Ryan's Journal

"My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?" — David Mitchell

Fresh Mountain Sashimi

Posted from Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park, New Zealand at 10:10 am, March 21st, 2024

Tonight’s lodging is in the shadow of Aoraki / Mt Cook, which at 3,724 meters (12,218 feet) is the tallest mountain in Australasia. The park is also home to 19 of the 20 peaks in New Zealand that are taller than 3,000 meters, and its 273 square miles are 40% covered in glaciers, so it’s quite the alpine destination. I arrived a bit late in the day to do much exploring, but if the weather forecast holds I’ll be wearing some holes in my hiking shoes over the next two days.

The journey to get here traveled through an area known as the Canterbury Plain, which one guidebook described as “scenically deprived”, and of which Hugh (half of the proprietorship at the Coombe Farm B&B) noted “not much to see along that route”. I thought the five hour drive up through farmland and fields was rustic and charming, but as warned, there weren’t a lot of compelling places to stop for the first several hours.

The first recommended opportunity to get out of the car was in the tiny town of Fairlie to visit the Fairlie Bakehouse. The town itself didn’t seem that notable – main street, lots of shops, a park – but the bakehouse is mentioned in every guidebook, and was the one place both Hugh & his wife Kathrine said to visit. The shop is famous for their meat pies, and while as an American I don’t know much about pies made of meat, I’ve got to say I bought three of them for the equivalent of about $5 USD each (flavors: meatball & mushroom, butter chicken, and vegetable curry), and I got an extremely tasty lunch, dinner and future breakfast out of the bunch.

After leaving the plains the scenery became more dramatic, first with glacier-fed Lake Tekapo appearing against a backdrop of mountains, followed by the even more impressive sight of Lake Pukaki surrounded by glacier-covered peaks. I made stops at both lakes, and at the second also visited a place that I had highlighted in my guidebook. High Country Salmon, located as far from the coasts as you can be in this country, supposedly boasts the best salmon sashimi in New Zealand, so I had to give it a try. They have nearby fish farms fed by glacier water, so it’s fresh as can be, and while salmon isn’t normally my goto sushi, I went back and bought a second takeaway portion after the first helping, and will probably be visiting them again in a few days after leaving the park.

Landscape, Aoraki Mount Cook National Park

The focus in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park is on the glacier-covered behemoths, but the soft light on these lesser peaks caught my eye, and since there will likely be an overload of glacier photos in the next few journal entries the B-players can take center stage today.

Extinct Volcanos

Posted from Akaroa, New Zealand at 11:23 am, March 20th, 2024

The trip wasn’t supposed to start on the Banks Peninsula. Originally the plan was to arrive in Christchurch and head up the mountains to Arthur’s Pass to do some hiking. However, there aren’t a lot of lodging options up there, and of the ones I liked, the first one was fully booked by a tour group. The second was being renovated and their website has said “opening later this year” since last October. There was one other I liked, an Airbnb, but from its description I got the distinct impression that the owner was lonely and renting out rooms to entice company to stay with her. And thus it was that my attention shifted from Arthur’s Pass to the extinct volcanoes surrounding Akaroa.

I woke up well before sunrise this morning, and after checking the tide charts made an early departure for the Onawe Peninsula, a landmass that is probably no more than 200m wide at its widest point, that juts nearly a mile out into the ocean, but that is cut off from land as the tide rises. There’s a 250 foot hill near the end with the remains of a Maori Pa (fort), and amazing views of the harbor. All in all a pretty nice place to watch the sunrise and a really nice way to start the day.

After returning to the B&B for a breakfast of bacon, eggs and sausage that my cholesterol-obsessed doctor must never hear about, it was off to the Hinewai Reserve, over 3000 acres of what was mostly former farmland that has been restored since the 1980s to native vegetation, much of it by a man named Hugh Wilson who is now in his 70s, still travels everywhere by bicycle, and who I assume is responsible for the signs throughout the reserve that ranged from a “max clearance: 1.65m” sign next to a portion of the trail with a low overhanging branch, to a warning about “no intelligent life” being found in cars (there was something about someone backing over some bushes), and a poignant one noting that a botanist cries every time a hiker carelessly breaks a fern frond. Aside from the signs, there were miles of walking trails through the dense rainforest, and it was a joy to walk through woods filled with plants and animals that were wholly unfamiliar, although I’m likely to be a bit stiff tomorrow after 20,000 steps through mostly vertical terrain.

