Mt. Washington and My Veteran

A few weeks ago we took a day off of work and headed up to Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.  It is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288 ft but is most known for it's dangerous ever changing weather.  The Mountain has claimed many lives (even a couple a few weeks before we were there) due to the sudden changes of weather, high wind speeds, and the rough terrain.  There is an Observatory at the top that records all the extreme weather.  The day we spent there was beautiful, surprisingly, because it was already September!  There was hardly any wind and I really didn't even need a coat.

I've never climbed the Mountain (yet) but this was Ryan's fourth time hiking up it.  This time he was on a mission though; to climb it in less than 2 hours.  I'm not sure of the official record but we think it's around one hour and fifteen minutes.

Ryan officially climbed up the Tuckerman's Ravine in 2 hours and 2 minutes!

The Cog Railway is something I would love to come back and do. 

 It's an hour long ride up the opposite side of the mountain

Even though I didn't climb with Ryan I still got to the top via the Auto Road.  This was really intense for me.  I dropped Ryan off at the base of the trail and told him I would meet him up there.  I wasn't planning on driving up but had planned to take the train up.  Well, we found out that the train was on the opposite side of the Mountain than the trail head so it wasn't feasible for me to drive an hour to the other side.  I panicked a little, prayed a lot and then just got in the line to drive up.  I refused to look over the edge or even out my window driving up.  I only looked at the road in front of me.   I was having nervous flashbacks to this scary road in AZ.  My method worked for me and I made it up. 

The picture below is the windy road up.

This is the gravel part of the road.  Complete drop off! and yes it's a two lane road so you do have to be all the way over to the edge on the way down.  Thankfully we drove down after they stopped letting cars up that day so I had the road to myself.

I'm so proud of Ryan for more than just his ability to conquer mountains but also for serving in the United States Navy for nine years.  I've seen the sacrifices he's made because of his service and I feel like a thank you once a year will never be enough.

Thank you to all the veterans out there!

More of our hikes around New England:

Lion's Head, Salisbury, CT

Bear Mountain, CT

Lantern Hill, CT

Bluff Point State Park, CT

Napatree Point, RI

xo

Erin