Revisiting Mount Beacon

Last year we thought it would be fun to hike up to the top of Mount Beacon...only to find that it is a very steep one-mile climb. We made it anyway, but it was pretty grueling.

A year later, we decided to try it again. It was still pretty hard, but not nearly as brutal as it had seemed back then. Either we were just more mentally prepared, or we're actually a little more in shape than we were.

Here's a shot of the railroad ties at the bottom. See last year's post for a bit more of the history of the Mount Beacon Incline Railway.

You know you're at the top when you see the wheel house.

(As you can see, I'm posting a mix of my photos and Dave's photos. He was testing out some new lenses and film for his Hipstamatic app. )








Back on flat land. I took a photo of this same building last year, only this time the fire escape was making such an awesome shadow.

I kind of cringed when I noticed a sign posted near Beacon Falls advertising future development. It seems that pretty soon the crumbling turn of the century structures will be converted into a luxury spa, hotel, and restaurant. See this post from about a year and a half ago for more pictures of the falls--pretty soon it won't look like that any more. Some people might disagree with me that that's a bad thing, but there's something a bit magical about this place just as it is. It's one of the things I loved about Beacon the first time I set foot there. If you peek into one of the windows in the "roundhouse" building as they call it, you can see trees growing inside. I'm sure it's totally dangerous to go in there but I would much prefer that to a fancy hotel.

There's such a brief window of time when a place can really be awesome, after a bunch of creative people go there and make it cool, but before people with money take notice and descend upon that place to capitalize on the awesome.

I'm sure I'll still love it there. No luxury spas for me though.