For Memorial Day weekend I headed to New England, specifically to Portland in southern Maine. I arrived on Wednesday to give me a day and a half to hike before Brittany joined me on Friday.

First stop, Allagash Brewing. Allagash is famous for their White beer, which comprises 80% of their total sales. They give free tastings to visitors, so I stopped by to check it out.

My favorite of the tasting options was the Saison. I made friends with one of the workers talking mountain biking, and when I purchased a hat on my way out, he kindly gave me a free 4-pack to take with me. Win!

I spent the night in Freemont, home of LL Bean. After breakfast the next morning, I headed back to Mt. Washington.

My first experience on Mt. Washington was fun (-13 degree windchill, 70mph winds, 20 feet visibility). While it was cold and challenging, it was definitely rewarding. But all I saw was snow blowing through the air, so given a nice day, I thought I would head back for a second round.

I was supposed to hike Mount Katadhin in Maine, but the trails weren’t open (more on that later) and Washington was close enough. I could hear it calling. So I returned to Pinkham’s Notch and repeated my steps from five months previous.

The weather is, as I have mentioned before, notoriously bad on this mountain. In place of my -13 degrees last time? 80 at the base and 50 at the summit. Instead of fog and clouds? Sunny skies. Instead of 70mph winds? I would estimate gusts were 2-3mph.

The first thing I noticed with the absent snow and clouds was that the trail is 1) extremely rocky/rooty and 2) extremely steep. When I hiked in the snow, I was able to walk without paying close attention to the ground in front of me. Without the snow, I had to pay attention to every step and frequently had to hop between rocks.

I took the 4.1 mile Lion’s Head trail to the top. On a nice day like today, it was stunningly beautiful. I took this same route on my last trip as well, but never even saw the Lion’s Head (even though I walked within 10 feet of it) because visibility was so poor.

The scenery on the way up was truly remarkable, from waterfalls to beautiful mountains covered in green. I could not have asked for a nicer day.

Pretty quickly I climbed above tree line and started to approach the summit.

I made good time and reached the summit in 2 hours.

It was amazing to see the top. Last time I was there visibility at the top was non-existent and I was focused on not being (literally) blown off the mountain. This time I was able to take it in. There’s a weather station. An old gift store that is literally chained to the mountain so that it does not blow away. A modern visitor center complete with restrooms, and a restaurant. I saw exactly zero of this on my previous visit.

I did confirm that my last trip was an official summit. The difference is grand.

Two hours later I was back at the car with fatigued legs, but I thoroughly enjoyed the hike. It was beautiful in every way. Crazy enough, I was extremely sore for the next 4 days from all of the big steps I had to take through the rock fields, and from the demanding climb both up and down. Nevertheless, this remains in the top 5 for my favorite summits in the United States (to date).