I should have written this post a few months ago but it is taking the New Year's deadline to get me writing. I took two memorial hikes this autumn to two mountain peaks in the White Mountains of nearby New Hampshire.
The first was up Mount Madison with the last of my late brother's ashes. Mount Madison was the only hike we ever took together, just the two of us. Last year, per his request, some of his ashes were placed in a tiny graveyard at the base of the mountain and some into a nearby small, fast running river. I had his go-ahead to bring him on another trip up the mountain. On the way up I decided that instead of leaving the ashes at the top I would cast them into the wind to give him the full fire, earth, water and air treatment. I was glad I did because as I tossed the ashes into the air the wind caused them to burst into a little explosion and the sun made them glow silver. Then, instead of falling, they just dissolved into the air.
A few days later I took my fifth memorial hike up nearby Mount Washington, something I've been doing every five years in memory of my father who had me climb the mountain with him when I was just six years old. Due to the weather we had to hitch a ride down on the tourist road but that was the hike that got me going for another six decades. Boy! The next memorial hike is going to be tough! Some college kids who passed me on the way up were taking a break halfway down when we met again and felt like they had to ask me my age. That made up for the thought that I had to spend 11 hours to do what I could have done in about half that time years ago.
The picture of the rocks is actually of part of the trail going down Madison. Yeah, it was pretty hard to see up close too. Earlier, up at the peak, I was on a one mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail and I met an AT thru-hiker wearing a kilt. At that point he had done about two thousand miles. I got down in the dark at 9:00 PM. Peg was at the trailhead yelling, honking the car horn and flashing the lights so I wouldn't get lost.
The other two pictures are from the top of Washington. The Appalachian Trail runs past the cog railway and along the ridge of the high peaks to Madison on the right where it heads down to the base of Washington almost at the trailhead that I took to get up and down. That makes the Appalachian Trail a few miles longer than it has to be but who is going to mind walking those extra miles. While that view was to the north the next picture was taken going back down and looks south.
[EDIT:
BTW, I was on top of Mount Washington on October 3rd. It was a beautiful day. However, at 1:54 PM on September 1st, still summer, the weather observatory on top recorded a temperature of -3° C with a windchill of -15° C. The wind was measured at 124 kph with gusts of 137 kph. Today, December 27, at 3:01 PM the temperature is -30° C with a windchill of -56° C. The wind is measured at 135 kph with gusts of 145 kph.
For more backward folks out there: At 1:54 PM on September 1st, still summer, the weather observatory on top recorded a temperature of 26° F with a windchill of 4° F. The wind was measured at 77 mph with gusts of 85 mph. Today, December 27, at 3:01 PM the temperature is -22° F with a windchill of -70° F. The wind is measured at 84 mph with gusts of 90 mph.
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[Edit: Mount Washington's elevation is only 6,288.2 ft (1,916.6 m) Weather update: At 3:00 in the morning on the 28th the temperature was -33° F and the wind was 93 mph with gusts to 97 mph making for a wind chill of -87° F. In the other measurement system: The temperature was -36° C and the wind was 150 kph with gusts to 156 kph making for a wind chill of -66° C. Approximately.]