I hiked up Mt Washington. Is that crazy of me or what?
I went with my co-worker to his outing club's lodge. At 3AM, a group of us decided to go for a night hike.
We drove to Pinkham Notch Visitors Center and parked the car. Then we hiked up Lion Head trail (4.5 miles), relaxed a bit at the summit of Mt. Washington, then hiked down Boott Spur trail (5.4 miles.)
This picture is of me with the sun rising. This is on the way up.
Here I am at the actual summit. The very top of this 6288 foot tall mountain.
Here's the group I hiked with, taken at the summit. Travis, my co-worker who invited me on this trip, is on the left. (Something both disappointing and reassuring to see the road and buildings all there to serve tourists.)
Here's a spectacular view of us hiking down.
Interesting that there were a lot of hikers there during the day, even little kids. (We were the only ones anywhere before dawn.)
We made it to the back to the car around 3PM. That's a twelve hour hike! When we got back to the lodge, I slept the rest of the day and night -- partly because I was exhausted and partly to keep pressure off my aching legs and feet.
I felt embarrassed to be hiking with these regular hikers. They're all in such good shape. I had to push myself to keep going, and they had to slow down to let me keep up. Towards the end of the hike, my legs were weak, and my feet had blisters, so I was miserably hiking back. They were nice about it though; someone, mostly Travis, hung back to make sure I didn't get left behind. Looking back at these pictures make it all worth while -- knowing that I pushed myself to hike this mountain, and that I've seen incredible sights along the way.