We left the campground and caravaned to the train station. We had enough people to fill a rail car, so we had our own private coach. The train travels about six miles per hour and it's about three miles to the top of the mountain. The steepest part of the climb is called Jacob's Ladder, a grade of about 37%. It was fun standing up in the car when on such a steep grade. I don't think you get the same optical illusion from the pictures that you do when you're on the train.
It was 26 degrees with 38mph winds and a 7 degree wind-chill. Cold, cold, cold after leaving mid 50's at the campground. We were on top for about an hour, part of which was spent drinking hot chocolate and eating some hot food in the restaurant. The return trip was more of the same with periods of dense fog offset by beautiful vistas.
An interesting note: The engine is in NO WAY CONNECTED to the passenger car! See the picture of the roller against a pad. The engine is always os the downhill side of the passenger car. It pushes the car up the mountain and simply regulates the speed going down the mountain. If the brakeman in the car should apply the brakes while going down the mountain, the engine would pull away from the car!
Hope you enjoy the pictures.
Very little rain last night, but some pretty heavy wind gusts. Got up about 7:00 this morning and had a shower and some breakfast. Got in a bit of visiting before the clouds opened up at about 10:30. The forecast is for 2 - 4 inches of rain today, tapering off tonight. Tomorrow and Sunday are supposed to be clear. That will make tomorrow's cog train trip to the summit of Mt. Washington more enjoyable. Seems like it was foggy and rainy for every guided tour we took in Alaska. It would be nice to have clear weather tomorrow.
Someone drove a stick into the river bed at the water's edge last night. By this morning, the water level had dropped about a foot. We'll see where it is after today's rain. There were bear tracks along the river yesterday, but they're gone now. There are definitely bears in the area. Moose too!
As I mentioned yesterday, the group camping area where we are camped is in a grassy area along the edge of the woods. There are five utility huts spaced out along the woods (see picture). Stored inside the hut are eight long 50 amp cables and a couple of extensions. Each cable plugs into the electrical outlets on the outside of the hut. The other end of the cable is connected to the camper to supply its electrical power. There are water spigots there for a hose connection to each camper. Each hut can supply eight campers. Pretty slick!
So, here it is, 10:55am. Marsha is reading her book and I'm typing this blog entry. If it gets more exciting, I'll let you know.
It's now 7:33pm. We just finished our catered dinner. It rained all day. Did a little visiting; drank a little beer; took a few pictures. The road to the Mt. Washington Cog Railway Station washed out during the rain today, so we have to use some kind of "access road" to get there tomorrow. Hopefully, tomorrow's pictures will be more interesting.
Rained all day. Drove 230 miles today. No pictures. Got to the campground about 2:30 and set up between showers. We're camped up against the woods in a grassy area. I'll post some pictures tomorrow with an explanation of how the hook-ups work. Pretty neat for group camping.
The Saco and Ellis rivers converge in the woods about 100 yards from where we're camped. They've had a lot of rain here in the last few days and both rivers are running fast & high. Hope they stay in their banks with more rain forecast for tomorrow.
More later.
