A beautiful day

2007-05-12 23:03:44.000 – Mike Finnegan,  Summit Intern

A Wee One and the Cog

What an incredible day up here on the summit. Winds were but a gentle breeze and sun softened the snow and warmed our faces. Visibility extended from the ocean all the way to the fine state of New York 120 miles away. All this added up to the perfect opening day of the cog railway. Two cogs made their way slowly to the summit today, one oil powered, the other coal. The plumes of black soot and white steam rose in stark contrast to one another. They delivered passengers to the summit, who milled about and took in the sights.

With warm temperatures, rain, and fog the last few days, the snow around the summit area is depleting rapidly. Nonetheless, we were still able to link together a decent run on the southwest snowfields a few days ago and today down Mother-In-Law’s. Even with all the sun, the snow on the north facing slope was still quite firm and difficult to get a good purchase on with snowboarding boots. From our perspective, we were able to see others skiing the Great Gulf. Some made it all the way down their runs, while others found themselves cliffed out after descending three-quarters of a particular chute…time to hike back up.

We are now quite happy and full after sharing an incredible dinner prepared by Danny of the State Park folks. My mom, the volunteer for this week on the Obs side of the door, made a great banana cream cake for dessert and an array of cookies. If this kind of cooking keeps up, Ryan may be the size of Alan by next shift change! Thanks must not go only to the chefs of the evening, but also to Nin and Red who helped clean up any remaining scraps, wagging their respective tails, doing their parts as the most recent feline and canine members of the summit community.

Mike Finnegan,  Summit Intern