever of 231mph on the top; today would average 40mph which is high; in the forest we were protected by the trees but we kept hearing the wind howling above us. After a couple of rest stop and lots of photos, we reached the caretaker hut, which marks the end of the “easy” part. We used an old style pump to fill up on water from the pure Tuckerman’s river which flows from the top of the mountain.
3 nights before, it snowed on this peak (which is notorious for changing weather and people getting stuck in freak storms), but today it was 90 at the valley and very nice weather for us due to the clouds, the elevation and the wind.
Right after the hut, it got real steep, literally stairs all the way up, but not regular hiking stairs, but more rocks on top of rocks, with a need for large steps to reach the next one. That was a very tiring effort, but the view of the river, the mountain and the quick moving clouds over the top were remarkable. After a very steep part we hit the tree line and the vegetation changed to bushes and small flowers, all the flowers that grew here, were growing just under rocks as a wind shield. We reached the beginning of a long ravine, which had a large patch of melting snow (yes, snow in July), the river was passing through the patch making it look amazing. At one point while I was busy catching my breath, Alla saw a large chunk of ice breaking. At this area the steps were higher and higher and we had to start suing our hands to climb. I was beginning to cramp, just warning cramps at this time but was getting worried. An older Bostonian couple of about 55 started the hike the same time we did, and we kept passing each other, it didn’t cheer me up J, they happen to have kids studding in the Cleveland area. We finally hit the shoulder of the mountain, and from there it was only 0.8 miles to the summit, not protected by the ravine any more, the winds hit us hard (the wind came in from the other side of the mountain and were not still in full potency, but if you stand up and don’t pay attention, they can topple you over. The hike from here is the hardest; it’s on sharp rocks half the time, and you really have to watch yourself, my right thigh was cramping and was getting out of breath, so I stopped often (once or twice after every step), I am in worse shape than I thought was, the rest of the gang had to wait for us several times. This last part took over an hour of slow slow slow climb, then finally we were there. On the top on mount Washington on 4th of July! The peak of new Hampshire (and the US north east), the hard but definitely accomplishable task was accomplished, 5 hours climb.
The thing with this mountain is that it’s a drivable mountain, there is a train that leads to the top and a road, that came from the other side. So you hike up and you see lots of people, the winds are much stronger and colder at the top, and the temperature was 56f (not including the wind); we walked up to the sign stating the height of the mountain which was swarmed by hikers and regular drive up tourists alike; I thought there should have 2 lines, with express for the hikers, move over car people!.
Lucky this mountain is not empty, there was a cafeteria on top and I had a much need new England clam chowder, which was lame for such a soup (this after all being the highest point in new England), and alla had a chilly was wasn’t very good either, but both were warm and that was the point of them. We got some souvenirs and went to the other side of the mountain, which is unprotected by the winds, and wooooowwww, you cannot even stand there, the winds just kick you back so hard. I quickly went back inside. We took the shuttle down, I don’t think I could have walked down with my cramps, even that was the original plan.
We drove back to town and stopped to gas up the car and the soul (got a Hershey bar and a cold drink), which I badly needed and then we went to the luge.
I did a luge once in Israel, forgot where and it was fun but short, so I wasn’t that excited about it. But this ski resort (no ski now) operates as a kind of water and adventure park. We took the ski cable cars up to where the luge begins and passed just above a family of wild turkey, which I missed getting a shot of. And luged down. The luge is plastic made, and resembles a water slide, but it’s a mile long and feels a lot faster; it sways a lot and I felt like the luge would come out of the slide, but it was fun. With another pick me up ice cream later I was feeling my strength returning. We passed by a ski store which was going out of business (or such that has that sign constantly up) and our cheap vacation became expensive as we both got skis and I also got a pair of ski boots. I got the beginner set, alla got a fancy shmency advanced pair (since well, she knows how to ski).
We went to another lodge which has the look and feel of a hostel (the good hostels), but had private rooms. The owner Steve, is a character; he cooks deserts for some restaurants in town, was very helpful wit directions and advice, discounts and all around a very nice guy- so when in north Conway, stop at the Nereledge inn on river street, ask for Steve.
We had a shower and went to (take a wild guess) eat at the moat, for a chance I didn’t have pizza , and got a lasagna while Alla enjoyed a burger.
This was 4th of july and the town had some events planned with fireworks and other stuff, but we crashed in, didn’t even stop for desertJ
Next morning at 5am we were on the way, its now after 5 pm and we are almost at the Ohio border.
We drove through the famous white mountain road (which should be traveled in the fall), now it’s all green, we saw some more wild turkey but did not see black bear or mouse, both are common in the area. Then drove through Vermont with its little towns (but officially we were never there, drive through does not count) , went through new York state to Albany, and from there, the high way all the way, and this way still goes on…
That’s it for today, and hour to go before we get home.
Cheers
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