The last of the early June snowstorm left us this week. Our cool, wet weather has been replaced with near calm, warm, humid weather. The first wave of Alpine Flower Bloom is now past peak with several more peak blooms on the way. The warm near calm conditions are perfect for alpine insects to rise up on favorable updrafts to meet one another on the summit, an insect phenomena known as ‘Hill topping’.
These insects fortunately are not of the biting type merely annoying to anyone wearing white or light colored clothing which seems to atrack them more than darker clothing. Following these peak insect days are the Flying Squirrels Days who like to enter the Sherman Adams Building and hang out. These little guys are cute but very tender and easily die from weather or other hazards as we have seen many deceased as well as alive.
Another sign that winter is receding on Mt Washington is that we moved our State Park Snow Tractor off the mountain to a storage barn in the valley where it can be kept under cover and prepped for the return to full winter in October. Big THANKS to Larry from the Lancaster DOT District Office for taking our tractor off the mountain. Operating a truck and long trailer on the steep auto road is hard enough but add a 6 ton 12.5′ wide snowtractor as a load and its a challenge for any professional truck driver. Larry, a former Navy SeaBee, makes difficult, technical trucking task look easy! Larry and NHDOT are the best!
The near calm and humid weather is also great for cloud formations of various types to float by. I recall an early brochure expounding on the views of clouds from Mt Washington, “The various types of clouds and cloud effects are ever changing, one can live a lifetime on the summit and never see the same exact scenes of clouds repeated twice.” So true! Here are a few of my favorites from this past week.
