On foot

The boardwalk

The cabin dumps you on a deck. The old weather station sits farther along a boardwalk. That walk is why I still answer questions. People think the summit is a flat patio. It is a ridge. There are stairs. There are railings I have replaced more than once after a winter chewed the posts.

How long: twenty to forty minutes one way for most adults, depending on stops and wind. Kids dawdle at every sight-line. If you cannot do stairs without a rest, budget the high end and turn around before you are stubborn about it.

Wind, ice, and the last stair flight

The last flights take you into weather that does not exist at the cabin door. I have had to scrape ice off those treads in May. In October the larch colour is real and so is the north wind. Hold the rail. Do not pose on the outer plank for a photograph if the gusts are lifting your hat.

The station building at the end is a destination, not a shelter you should count on. If the sky is a lid, you walked for a white wall. That is not a failure of the boardwalk. That is the mountain on that hour.