The day concluded with a visit to pet a few of the local sheep (the B&B sits on 1200 acre farm), another short-ish hike up to a waterfall near the B&B, and a dinner of seared tuna and scallops in town. Tomorrow it’s off to the “Southern Alps” for more hiking, glacier viewing, and stargazing.

Two more items for the record. First, I only turned on the windshield wiper when trying to engage the turn signal about fifty percent of the time today, so there may yet be hope that I can learn to drive on the left without being a menace to others. Second, in case anyone is wondering, as far as I can tell the water in the toilet bowl goes in the same direction as it does in the northern hemisphere when flushed. Mark Rober can provide the science debunking that particular myth, but I was still kind of hoping to see the water going the wrong way.

Banks Peninsula Satellite Image

In case anyone is wondering how I chose to visit the Banks Peninsula, I was looking at the map and said “what is THAT???” Photo credit: NASA via Wikimedia Commons

Silvereye, Hinewai Reserve

Silvereye in Hinewai Reserve. Bear with me while I learn the names of the birds here through my magical process of “photograph it and upload the photo to Google image search to get an ID”.

Goblin Forests

Posted from Akaroa, New Zealand at 10:23 am, March 19th, 2024

And so it begins. The flight to Christchurch was probably the emptiest large plane I’ve ever been on, and just about everyone had their own row to stretch out and sleep on. The flight attendant says the return flights are full, but it’s the end of the season and they actually stop this service soon so very few people are going TO New Zealand, which bodes well for avoiding crowds while I’m here.

After passing through customs and getting my rental car, the initial shock of driving on the left and trying to figure out another country’s traffic rules was compounded by the fact that the “compact” SUV that I expected would be about the size of my Subaru was considerably larger, so in addition to accidentally turning on the windshield wipers every damn time I wanted to use the turn signal, I also had to figure out how to navigate what felt like a small boat through the streets of Christchurch. My chosen route was away from the highway and along curvy roads on a long-dormant volcano, which added to the fun. As the roads got narrower and curvier the farther I traveled from the city, it was actually with a bit of relief that I eventually turned on to a sketchy, one-lane dirt road with hundred foot drops on one side, since at least I didn’t have to think about which side to drive on any longer.

The route was incredibly scenic; I’m not quite sure how to describe it, but the myriad turquoise blue inlets felt a bit like fjords, except that they were surrounded by steep grassy hills with the occasional volcanic outcropping sticking out. The route would hug the water for a bit before climbing steeply up to an amazing view, then drop down to the next inlet. Surprisingly, when I first got to the water I saw a bunch of geese, and was excited to start getting familiar with the local birds. Then I got closer: Canada geese, a species that is more well-traveled than I am.

After getting closer to my lodging for the evening I detoured up to the Otepatotu Scenic Reserve, which was on the crest of the volcano and offered expansive views. There was a short hike up to the very top of the summit that went steeply through what the guidebook described as a “goblin forest”. The dense woods was full of mossy trees, ferns, and tiny birds, and while it was incredibly goblin-y, I failed utterly at finding the mythical monsters.

The final stop for the day was at my farmhouse B&B. As I was pulling up the road to the house I saw four beekeepers, and stopped briefly to figure out how to proceed. One of the beekeepers started walking towards me, with a swarm of angry bees circling her. As she got closer I warily rolled down my window to see what she wanted, at which point she told me “Be sure to keep your windows up, there’s loads of bees about.”

Akaroa Harbour

Akaroa Harbour from Otepatotu Scenic Reserve (try saying that name five times fast).

Until We Meet Again

Posted from Culver City, California at 11:53 am, September 11th, 2022

Our trip has sadly come to an end; after driving through Hilo and across the Saddle Road, we flew out of Kona and arrived at LAX at 11pm last night. It was an amazingly fun two weeks of manta rays, sea turtles, rainforests, and volcanoes.

Two days ago we made a visit to the impressive Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, luckily arriving early in the day before we had to heed any warnings about the sand notoriously being so hot that it causes first-degree burns. From there we headed to the southernmost part of the island, which is also the southernmost point in the United States, and home to strikingly pretty coastline, a huge number of horses and cows, and one particularly ornery donkey.

Our final event of the day was a late-night return trip to the Kilauea crater. We were initially turned away before the trailhead by a ranger due to crowds, but that detour turned into an opportunity to visit the Volcano House for a cocktail and viewing of the volcano from a different vantage. We returned to the trailhead about two hours later at around 9pm to hike out to the lava lake overlook, and took a few million photos of erupting lava under the full moon.

