Early morning came……… EARLY! We had reservations for the Mount Washington Cog Train at 8:30 am.
Mount Washington is the highest peak in New Hampshire at 6,288’. You can either drive up or ride the cog train. We decided to take the train.
The cog trains are in their 152nd season climbing to the top of New England. The track has inclines as much as 37 degrees. They have both steam and diesel locomotives. Its track is straight up the mountain. It takes 1 hour to climb at a speed of 3-4 mph. The Cog train has these large cogs that pull the train up the track. There were 5 cogs on our train. The steam engine then uses air pressure instead of steam coming down the mountain. There is a brakeman inside of passenger train to keep the train from pushing the locomotive down the mountain.
Once we got to the summit the fog cover was so heavy it was hard to see anything.
They claim to have the worst weather in the world in Mount Washington. There have been lots of deaths on the mountain. The highest recorded wind speed was 231 mph. Part of the Appalachian Trail runs up Mount Washington. The trail is the very first trail in America. It was first laid out in 1819.
Our next adventure was back across Vermont. Weston, Vermont is home to the original Vermont Country Store.
The store is very large. It’s 3 buildings to make 1 big store. Our day concluded with driving to Springfield, Massachusetts.
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