Pretty, Cold Mountains

Saturday dawned bright and beautiful. We slept in a bit - the 3 hour time difference had been hard on my sleep schedule. We had reservations for the Mt. Washington Cog Train at 3 and as heavy as traffic had been the day before, we figured that was about all we would be able to do.

It was amazing the difference a little rain made. All the colors seemed brighter, like they had "popped" overnight. We stopped at the Willey House lake for a couple of scenery shots.Traffic wasn't as bad as we'd expected, so we got to the railroad depot with time to spare for lunch and a few flower shots. The Mt. Washington Cog Train was the first mountain climbing railway ever built - in 1869 - and is still one of the longest mountain tracks, with the steepest grade - 37.5 degrees. It climbs 37 feet for every 100 feet forward (for comparison, the steepest roads are less than 15 degrees). The engines are coal powered and they're dirty. Great billowing clouds of steam and smoke followed our ascent up the 6288 foot mountain at the grand speed of 4 miles per hour. According to our brakeman/tour guide, the coal is shoveled into the engine's furnace at the rate of one scoop every 20 seconds - all the way up the mountain. Not a job I'd want.

Mt. Washington summit is said to have the "worst weather in the world"; conditions change constantly and winds have been clocked at 200 mph. We spent 20 minutes at the top, only about 5 of them outdoors. The views were spectacular but it was **cold** with winds blowing well over 30 mph. Dick and I tried to walk up the slope to take pictures but I gave up and let the wind blow me back to cafe for some hot chocolate.

The train ride is about 3 hours, up and back, and costs around $60 for adults. Worth it? Nope. We were disappointed in the lack of scenery or animals - the smoke and noise from the five trains running up the mountain every hour, on the hour aren't conducive to a nature-friendly environment. We'll try some of the other train trips, on flatter ground, next time we visit.