.May 29, 2006
Today's journal entry will be quite different. I didn't do much hiking today. Maybe a couple of miles at the most. It is Memorial Day and I wanted to take Lynn, her sister Lisa, and Lisa's husband Mike to the White Mountains. I wanted to show them some of the beautiful spots in the Whites that you can get to with minimal hiking involved.
Last November when I got snowed out trying to do a section of the AT, I headed over to North Conway where I hiked to the top of White Horse Ledge. Many rock climbers go up the face but I took the trail around the back. This picture was taken from Echo Lake.
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That day I also took the trail to the top of Cathedral Ledge. From this angle at Echo Lake you really can't make out Cathedral Ledge, but the face of it is a cliff just like White Horse Ledge.
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Once I reached the top of Cathedral Ledge, I found an auto road.
And now, six months later, Lynn, Lisa, Mike, and I took the auto road to the top. Many rock climbers had already started their climbs. We viewed them from the fenced in area at the top.
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There was a sign warning not to throw things over the edge.
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You can't make it out in the picture but some 'wise guy' added the word 'or' to the sign so that it would read: 'Do not throw objects or climbers below.'
Lisa and Mike on Cathedral Ledge
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Lynn and myself on Cathedral Ledge
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From here we headed back down to North Conway and up towards Mount Washington. We stopped on Route 16 about 1 mile south of Pinkham Notch. We headed under Route 16.
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We hiked a couple tenths of a mile down several stone staircases with good footing to Glen Ellis Falls.
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We made the trip back to the car and drove up to the visitor center at Pinkham Notch
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ We checked out the inside....
... and looked at the model of Mount Washington.
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We then headed down Lost Pond Trail (AT) for about half a mile and enjoyed the view of washington from the pond. It was a very warm Memorial Day but there was still snow on Mount Washington.
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We retraced our steps and stopped at the sign for the trail. Lisa had had enough.
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For the grand finale we drove about a mile up the road to Wildcat Mountain. There are five peaks here. Wildcat, Wildcat B, Wildcat C, Wildcat D, and Wildcat E. I hiked all of these last year and the best view is from 'D' and there is a gondola ride to the top.
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Up we go.
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View from the top
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Lynn and Eric at the top.
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Lisa and Mike at the top
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We safely made it back down. This was a lot faster then when I climbed up and down Wildcat D last year.
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