Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Hiking in the White Mountains in New Hampshire (pictures added later)

Today Tristan and I had our first full day of hiking. Initially it was predicted to be rainy and drizzley, but upon getting up we determined it was going to be rainfree for the first part of the day so got ready for hiking quickly.

We headed up to Bretton Woods for some coffee and treats then to the Amnousuc Ravine Trail to hike to the falls. But it was sunny and clear!!! So Tristan and I revised our strategy and decided I should take the Cog Railway to the top of Mt Washington, while he hike up the Amnousuc Trail to the summit (or to the falls/gem pool if the weather turned worse). I have never taken the cog railway and really enjoyed it! It was easy, not to fear inducing and the views were beautiful. Upon getting to the top I wandered around a bit and even did a few "laps" in the parking lot going from the Tuckerman Ravine trailhead to the summit. I also took a bunch of pictures because it would be sunny and clear sky then clouds would come in and visibility would be mere feet! We had only 1 hour on the summit and this hour went fast. As I was standing on line for my return train I was pleasantly suprised to see Tristan who had come up behind me to give me a hug. He is lucky he did not get punched:-) I had only about 2 minutes before my train left, so we took a few rushed pictures then I got on my train and headed down the mountain.

After I returned to the base of the mountain, I started hiking up the Amnousuc Ravine Trail to meet up with Tristan. At the lower falls we ran into each other. Overall my hike up wasn't too bad, although I was still a bit tired from Sunday and my hamstrings were a bit sore. The views going up the trail were spectacular and we were so lucky it continued to be sunny or at least fairly bright until 3:30 when we returned to the car.

Stopping at the Wiley House for the best Clam Chowder ever it started raining. But we both had gotten a full days activities before this so it was okay.

I will post pictures later...it is just the internet connection is a bit iffy. Also I will post my VT50 race report later. I am still working on it and hope I will have it finished (complete with pictures in the next few days). In fact if it would rain more on our vacation, I would be more productive posting because when it is nice we are trying to cram as much activity as possible into our day!

1 comment:

joyRuN said...

Enjoy the gorgeous weather! Why post when you can be outdoors??!