not necessarily in this order

  Last year, we were supposed to take the  Cog railway  up Mount Washington (6,288 ft), but we ended up bailing out on the vacation early and drove home in a downpour. Not this year! We grabbed a hotel breakfast (and then better coffees at Starbucks; Lil Momma got her favorite hot chocolate with a shot of caramel) and then headed to the train.  It was a whole experience! They have a tour guide who both “narrates” your summit ride and return with what you’re seeing on the mountain including the NH range, flowers and trees, the Appalachian Trail, etc. We also had unusual clearness and could see Maine and Vermont!, but also about the railway itself: its history, how the biodiesel and steam engines differ, and how the tracks were built. It was so cool! Even the seats were at an angle to handle the up to 37% grade.  Once you summit, you have an hour to explore the extreme weather museum, take a picture with the summit sign, and even have lunch! We wandered about aft...

In August, I’m supposed to this   very-intimidating-to-me day-long hike   with a couple of friends. Not only am I trying to overprepare for the hike, apparently, I am trying to overthink my way through it, too, SIGH. The hike is in New Hampshire’s White Mountains; it’s called the   Franconia Ridge Loop   and includes 3 summits over 8.1 miles, as well as a ridiculous amount of terrifying-to-me All Trails reviews. It would be the longest anything I’ve done in my life.     On any given day, my concerns range from: -The friends I’m going with are from my decade doing a Crossfit-ish like women’s bootcamp. They are two of my loveliest and closest friends, but also were the ones intimidatingly strong and fit and fast in class. The last time we hiked a mountain (6 years ago), they were over an hour ahead of me.  WHAT IF I CAN’T KEEP UP?!?! -5 or 6 years ago when we were doing these yearly NH hikes, I had this weird thing where  I was absolutely miserable ...