We picked the route for scenic attraction and interest rather than speed and the first treat of the day was to see our first covered bridge. They were designed to protect the wooden structural timbers from the weather, and there are only 8 remaining in Maine. This is a Paddleford truss bridge called Bennett Bean Bridge, built in 1898 and spanning the Magalloway River. We took pics from every angle!
The road also took us passed Smokey, probably the only bear we’ll see this trip …
… lots of water including Umbagog Lake …
… and from Maine to New Hampshire and back to Maine.
Grafton Notch State Park provided a chance to stretch our legs and I ran into Chippy having lunch …
….before we had lunch ourselves …
… then admired Screw Auger Falls.
Last stop was at Sunday River Bridge which was built in 1872.
Gorham New Hampshire, was our destination, in the north east corner of the White Mountains and we are staying at the Moose Brook Motel.
We’re white on the left!
This is the Columbia Day weekend, the last hoorah at the end of the season with a bank holiday tomorrow so restaurants were busy and we ended up at Mountain Fired pizza for dinner.
We had our fingers crossed that the weather would be kind for our trip on the cog railway up Mount Washington, which at 6,288.2 ft is the highest peak in NE USA, but in the morning there was very low cloud and we got an email saying the train would only be going halfway up the mountain. We were offered a reduced rate or a refund.
We chewed it over, while also consuming delicious breakfast bagels at the White Mountain Cafe …
… and decided there’s no point going only halfway up so we cancelled and instead drove up the auto road. We were warned when we arrived at the bottom that the summit was in cloud – as it is 60% of the time and saw the summit forecast …
… and there were safety warnings about the drive …
… but we paid our toll and went anyway!
The road is 7.6 miles long, with an average gradient of 11.6%. It was completed in 1861 for horse-drawn carriages and today is wide enough for two cars to pass so in fact it wasn’t too bad … with some pretty foliage to admire.
As we rose, it began to get a bit cloudy …
… then it was like thick fog as we drove through the cloud, only to pop out above in a clearer patch where we could park and admire the scenery.
The cloud came …
… and went …
… and mountain summits suddenly appeared …
A bit higher and the alpine plants showed as much fall colour as the trees …
… and we could see the road below.
We were back in cloud then reached the summit and parked and made the final ascent.
The Auto Road Stage Office is actually chained down for safety and bears this sign …
In fact the weather is notoriously erratic on the mountain and is called the Home of the Worlds Worst Weather with sub-zero temperatures, hurricane-force winds, snow and ice that essentially turn the peak into an Arctic outpost as this archive pic shows.
Tip Top House was built in 1853 as a mountain-top hostelry and has been restored to show how it would have been …
A quick photo at the summit then we went into the visitor centre to warm up with coffee and hot apple cider. In the short time we had been out on the summit with the air being so wet and the wind so strong, my hands felt numb like I’d been playing in the snow and 8 worked out later that with the wind chill it was -11°C!
The descent had to be made in low gear, but otherwise was quite manageable … even taking into consideration those who couldn’t quite manage to stay on their side of the road and those who couldn’t figure out how to turn on their headlights.
While we didn’t see the beautiful views we might have hoped for, it was still a great experience, enhanced by the audio cd which gave us a commentary throughout the trip and our very own car sticker.
When we got down, the weather, was possibly more miserable than when we went up so we ditched the idea of an afternoon hike and lunched on last night’s leftover pizza and an apple in the car looking at the cloudy mountain. Refusing to be completely beaten by a bit of drizzle, we went to photograph the another covered bridge, Honeymoon Bridge in Jackson, built in 1876. This one was still open to traffic so taking pictures was harder, and it had a pedestrian walkway on one side.
A bit of shopping …
… and we called it a day, went back to the motel and drank tea then went for an early dinner. We are moving on tomorrow and the forecast looks much better, so let’s wait and see!
Off Travelling Together 