Kilauea crater at night
Kilauea crater lava lake. My 400mm lens was again popular with everyone at the overlook who wanted to see lava close-up.
Kilauea crater at night
Kilauea crater nighttime landscape. I wish we could say we were smart enough to have planned to be there while the full moon was illuminating the landscape, but apparently we were just very lucky on this trip.

Kilauea

Posted from Volcano, Big Island, Hawaii at 9:12 pm, September 8th, 2022

Last night after exploring our new rainforest retreat home we headed into Volcanoes National Park after dark to see if we could do some photography of Kilauea’s latest eruption. After a mile long hike under a nearly-full moon a portion of the horizon started glowing red, and then we emerged onto the park’s lone lookout that provides a view of the erupting vents. A surprising number of other people also made the hike at night, and my 400mm lens proved to be a popular way for the folks there to look into the crater, nearly two miles away. Spending an evening photographing an erupting volcano is a far more interesting way to pass time than my normal Wednesday night regimen.

After arriving home late last night (11pm) we slept in (6:30am), lounged around the cottage, then went back to the park to explore a few more overlooks, the Thurston Lava Tube, and the 20 mile Chain of Craters drive that travels through craters, lava fields, rain forest, and eventually emerges at the sea where the 35 year long eruption of Puʻuʻōʻō (1983-2018) covered more than 45 square miles and added 203 acres of land to Hawaii’s coast.

Kilauea crater at night
Kilauea crater at night (five second exposure).
Kilauea crater at night
Kilauea crater at night (ten second exposure). The red flares far from the main vent are cracks in the solidified surface of the 1000 foot deep lava lake.

Manta-festing

Posted from Kona, Big Island, Hawaii at 5:29 pm, September 6th, 2022

Our second day-of-much-scuba took place yesterday, and it started in spectacular fashion with a tiger shark cruising the harbor. The divemasters immediately announced that we’d be diving with the shark (“don’t worry, they never attack divers, just don’t stay on the surface or splash around or break eye contact if she’s swimming towards you.”). Upon descending the shark was nowhere to be found (not at all unnerving to know that you’re sharing the water with a twelve foot tiger shark), but it was still a really good dive, with eels and octopus aplenty. The second dive of the morning was also shark free, and we surfaced to a boat that wouldn’t start, so we ended up getting towed back to the harbor by the same Navy SEAL boat that we snorkeled from yesterday.

The evening dive was a return to manta ray paradise, and we went in with low expectations after Friday’s extravaganza. Our fears of a less spectacular evening diminished immediately after jumping in the water when we saw a manta slowly gliding through the water below us. Upon arriving at the “campfire” a half dozen mantas were already circling, and if it’s possible I think this dive exceeded our experience on Friday. “Lisa” kept buzzing us an inch overhead, and several other mantas whose names I lost track of circled, did 360 degree loops, and otherwise kept us enthralled for the full forty-five minutes that we were allowed to stay underwater. This was definitely one of my favorite dives of all time, and both Audrey and I would do it again in a heartbeat if we ever return to this island.

Manta rays during a Kona night dive
Screen capture from one of the best days ever.

Maids and Mists

Posted from Cleveland, Ohio at 10:10 am, September 29th, 2021

Slightly delayed post this morning after we arrived in Cleveland last night at 10pm and I immediately went to bed. Yesterday Audrey agreed to get up early for our return to Niagara Falls, and we shockingly had the place mostly to ourselves at 8am. I’m sure I must have been to the American side of the Falls before, but it’s another place I don’t remember, so it was all new views for me.

The day’s main event was a ride on the Maid of the Mist, the boat that takes you right up to the Falls. I took the ride from Canada once, but either I was too young to be totally blown away, or else they get closer now with the new electric boats, so we were right in the middle of Horseshoe Falls with the air vibrating from so much crashing water. It was a combination of an amusement park ride and nature tour, and I wanted to hide out on deck and go again when the twenty minute adventure came to its end.

When we finally left Niagara we made our way across New York and Pennsylvania back to the old Holliday family stomping grounds in North Springfield, where my uncle gave us a tour of the candy store and my aunt surprised us with an appetizer spread that would have impressed visiting royalty. As we were leaving in the dark I warned Audrey that there would be animals on the road, and literally five seconds later two deer ran by.

We’re finishing the trip with two nights in Cleveland so Audrey can see where I grew up, but I think she’s more excited to see both of the buildings.

American Falls, Niagara Falls
American Falls, Niagara Falls. Audrey and I are now proud owners of the fashionable blue Maid of the Mist ponchos being modeled in this photo.

The Day of Many Waterfalls

Posted from Niagara Falls, New York at 7:09 pm, September 27th, 2021

Audrey says we got 16,000 steps today, which is apparently a lot. I’m writing this while nodding off, so however many steps we got, it was definitely a full day.

Yesterday Audrey’s mom sent a text suggesting that we investigate Letchworth State Park and its famous waterfalls, and since we didn’t really have other plans that seemed like a fine way to start the day. The park’s three waterfalls really are quite impressive, and we spent a bunch of time roaming the canyon rim.

From there it was a meandering trip through rural New York and up to Niagara Falls. While Letchworth was pretty, Niagara is ridiculous. A bunch of sights on this trip were smaller than what I remember from childhood, but Niagara Falls is even bigger. Standing right at the edge as 75,000 gallons per second drop 167 feet is a none-too-shabby way to end the day, and we’re staying less than a mile away from the Falls tonight with plans to continue the visit tomorrow morning.

Vulture, Letchworth State Park
Vulture, Letchworth State Park. This photo is my favorite of the trip thus far.
American Falls, Niagara Falls
American Falls, Niagara Falls. Note the seagull taking a bath at the very edge.

Finger Lakes

Posted from Rochester, New York at 6:04 pm, September 26th, 2021

After the debacle at the border we’re winging it for a few days, but if today is any indication they should end up being good days. The route today took us from Syracuse to Rochester via the Finger Lakes. We mostly meandered, making stops in Auburn to walk around the Fort Hill Cemetery where both Harriet Tubman and William Seward (the guy who bought Alaska from Russia) are buried. From there we wandered up to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, where we ended up photographing herons and egrets for a few hours. We ate lunch in Seneca Falls, birthplace of the women’s rights movement, hung out on the tip of Seneca Lake, then rambled around in Huckleberry Swamp to finish the day.

One oddity throughout this trip has been some of the town names. In Vermont we passed by Peru and Mexico, and in New York we’ve seen Poland, Belgium, Jordan, Russia, and Mexico (again). Given this impressive list, it’s ironic that our one planned border crossing fell through.

Dragonfly, Huckleberry Swamp
Dragonfly, Huckleberry Swamp. I think he’s cute, but anyone expecting exotic wildlife should immediately go to the Africa and Madagascar journal entries.
Aquatic plants, Huckleberry Swamp
Aquatic plants, Huckleberry Swamp. Little. Yellow. Different.

Damn you, COVID

Posted from Syracuse, New York at 5:40 pm, September 25th, 2021

We’re not going to Canada on this trip. We finally got some clarification on why Audrey got a negative result while mine was still “pending” after two days – at 2pm today, about 16 hours before the 72 hour cutoff for getting across the border, I saw an update on my test result page indicating that a specimen had been mislabeled. Several phone calls later we discovered that apparently my test tube had both my name on it AND Audrey’s name, so the lab wouldn’t release results. More phone calls ensued, assurances were made, but at 5pm we still didn’t have a result, and the customer support lady at the lab didn’t inspire confidence that one would be available anytime soon on a weekend. Rather than continuing to be frustrated at the border we decided to continue the trip in America, and while we’ll have to forfeit four pre-paid hotel nights in Canada, there are plenty of neat destinations in Upstate New York to help salvage an unfortunate mix-up. Still… we had some great plans for those four days.

When we weren’t on the phone with CVS, Minute Clinic, or Quest Labs, we enjoyed a boat tour through the Thousand Islands. My parents say I’ve been here before, but I have no memory of it. It turns out that there are actually 1,864 islands where Lake Ontario empties into the St. Lawrence River, and an assortment of 19th century millionaires bought many of them and built amazing summer homes. Occupations that might not make you rich today were sufficient a century ago to support building castles on islands, so we saw the mansions owned by the inventors of the Lifesaver candy and the Red Rider B-B gun, as well as the palatial castle built by the man most famous for the slogan “the customer is always right”; I suppose coming up with a good slogan back in the day was kind of like purchasing a great web site domain circa 2000.

Boldt Castle, Thousand Islands
The powerhouse, one of the outlying buildings at Boldt Castle, Thousand Islands; the actual castle was probably 20x larger. The builder of this impressive residence made his millions via the slogan “the customer is always right” and by inventing Thousand Islands salad dressing.

Adirondacks

Posted from Watertown, New York at 6:20 pm, September 24th, 2021

Our room in the tower of the Hochelaga Inn will sit vacant tonight; Audrey’s COVID test results arrived just after lunchtime today, but we’re still waiting on mine and can’t cross into Canada until they get here. There are definitely worse fates than being forced to spend a day in the Thousand Islands region of upstate New York, but it would have been mighty cool to have two nights in the tower of a 150 year old mansion, so hopefully my results arrive tomorrow and we can salvage at least one night.

Aside from waiting for COVID results, today’s main event was driving through the Adirondack State Park and enjoying the fall color. We stopped for one short hike in the Nature Conservancy’s Lake Julia Preserve, where I was super excited to go for a walk in this little-used area. Audrey, on the other hand, was convinced that either murderers or bears would ensure we didn’t return alive. In her defense, she is fearless around spiders and other things that make me uneasy, but I wasn’t going to miss out on a nice hike due to imagined murderers, so she shuddered her way through the forest until the path opened up at a beautiful pond surrounded by trees in various stages of changing color and she forgot about psychopaths and started photographing everything in sight.

With luck the poor souls at Quest Labs will pull my test out of whatever mountain they are buried under first thing tomorrow and the trip will continue, otherwise we may be writing tomorrow night from another location in New York as we seek out alternative routes west.

Fall color in the Adirondacks
Early Fall color in the Adirondacks. Our path today took us next to at least a half dozen noisy streams, something we definitely don’t see back in arid California.
Fall color in Lake Julia Preserve
Fall color in Lake Julia Preserve. Not a bad place for a hike.
Mushroom and moss
Mushroom and moss, Lake Julia Preserve. Watching for cool fungi has become a favorite activity on hikes; it’s another activity you can’t really do in California.

Lounge Days

Posted from Chestertown, New York at 6:01 pm, September 22nd, 2021

I promised Audrey some time to lounge during this trip, and the next two days should make her happy. We’re booked at the Fern Lodge in Adirondack State Park, a place that is far too classy for us, but despite our disheveled appearance and lack of refinement they’ve still given us a great room with a lake view and a huge stone fireplace. The plan while here is to lounge, enjoy the home-cooked breakfasts, and maybe take a canoe out on the lake for a few hours.

The drive here was a scenic trip through the Green Mountains, with a stop along the way in Weston, Vermont, where we enjoyed the view of the Old Mill and then made friends with the proprietors of the town’s 150 year old general store. Surprisingly they were familiar with Shaker Heights, the suburb of Cleveland where I went to high school, and so in a town of a few hundred people in the woods of Vermont we talked at length about a much larger small town that lies 500 miles to the west.

The Old Mill in Weston, Vermont
The Old Mill in Weston, Vermont. I’m still pro-dam removal, but this one made for a nice photo.

Sur-uhp

Posted from Cavendish, Vermont at 6:41 pm, September 21st, 2021

Audrey and I have had a long-running feud over the pronunciation of “syrup”. Being from New England, where syrup was basically invented, it was my assertion that it was a single syllable word pronounced “surp”. Audrey scoffed at this notion, insisting that the only proper pronunciation involved two syllables. Today at Sugarbush Farm we incited a small argument among the ladies running the farm store over how the word is actually pronounced, but all of them agreed without hesitation that “surp” was wrong, and I was forced to do a walk of shame back to our car.

Prior to losing this grammatical battle we had another very full day. Things started off with a quick trip to the Saint Gaudens National Historic Park, home to one of America’s most famous sculptors but also well-known for the beautiful gardens and grounds. Of course, surrounded by incredible statues, flowers, and architecture, we were most impressed by the frogs in one of the fountains, but in our defense, California is kind of lacking in amphibians.

The next stop was one that Audrey was particularly excited about – the Philbrick-Cricenti Bog, located across the road from my family’s old cottage. I remembered the boardwalk trail through the bog as a really fun adventure from childhood, and four decades later it’s still a great walk. Weird bog plants are everywhere, pitcher plants sprout through the moss, the wooden planks suck and gush mud with every step, and you’re constantly reminded of being on a very thick mat of moss over an ancient pond. Audrey was in sheer heaven throughout, which only made the trip better.

The remainder of the day was a series of quick stops. First we had lunch at Peter Christians Tavern, a place I visited dozens of times with my family when we were at the cottage. Next we met a few of Audrey’s relatives for coffee near Dartmouth, and from there ended the day with a visit to the aforementioned maple syrup (two syllables) and dairy farm.

