Day 17, Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 273 miles

We got underway this morning about 7:30, continuing on US302 to a place called Fabyan where we turned uphill to the depot for the Mount Washington COG Railway. It was raining rather hard, so we were questioning the value in paying the $54 apiece for the 3 hour trip. We decided to go for it, and I am glad we did. We were on the first train of the day which employs an old steam engine (the others are diesel). It was quite and experience as the grade, which took us from about 2500' to the summit of 6288', the highest mountain east of the Mississippi. The weather got better as we neared the top, although there was a breeze and temperature of 33. The top of Mount Washington claims to have the worst weather on earth, we I guess we had a good day.

The ride down was interesting. The conductor, who rode on the front platform of the passenger car on the way up (car in front of engine), operated the brakes of the car on the way down. Apparently, the engine brakes are not strong enough to stop both engine and car. Did I mention the grades are up to 37%? That's steep.

After the return to the depot, we watched a movie about the development of the railroad, had lunch in our trailer, then started for Bar Harbor. We asked Gretchen to take us the fastest route. We took 302 to three different state highways after which we got on I95 north. We made good enough time to make it to where we will spend the next 3 nights, Bar Harbor Campground. Free wifi is one reason we chose this place, but we were unable to connect after arrival due to technical problems that were due to be fixed tomorrow. I hope so, and I hope the weather improves.