Faith, Folklore, and Friends

The Appalachian Trail is a 2200 mile hiking trail that extends from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. The trail goes through the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where we were staying a few weeks ago. The Appalachian Trail passes through the Smoky Mountain National Park, and we have taken short hikes on it there. However, I have no desire to walk the whole trail.  Really?  2200 miles without indoor plumbing?  I love communing with nature just fine, but when it is time for bed, I'd rather commune with a Hampton Inn. Our Baby Boy planned to hike it one summer a while back.  He worked out with heavy packs for weeks before, made food packages for us to send him at certain points, and spent lots of time with maps.  He flew to the start (or end?) of the trail in Maine to begin his journey.  He successfully climbed Mt. Katahdin and started the 100 mile Wilderness hike.  He used a water purifier that make him extremely ill, and ...

The first time I heard about Mount Washington, New Hampshire,  was in a Meteorology class in college.  It was listed as a place that had the worst weather on Earth.  The weather was nice the day we were there.  We had taken sweatshirts, but didn't need them. We decided to drive to the summit on a private road.   How bad could it be? You will have to ask Hub, because my eyes stayed closed almost all the way to the top, then on the way back to the bottom. There were several visitors at the top, including many hikers from the Appalachian Trail. This is the cog railway that takes visitors to the top that have the sense not to drive.  Hub said it would have been just as scary as the road we took.   They say that on a clear day, you can see Boston and the Atlantic Ocean.  We were not able to see them, but the view was fantastic, with mountain peaks as far as we could see.