5000 feet of elevation change in 8 miles to the top of Mt.Washington.   The poor Miata was just panting.  We actually had to stop and let the engine cool a couple times on the way up.   We made it up and back down safely.

At the top, the view was spectacular.  It was a clear bright day and we could see over 100 miles to mountains inMaineandVermont.  Occasionally clouds floated by below us and cast cool shadows on the peaks all around us.  We are actually among the Presidential Peaks of the White Mountains.   Fantastic country but amazingly heavily trafficked by hikers given how rough the terrain is.  It’s a place for great views and amazing geology but not a place for solitary contemplation of nature.   We hiked a section of the summit trail and met or passed at least forty hikers in a couple hours.   Trails crisscross the peaks.  From high atop MtWashingtonwe saw people on nearly every trail and this isn’t even peak season for them.  Just too close to all the big east coast cities I guess.

We are nursing our sore feet a bit after today’s walk.  It was all boulder scrambling over mixed size, sharp cornered, irregularly shaped boulders laying on about a 20% plus grade with a few loose ones thrown in.  I watched my feet every step and had some choice words for my bifocals.  They are a pain on this terrain.  We were above tree line.  The plant life in the alpine zone is so amazing.  They regularly get hurricane force winds up here.  They claim the highest winds ever measured on land, 231 mph.  I don’t know how these little plants hang on.  The windchill today was a balmy 33F thanks to a calm-for-up-here 20 mph wind.