Tug and Pull, i.e. the Descent

 On the way down, the sun came out, and sweeping vistas dominated.  Our brakeman let us know that the locomotive taking our car down might have to do a little "tug and pull," to get us going, and said "get ready for the tug and pull," "you can't be standing up for the tug and pull" and I laughed a lot because I am a sad person with a juvenile sense of humor.  Tug and pull. Heh. The brakeman also continued to advise us to buy shit in the gift shop and eat some bad pizza, and also to buy the souvenir photo taken by the "cogarazzi" as our trip commenced.  Lizzie and I were both annoyed at the cogarazzi joke which we thought our brakeman had made up, but no, oh no, it is the real name of the overpriced photo company.  Lizzie and I both bought one. 

Mt. Washington Cog Railway Review:  A+ for gorgeous scenery.  A+ for trains, trains are fun. D- for capitalism.  C+ for puns.  A+ for the tug and pull.  Would ride again.

Mt. Washington Summit

WE MADE IT.  After a very challenging climb down three stairs, we made it to the summit, asked the guy manning the visitor's station a question, but he was super rude so being the intrepid explorers we are, we made our own way through the fog to the actual summit.  And dear lord.  There was a line to the actual summit, and it wasn't super long but there was this family of about 10 people who mistook the summit for an America's next top model photoshoot, and one woman was screaming instructions at the other people (OPEN UR EYES.  MOVE UR HIP UP ONE INCH AND TO THE LEFT) and ate up way too much time while the rest of us fought the urge to hurl them off the mountaintop in a sacrifice to whatever gods might be listening.  We were surrounded by misty clouds, and it was cold (who knew) and maybe the flip flops we were wearing were a mistake (a pre-teen lectured me about this for about 5 minutes as we climbed down the rocky slope.  THANKS MOM.  I GET IT.) but it was most excellent, and I'm so glad we didn't have to hike down.  Mt. Washington is on the Appalachian trail, and there's about 300 miles from Mt. Washington to the end of the trail, and we saw some pretty exhausted but excited hikers. 

XTREME WINDGUSTS

 This here is "Jacob's Ladder," where the trestle reaches it's steepest point.  Also, did you know that Mount Washington is subject to XTREME weather?  (FINALLY WEATHER FOR MY GENERATION).  (Actually, our brakeman told us he was XTREME and would like to ride the devil's shingle and we were like lol ok Eli you do you.)  Well because of the XTREME weather, (the highest windspeed not involved in a cycle was recorded here at 231 mph) the treeline ends about 5000 feet below where the treelines end on most mountains.  Weak-ass trees.

Mount Washington Cog Railway

Hi!  It's been a while!  So Lizzie and I had big plans to do a state trip to South Carolina and Georgia in early June, but all sorts of things went wrong, including delayed flights and mechanical issues on flights and rain and oh did I mention that my garbage boyfriend broke up with me via text message so when we finally did get there all I did was cry and watch bad TLC for two days (though I did get a tan, which is challenging for those of Irish descent--someone called me a "daywalker" which I think is a zombie reference?  Either way I'm in).  It was enjoyable for everyone and LIFE IS A RICH TAPESTRY.  In any case, Lizzie took me up to Mount Washington for my birthday, yay!  Neither of us had ever been to the summit (highest in the Northeastern US, 6288') so we went up the Cog Railway, which was built from 1866-1869 (or 'Colonial Times', according to our brakeman).

This cog railway, our brakeman told us, is the oldest in the US, and for a while, was the steepest at one point until the Swiss ruined it, like they ruin everything.  There's a coal driven train that goes up, but ours was bio-diesel, and therefore didn't have to stop midway up to waste thousands of gallons of water to make that steam business happen.  Yay!  Also, back in the day, workers at the top would ride slideboards they'd invented down the railway which they named "Devil's Shingles" which probably was an indication that it wasn't the best idea, as flying down a mountain at 62mph on a piece of wood maybe isn't super safe, and the slideboards were banned after an employee died in 1906.  Buzzkill.  Anyway, it's about a 45 minute slow ride up to the summit.