We woke after our first of three – yes three – nights in Bridgton, ME. Scott was excited to see and spend time with his “Little number 2” – Ev Gutierrez – from the Big Brothers program. Ev lives in Bridgton, and was last seen at Scott’s retirement party in November 2024. However Ev was not available until after noon, so Tom suggested going to see Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and hour and a half drive away.
There are two ways to the summit of Mount Washington – you can drive yourself, or take historic cog railway. We opted to drive so we could stop and take pictures along the way.
There was a good chance that it would be too cloudy at the summit to see much of anything, but Tom reasoned that we had a better chance of smaller crowds on a Friday than our other option of Saturday.
We got there, paid the $72 for two adults (no senior discount here,) and started up the road. We stopped several times to take pictures – some of the best fall colors we have seen yet as winter comes early at these elevations. We saw a few “drags” on the side of the road, as well as lots of Mount Washington Road Crew people – one of whom explained that the road has paving that is uneven and these were necessary to get the ice and snow that the snow plows could not.
We were optimistic that we might get a glimpse of the 5-state view at the summit – particularly since as we approached we could occasionally see the observation windows clearly from the approach road. However, the only views of 5 states that saw were on displays in the visitor center museum – clearly there for people in our situation. We guessed it is often very cloudy at the summit – it sure was cold and windy.
Scott – whose knee replacement surgery was 9 ½ weeks ago – braved the many steps and scrambled over rocks up several flights of stairs to see the sights and get the requisite pictures.
As we drove down in 1st gear, stopping a few times to prevent brake overheating, it was a bit past lunchtime. At the entrance we were given a $10 discount coupon for the restaurant at the base, and a quick google search yielded no other nearby places to eat. We still somehow decided we would stop at whatever looked good at a town we went through on the way there. What could go wrong?
Google maps, however, routed us on a completely different and backwoods route. Not only did it not go through any towns, it went through Hurricane Mountain road. Large signs you cannot miss point out that the section that is closed in winter is narrow, winding, steep, and “not suitable for RVs and Large Vehicles – Reverse Direction.”
About halfway through this section we ended up behind two pickups towing large trailers – with a line of cars behind them and several cars going in the opposite direction pulled off the road to allow them to pass. Idiots.
So – we didn’t have anywhere to eat until we arrived at our campsite around 1:15PM, and Scott was very hungry. However, we quickly grilled some hamburgers and ate. Scott then did his first decent nap of this trip.
We met up with Ev around 4PM and had a great talk, then a good meal in Bridgton and the Queen’s Head Pub. Then blog and bed as always.