Tomorrow we’re leaving our castle in Vermont for two nights in the Adirondacks, followed (hopefully) by four nights in Canada. Current border restrictions require a negative COVID test within 72 hours of crossing the border, but I underestimated how difficult it would be to get tested in rural Vermont/New York, so after checking dozens of locations we finally found two available appointments two days from now, just over 24 hours from when we need to cross the border. Hopefully the lab turnaround times are fast, otherwise we might be spending a surprise night in upstate New York waiting for our results to arrive.

Frog in Saint Gaudens National Historic Park
Green frog in Saint Gaudens National Historic Park. At the home of one of America’s most renowned sculptors, surrounded by incredible art and beautiful gardens, we were most excited about the frogs.
Philbrick-Cricenti bog trail
Philbrick-Cricenti bog trail. My favorite entry in the trail guide: “Stay on the walk! Those light green patches are only thin skims of moss and sedge. Below them are remains of cows, deer and at least one horse.”

Top Notch

Posted from Cavendish, Vermont at 6:46 pm, September 20th, 2021

The day started at 6am today, because vacations are too awesome to waste on sleeping. At that time the White Mountains were shrouded in fog, with temperatures hovering near freezing, but it made for a cool scene outside, particularly once the sun crept over the horizon.

A few hours later, once Audrey was up and about, we made a return visit to the resort’s barn to again pet goats and sheep, before taking part in the daily axe-throwing competition; sadly, we both made a poor showing with the four pound double-headed axes and had to retreat in shame once the competition ended.

After checkout out we headed southwest through Franconia Notch State Park, home to the world’s best notch, as well as the Flume Gorge, a geologic phenomenon that has been drawing visitors for two centuries. The gorge is something that I think I remember from childhood – it’s a narrow chasm with a boardwalk cantilevered into the side of the cliff wall, creating a trail that sits just above raging water that forms waterfalls, pools, and cascades as it blasts through the narrow space. It was tough to get pictures that fully captured the experience, but it was well worth the visit.

We’re ending the day in a 150 year old “castle” in Vermont that was originally built by a former governor. The building is now an inn, and our room contains a four-poster bed, fireplace, antique furniture, and hand-carved wood trim. I managed to get a deal several months ago when travel still seemed like a risky proposition, so our room rate included a three-course gourmet dinner in the downstairs dining room; Audrey had lamb while I enjoyed lobster, shrimp and steak. If I haven’t mentioned it before, I really, really, REALLY love being on vacation.

Early morning fog in the White Mountains
Early morning fog in the White Mountains.
Flume Gorge, Franconia Notch State Park
Flume Gorge, Franconia Notch State Park.

Mount Washington

Posted from Whitefield, New Hampshire at 6:36 pm, September 19th, 2021

Today was a day of perfect weather and many activities, despite the fact that we decided to postpone axe throwing until tomorrow.

Our first stop of the day was the Mt. Washington Auto Road, where we paid the exorbitant toll for the totally-worth-it drive to the 6,288 foot summit of Mt. Washington. First opened in 1861, the road has an average grade of 12%, with up to 22% grade in some places, and our rental car was none-too-happy with us for choosing this route. Despite some complaints from the automobile, it was incredibly scenic, and we got out for a number of short hikes along the way before braving the chilly temperatures at a summit that is infamous for extreme weather, including a 231 mph wind gust that was recorded in 1934.

After leaving the mountain we had a couple of additional stops – a delicious 2pm breakfast at the Sunrise Shack, and a quick hike to the waterfalls at Diana’s Baths – before we set off across the Kancamagus Highway. This scenic byway is mobbed in October with “leaf peepers” taking in the amazing fall colors; for our trip leaves were just beginning to turn, but it was still a beautiful route. We read later that the road took twenty-five years to build, with construction starting in the 1930s; a supervisor’s progress report during the project noted “Quality of work: Excellent. Morale of workers: High. Progress of construction: Negligible.”

It will be tough to top today’s adventures, but the plan for tomorrow is to start the day with barnyard animals and axe throwing before heading southwest into Vermont, with a stop at the very famous Franconia Notch along the way, so it should be another good one.

Mount Washington summit vista
Mount Washington summit vista. It’s not easy to see in this photo, but next to the two small ponds there’s a hut for crazy hardy folks hiking the Appalachian trail to spend a night in comfort.
Mount Washington summit vista
Mount Washington summit vista. If you look closely you can see the cog railway tracks on the right side of this photo. The railway was built in the mid-1800s, and today runs on bio-diesel, meaning that when it passes the landscape has the unmistakable scent of french fries.