Sunday, June 20, 2010

America's Oldest Amusement; Mount Washington, Pinkham Notch, NH
















I just hit the dadventure vortex today, on Father's Day of all days.  Today, my own memories of my first dadventures have begun to overlap with Sydney's.  When I was Sydney's age, my dad and I tackled the Whites.  Yeah, he took a five year old through three days of alpine cabins, ending with a night on Mount Washington at Lake of the Clouds.  The question is, do I enter the Matrix or do I begin to craft a map of dadventures of my own?



Like any good Choose Your Own Adventure book from the series (someone has got to bring back these rockin' texts) we did a little of both at every turn.  We stayed at the Joe Dodge Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) cabin in Pinkham Notch, just like I did back in '77.  We got in a short hike on the Old Jackson Road and then threw the orange shoebox into First gear up the Auto Road.   After throwing on our "This Car Climbed Mount Washington" sticker, we ran around in 40 degree weather with our winter coats as a break from the summer heat below.


Where our paths divided was my next choice.  I always got the impression that the hike up earned the cruise down as a kid.  We opted for the gondola up Wildcat ski mountain.  The views were spectacular, my kids were happy and my wife even smiled as we screamed up the slopes.  The panoramic views of Tuckerman's Ravine made me dream for another day.  But instead of feeling like a pansy for opting out with a two and four year old, I recommitted to tearing down that slope with them in another fifteen years on our teles.  An inspiring Father's Day indeed.



0 comments: