30 Sept 2023
Last night was rough. The place we’re staying at has been newly renovated and has fast internet that Matt’s loving, but the beds… they’re strangely rounded on the edges so if you got too close to the edge, it felt like the bed was trying to roll you off and the pillow are all seriously puffy. Usually that’s not a bad thing, but none of them compress and we both prefer something a bit flatter. Needless to say, neither of us slept well last night and the morning alarm, which was already going off quite early, came entirely too soon.
Today, we are riding a train up to the top of Mount Washington. You can drive it, or hike it, but we thought that a train sounded like fun, even if it was a bit of a splurge.
It was pretty foggy for our drive over to the railway:
I was a little worried what the views from the top of the mountain would be- Mount Washington is notoriously unpredictable, but the clouds and fog started lifting while we waited for our train. This is the beginning of the track; you can see the steam train already partway up the mountain:
This is our train:
It is one of 7 bio-diesel engines used to push the railcars up the mountain:
This is the cog system that allows the cars to climb the mountain:
The engine and the car each have their own braking system, should they need to stop.
Seating is assigned, so I picked us some prime spots at the front of the train:
And we’re off!
We were the 2nd car to leave the station, but they space the cars out so we won’t always be looking at the backside of that train. Maximum train speed: 5mph.
Waumbek Station (at 3800′) is a switch station that allows 2 trains to pass:
In the winter, this is as far as trains run- visibility in the gorge is typically better in the winter, so that little building behind the red engine serves hot cocoa and lets people enjoy the views. I think you can ski back down (or at least you used to be able to). The steam engine refills at the tank here as well.
Our guide, Tom, was super-informative (though I should have taken notes because I can’t remember all of what he told us), but one thing he mentioned was the changing tree line- here, at about 3-4,000 feet, we are entering the boreal forest, where hardwoods like maple, birch and ash are replaced with pine:
The pines get more scrubbly and stunted as you climb in elevation until you hit the alpine zone at about 4500 feet.
This is Jacob’s Ladder, the steepest part of the rail, which rises at about 37% grade!
It’s kinda hard to demonstrate, but I’m standing upright here:
The benches are all angled down, so as the train climbs, you’re sitting mostly flat:
AND the seat back flips for the return trip down!
It’s a bit hard to see, but around the rim of that nearest peak is the Appalachian trail:
The trail crosses the track, and we saw several hikers on our trip up:
Welcome to Mount Washington!
Our trains went back down to pick up more people; there’s another set on their way up that will take us back down. The trip is about 45 minutes each way and trips run every hour, so we have a little over an hour to explore the summit.
First stop, an obligatory picture with the summit sign:
Survey marker:
Unofficial cairn:
We packed layers and bundled up, expecting gusty winds and cool temperatures, but it was an uncharacteristically nice day- 50s and just a light breeze at 5-6 mph!
There was a bit of haze from the wildfires, but we could see much further than I expected we’d be able to:
Pano from the observation deck:
I didn’t know it at the time, but there’s a camera on the observation deck that streams a live feed of the summit conditions and I found us on it!
Looking south-southwest:
The wind picked up a bit toward the end of our stay:
The highest wind gust ever recorded here was 231mph back in 1934! The main summit building is made to withstand gusts of up to 300mph; other structures are chained down:
Time to head back down:
Our awesome front row seat became a back row seat with that awesome viewing window right behind us!
Another train following us down:
Looking down into the gorge:
There’s a trail running parallel to the track for hikers to use and they’ve recently started a race, where runners race a train up to the summit (2.75 miles with a 3500 foot elevation gain). The fastest train time: 37min; fastest runner time: 38min.
Train coming into the station:
The steam engine only makes a few trips each day, but it was getting ready to make another run we we got back to the station, so I figured we should wait and watch it:
The trains are all so colorful!
The Ammonoosuc River runs under the first bridge:
Steam engine!
Letting off steam:
Farewell!
I contemplated booking us on the steam engine but 1) it makes limited trips and they were all sold out and 2) it spews smoke which sounded like a messy ride. The diesel option was much cleaner.
