In my younger days, back in the 50's I hiked Mount Washington a couple times with a friend and his four boys and my two older boys. The first time we went up the Jewell trail from the parking lot below the Cog Railway, then back down to the Lake of the Clouds. That was easy compared to the trip up from the Pinkham Notch base to Howard Johnson's and up the right gully. At the top of the gully were so bushed that we had to rest in between moving each foot. We decided to walk down the Auto road on the way back, even though it was a lot longer. We didn't, get very far and a pickup stopped and asked if we wanted a ride. Before we could say No, the boys were in the truck bed. There were several others picked up and they had to pull off a few times and let the brake pads cool off. We finally made it back to our cars without any casualties, but it was pretty scary. Another time I drove up the Auto Road. The road wasn't very wide and when you meet one of the wide passenger vehicles coming towards you, there isn't much room to pass and a sharp drop off on the North side.
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