By Marty Basch

Josh the camel this morning became the first of his kind to make the walk up the 7.6 mile Mount Washington Auto Road.

In the rain, Josh and his crew - which included two horses, an Irish wolfhound and two humans - began the historic ascent under the cover of darkness at 3 a.m.

Those at the scene reported one of the horses balked about 100 yards shy of the summit, and refused to move for about a half hour. The entourage pressed on without him and the horse apparently finally saw the light and completed the journey. Josh now has the camel record for the climb:  five hours, 30 minutes.

He’s also now the only camel sporting a “This camel climbed Mount Washington” bumper sticker.