Old trains:
This is how workers got down from the summit back in the day:
The summit to station record: 2 min 37 sec 🙂
Farewell, Cog Railway!
Hello, ice cream!
I had spotted this fun sounding shop while plotting out today’s course and it sounded like a tasty lunch! Super Secret Ice Cream makes small batch ice creams in fun flavors with local ingredient AND you can get them as a flight:
(they’re also generous with samples if you want to try anything so I tried the Cold Brew Coffee, because I knew Matt wouldn’t want it in our flight, and it had a great coffee flavor).
Our flavors, from red guy on the right clockwise: Sweetberry Honeysuckle, Caramel Apple Cider, Campfire S’mores, Blueberry Chip, Bourbon Apple Crisp and Honeycomb.
| Flavor | Opinion |
| Sweetberry Honeysuckle | Like eating a plant! A slightly tart sherberty-sorbet that reminded me a bit of raspberries- we both liked this one |
| Caramel Apple Cider | This one was too sweet for me but Matt liked the smoothness |
| Campfire S’mores | Matt wasn’t a fan of the cinnamon-y base, but I liked the graham crackers and occasional marshmallow |
| Blueberry Chip | Like eating frozen blueberries! but it also had chocolate chips and those were not a welcome edition |
| Bourbon Apple Crisp | Like a blended apple crisp ala mode- I liked the chunks of apple and crumble, but Matt wasn’t a fan of the textures |
| Honeycomb | Super creamy and super sweet, tasted a bit like caramel- Matt liked this one, it wasn’t my favorite |
No, we did not intentionally match today
Yup, definitely a good lunch! And good fuel to power us through our next hike!
But first, a quick detour…
If I was an old dude, I’d totally take a picture next to this sign
All of New Hampshire’s road signs have a face along the side- apparently, it’s supposed to be the Old Man of the Mountain, a rock formation that collapsed in 2003, but they’ve put up these posts:
And if you stand behind one and line it up just right, you can see where the face used to be:
Unrelated, I found a rhino:
But, today’s main hike a bit further down the road in Franconia Notch State Park:
The Falling Waters trail is a very popular part of a larger loop- the first parking lot we tried was full, so we had to loop around a try another lot (which worked out better as it was closer to the trailhead). There’s also a shuttle that runs to some of the further lots if you can’t find parking. A ranger at the trailhead asked us our plans, as it was too late in the day to start the loop. This tree also judged us a bit:
Off to hunt some waterfalls!
We had been warned of water crossings, so here’s Matt, crossing the first and tamest of our streams:
A waterfall!
There are 3 main waterfalls along this path; these first couple are just bonus falls:
Stair Falls:
Swiftwater Falls:
The crossing here was a bit questionable, and the path up to the next Fall looked to be a scramble up some rocks (which meant a scramble back down, which I didn’t really want to do with my camera), so we turned around here.
I was a bit bummed that we missed out on the last fall, so I found us one more hike before we called it a day:
This is Sabbaday Falls:
It’s an easy, 0.5 mile, graded path with great views of the falls. It’s also popular (there was a tour bus here when we arrived), but with some patience and creative framing, I was able to crop the people out of my pictures.
(except for us, of course!)
We had made sandwiches before this hike, but other than that and the ice cream for lunch, we realized we hadn’t really eaten much today, but we were also ready to just be done, so we searched for food near our hotel and found Joseph’s Spaghetti Shed:
It got good reviews online and the name was just silly enough we had to try it! I ordered lasagna, Matt got chicken Alfredo and both of our meals came with “warm bread”. I assumed it would be a slab or two, pre-cut, but no, they gave us an entire loaf of bread!
Seriously one of the best meals I’ve had in a while- home cooked, chunks of fresh veggies (I spotted a growing light with basil and tomatoes and other herbs, which I’m assuming get used in their sauces). And it was definitely a local spot- the owner seemed to know several of the people who stopped in; there were about 6-8 orders in front of us, and several groups came in after us- a popular spot for sure.
And tonight, since our room has 2 beds, we’re each taking one so we can sleep in the middle and not feel like we’re falling out, and so we can each have a comforter to turn into a pillow and hopefully sleep a bit more comfortably!