Mount Washington

A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I decided we wanted to hike Mount Washington in the New Hampshire White Mountains.  We did no research on what routes to take and how long it would be or anything at all.  The only thing we knew was that we wanted to bring her 3 month old Golden Retriever puppy, so we booked a hotel for the night prior so we wouldn't have to drive the 4 hours it takes to get there and back in the same day.

Luckily when we got to the hotel, the front desk agent was a frequent hiker of the mountain and gave us his feedback for the routes we should hike.  He suggested Tuckerman's Ravine to the summit and then Lions Head trail back down.  He did warn us that it would be a tough hike for the puppy because it was steep and rocky going up and down.

We started hiking around 10 am and took quite a few breaks along the way so the puppy could drink some water and eat.  For the first 3 hours, the puppy was doing very well making it look easy.  After we stopped for a quick lunch we could tell the puppy was getting tired.  We got to a very steep and rocky part in the trail and the pup wasn't big enough to make the steps from rock to rock so I ended up carrying her mostly the rest of the way.  Occasionally I would put her down to walk for a bit and then pick her right back up again.  For the better part of 2 hours I carried her to the summit.  Along the way everybody was telling us how cute of a dog she was and how cute it was that I was carrying her up.  One couple we saw had their yellow lab with them and told us that they used to take her up in their backpack with the dogs head sticking out so she could see the views and get to know the trail.  Unfortunately I had too much food in my bag on the way up so I had to carry her in my arms.

When we finally reached the summit,

we found a picnic table and sat down for lunch and the puppy pooped out and fell right asleep on the ground.  We knew that she wasn't going to be able to make it down the trail and there was no way I could make it down safely holding her in my arms so we made the decision to walk the auto road to a crossing trail that would bring us back to our car.  This trail would be about 3 miles longer but a lot safer for us and the dog.  After eating, my bag was virtually empty besides some clothes so we put the puppy in and started walking down.  Because the auto road is so steep, drivers need to be on their breaks the whole time and basically crept by us and almost every single car that went by mentioned how cute the dog was in my bag.  This went on for the next 4 hours until we reached the crossing trail where we would be out of view of the drivers.  At one point on the road we stopped to enjoy the view and my girlfriend captured this photo us the dog and I:

When we finally got down to the bottom where our car was parked it had been about 8 hours round trip.  For some reason I never thought it would take this long but because of the breaks for the dog and to eat and drink, it made sense.  Thankfully, the dog was so beat that she slept the whole ride home.

Overall, I highly recommend this trek but I do recommend doing some research on trails to take.  We did have an amazing time even though I had to carry the puppy down but that made for an easy ride home because the puppy was so beat.  So get out there and hike some mountains!