Portland, Maine

Having come to the end of our stay in New Hampshire, we headed east this morning to the coast of Maine, just south of Portland. The weather having finally turned, we decided for dry and effortless sightseeing - a "Land and Sea" tour which comprised a trolley tour of Portland with a visit to Portland Head Light (Maine's first lighthouse) followed by a boat tour through the harbour and Casco Bay to see the various lighthouses from the water.

A bonus sighting were a large number of eider ducks and their ducklings. Sadly not too easy to photograph.

The day after the mountain before

Woke up this morning with a severe case of "Mt Washington legs" - getting out of bed and down the spiral iron staircase of our cabin was a challenge indeed.

In the interests of limbering up a little, and making the most of our last day in New Hampshire we found a small hike up Mt Willard - a straight up and back to a cliff ledge overlooking the Crawford Notch valley.

The hike to the cliff edge was fairly unremarkable - a small river crossing at the start, and then a path up through the woods at an unchanging gradient. Unlike the solitude of our Mt Washington hike, there was quite a lot of traffic on the route, including a couple groups of teenagers.
Fortunately, when we reached the top, we were able to enjoy the peace and quiet for about 5 minutes before the ledge was overrun by the first group.

Sitting up on the ledge we had a fine view down into the valley, and also backward over to Mt Washington. As we sat, we could see the clouds coming in and shrouding the weather masts on the summit.

Once we returned to the cabin, we had a relaxing afternoon sitting in our "back garden" playing scrabble, writing postcards, reading and snoozing. In the evening we lit our second campfire - a challenge as it rained on and off the whole evening. Eventually we managed to get it burning and dinner was a success, albeit a little damp.

Trail Length: 2.9mi (4.7km)
Elevation Gain: 980ft (300m)

Google Earth file for our White Mountain Hikes

What goes up Mt Washington, must come down

...but sadly, not on the Cog Railway, a curious-looking beast whose boiler is at a funny slant to enable it to get up the hill (the phrase "I think I can, I think I can..." springs to mind).

Having climbed Mt Washington, we had a discussion in the cafe about whether we should take the railway back down or hike. In the end, the issue was settled for us when we noticed the gift shop closing up and realised that in fact the last train service of the day had just left.

Resigned to our fate, we had a chat with the Park Ranger and found out the best route for our descent - the Jewell Trail.

Crossing over the train lines (reassuring to know that we could outrun this train easily!) we headed along the Gulfside Trail which took us along the edge of a beautiful cliffside until we met the Jewell Trail.


Very quickly it became clear that the way down was also not going to be easy going. Not only was the trail fairly steep, but we had to step from rock to rock like mountain goats. This seemed to suit Darby, whose Norwegian heritage surely showed through here, but I can't say that Fiona or I found it much fun and we took things at a rather more knee-friendly pace. Once we hit the tree line it looked as though we had a nice clear trail marked through the trees, but sad to relate, more rocks to climb over, spiced up with a return of the snow to slither down.

After a long set of switchbacks near the end of the trail we finally reached a small bridge which crossed over the river to the other side of the ravine. The familiar smell of steam engine began to reach us as we approached the base station of the cog railway and finally emerged from the trees. We watched the sun slowly set as we walked the final half mile back to the car park.

Trail length: 9.5mi (15.3km)

Elevation gain: 3937ft (1200m)


Google Earth file for our White Mountain Hikes.

In which we climb up Mt Washington

Happy Birthday Darby!

After celebrating Darby's birthday with the cupcakes we had brought with us, it was time to get down to the main business of the day - a hike up Mt Washington, the tallest mountain in the north eastern US, known less for its gorgeous views than the fact that is has what is considered to be the worst weather in the States. Although the mountain is equipped with its very own cog railway up to the summit, we were determined to earn our views the hard way.

Although we didn't know it at the time, the mountain was a very appropriate choice for Darby's birthday as it was first scaled in 1642 by someone named Darby Field, thought to be have been born in Boston, England.

There are a number of routes up the mountain, and we had initially planned to take the Tuckerman Ravine route, but after consultation with the owners of the campground changed our route to follow the Ammonoosuc Ravine. This turned out to be a better idea than we first realised as we heard once we reached the top that the Tuckerman Ravine route had been closed.

The first part of the trail up to the Gem Pool was hardly more than a gentle stroll, the only slight challenge being a couple river crossings and a few patches of snow along the way. Very excited by the snow, we stopped to photograph every patch, little knowing that further up the trail we would see far more snow than we could have ever bargained for.

Once we left crossed the Gem Pool, life got harder very quickly as we hit a stairway of rocks. Ready for a breather, we were pleased to see a couple heading downwards and stopped for a chat. Worryingly, they told us that they had planned to walk to the summt but had been stopped a little further up due to difficult river crossing. As they turned out to be regulars on the route, this was a little concerning, but we decided to carry on and see what we found. Worse yet, after continuing a little while we saw someone else coming down towards us - an extremely well-equipped looking guy who had passed us earlier. He also had turned back because he was concerned about getting through the snow just beyond the river crossing. Apparently not someone to take life easy, he was planning to go back down to the trailhead and find himself another mountain to climb! Despite being a little daunted by all the experienced looking hikers giving up we were determined not to quit so easily, and deciding we had both numbers and youth on our side, decided to continue.

The next section was pretty hard work, every time we thought we were clear we hit another patch of snow which, given the steep gradient, was tough to clamber up. Still, the occasional view we had, when the trees thinned a little, was superb. Finally the path evened out a little and we emerged from the obvious trail into a more open area, thinly scatter wereed with trees. Now a challenge - where on earth did the trail lead? Blue markers, which had been reassuring us so far, were woefully absent. We looked valiently for footprints through the snow, but it seemed that no-one else had got this far. Just as we were starting to think we might have no option other than turning back (really not a pleasant thought!), we heard voices. After waiting a couple minutes, a group of people slowly emerged from the trees, looking expectantly up at us, as if we had all the answers. Between us we managed to find a blue marker and carried on as a large group through the trees and finally, up to the Lake of the Clouds Hut, our first major landmark after the Gem Pool. Now the summit was finally in sight, although there still remained a good climb ahead of us.

The final part of our ascent had the great advantage of being above the treeline, so we could see our target as we slowly climbed. The downside to the open landscape, though, was a brutal wind which caused my eyes to stream constantly. We were very quickly glad of our fleeces, despite the sunny day. Not for nothing is New Hampshire called "The Granite State" - the last part of the hike up to the summit is nothing but rocks.

An hour or so after leaving the Lake of the Clouds, we reached the summit and, extremely windswept, clambered up the last pile of rocks to be photographed at the summit. Sadly my hat wasn't able to withstand the strong winds, and rescuing it a couple times, I finally lost it out of my pocket! Our hard work was rewarded - for once the summit wasn't eveloped in cloud, and we were able to enjoy the fantastic views. Flushed with our success, we smirked at the people climbing out of the steam train which had just reached the top and rushed to the cafe to beat the queue for a well-earned cup of tea.

Camping USA

OK, so we weren't sleeping in tents, but we still considered that a campfire was a vital part of our camping experience. Despite some trouble with the wind, and the fact that none of us have a lot of experience building fires, we managed to get a good fire going so that we could try our hands at cooking some traditional campfire food.

First up were the hot dogs - a roaring success, even though we left the mustard at home. Then the s'mores - melted marshmallows, squashed with Hershey's chocolate between Graham crackers. - much amusement due to my inability to cook a marshmallow without setting it alight at least twice.

Crawford Notch - Arethusa Falls

After a couple days in Boston, it was time to hit the road and travel up to New Hampshire to do some hiking. We rented a cabin on a campsite in the White Mountains for 3 days, and were all set to tackle the local mountains. Before we could head off though, we had some serious cupcake baking to do in preparation for Darby's birthday.

Arriving mid-afternoon, our first target is the Arethusa Falls, along the Frankenstein Cliff Trail (no clue what the monster connection is). Despite the overgrown greenery, and the fairly steep incline we made reasonable progress to the first lookout point, where we had a fantastic view out into the valley.

Continuing on towards the falls we met a family with two young children (particularly impressed by the fact that the parent were hiking this trail with their children on their backs!) who warned us that they had heard a mountain lion roaring further along the trail. Despite their cautions, we were determined to carry on, but in the interests of keeping any cougars at bay we managed to sing continually for the remaining two hours of the trip. With a repertoire ranging from nursery rhymes to church music and musicals, we succeeded in scaring off any passing wildlife, and made it through to the falls unscathed.


Trail length: 5mi (8km)
Elevation Gain: 1395ft (425m)

Google Earth file for our White Mountain Hikes.

Cheers!

After a hard day (!) walking the Freedom Trail, it was time to visit another historic Boston landmark - the inspiration for the Cheers Bar.

You may doubt it, looking at my photo, but this really was my first beer of the evening!

Note the trendy Boston sweatshirts which became a necessity when the temperature plummeted in the afternoon.