Mount Washington Auto Road

I alway enjoy a good driving challenge. One of the challenges I have not completed was driving my car up Mount Washington. I had seen the bumper stickers everywhere, you know the ones that say, "This car climbed Mt. Washington". Finally in August 2017, I decided I wanted one of those bumper stickers. Not even a drive of three hours each way was enough of a deterrent.

We stopped at the base of the mountain for lunch (Dad came with me). After lunch, we paid the admission fee and up we went. As we were going up, the ride would only be tolerable in 2nd gear. I tried upshifting to 3rd, but the grade was too steep. Back to 2nd it is...for 30 minutes! There are mile markers along the road so you can gauge how far the summit is. The distance from the base to the  summit is 12.2 km (7.6 miles).

Mount Washington Auto Road

If you notice the second sentence in the sign, "...one mile of gravel road.." My first question is why is there a section of road that is still unpaved. Second, "Why hasn't it been paved already?" Ironically enough, this portion is also the narrowest. The drive was going fine until I encountered this portion. I stopped to allow a wide pick-up truck to pass me and when I let off the clutch, I stalled the car! I immediately engaged the e-brake and took a deep breath. If I did not do this right, the car would roll back several hundred meters and be flung off the side of the mountain. Start the car, first gear, little gas, clutch out, e-brake off, and start up the mountain again.

The weather was at the summit was sunny and calm!

You had sweeping views in all directions for 97 km (60 miles).

Going back down was as challenging as going up. The average grade is almost 12%, which means you will go very, very fast if you don't literally ride the brakes. I tried to use 3rd gear, but that accelerated the car to more than 105 kph (65 mph). Back to 2nd gear for another 30 minutes. 

Just for the record, a month later, Travis Pastrana did the same drive in under six minutes, in a highly modified Subaru WRX STI. Slowpoke!