Mt Washington
(New Hampshire state high point)

9 Jun 2005 - by Aaron Schuman

Cynthia and I were driving Down East to visit Aunt Betty in Bah Hahbah (see ../2003/1050.html ), and Mount Washington was right there, so we paid the $25 toll and drove the rental car up the steep, narrow, windy auto road to the 6288' summit.

It was my 2nd state high point in two weeks, after Boundary Peak, my 5th overall (NY/CA/OR/NV/NH), and Cynthia's 1st and probably last ever.

The guardian of the gate gave me a bumper sticker that says "This cah climbed Mt Washington". I couldn't plaster it to the rental car. Do you think it would be wrong to glue it to my 1988 Honda Civic, the car that coughs when I drive it up city streets to Steve's house?

click to enlarge Aaron-MtWashington.jpg

Arun Mahajan replies:

I never drove that road on Mt Washington. There is also the cog railway, kind of cool, from the technology standpoint. They claim to burn only anthracite. But what a zoo it is at the top.

Did you get the sticker 'This Car Climbed Mt Washington'? After hiking to the top the first time, I bought a t-shirt there which read 'This Body climbed Mt Washington'.

Another nice aspect of hiking Mt Washington via the Ammonoosuc Ravine is that you go past the aptly named, Lakes of The Clouds Hut maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club and which is on the saddle between Washington and Monroe. Good place to stop and get some hot soup and perhaps to buy the hut-logo t-shirt too! Over my 4-yr stay in Masachussetts, I hiked to the top of all the 48 peaks over 4000ft in NH and also stopped by every hut (and bought a t-shirt from every one of them). You get a nice certificate from the 4000-footer club for this achievement. I always wondered if I was the first person of Indian origin to complete this list.


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