White Mountains - New Hampshire

“Man, you gotta love these Americans,” Jim nodded his head in admiration. “If there’s a big mountain – they just have to build a road to the top.” We were looking at Mt. Washington. It is the tallest mountain on the North East (6,288ft) and it has road up one side and a Cog Railway up the other.

“Some people just have to hike it but that’s not my cup of tea.” A representative of the Appalachain Mountain Club was giving us advice on trails in the area. “You sweat and strain to get up there and you are greeted by hundreds of tourists who drove! Besides the weather is usually awful.”

Mt Washington is renowned for its terrible weather. Their brochure proudly proclaims it as the site for the highest wind speed ever recorded by man – 231miles per hour. We skipped the hiking there.

Mount Washington is the focus for the White Mountains – but in reality it is a only a small part. New Hampshire’s state emblem is also located there. Or I guess I should say, was located there. The ‘Old Man of the Mountain’ was a rock formation – a striking silhouette of a face. This face is New Hampshire’s state emblem. It’s on their licence plates, highway signs, and of course t-shirts and all manner of tourist gizmos. Then, in the middle of the night, one night in 2003, the face fell off the mountain. Only the forehead is left now. The government actually had a serious discussion about rebuilding the face – such was the sense of loss.

The White Mountains also offer other granite mounts; some rough, some round and gentle. Water has engraved intricate paths in the stone to make what the locals call ‘flumes’ – carved waterfalls. Waterfalls of the regular variety are also common. In two days easy hiking we visited a dozen. And it is easy hiking. This ever-present granite enhances many of the trails.

“Can you imagine how much work it took to build these?” Jim asked as we came across yet another set of granite steps. “At least with a staircase they don’t need to build switchbacks.”

In lower elevations, there are still many beautiful areas of deciduous trees doing what they do best. For the high elevations, the leaves are no longer at their peak – or to be more exact – the leaves are now on the ground. That’s a pleasure of its own. I tend to look at my feet too much when I hike – finally I have something beautiful to actually look at.

With the weather getting colder (we finally had to scrape frost from our car), thoughts turn to skiing. We were camped at the base of the ski runs of Cannon Mountain. I began studying our map and counting the little red skiers printed on it. There were fifteen in the White Mountains itself and another fifteen within a twenty-mile radius.

“Ahh, possibilities…”