.May 26, 2006
I've been looking forward to today ever since I made my reservations two months ago to stay at the Galehead Hut. The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) has a series of huts set up throughout the Whites for those who wish to spend the night in the mountains. I have visited a few of them put have never stayed overnight. It is a little expensive but that is because they provide a bunk, pillow, blankets, and 2 meals. However, I will not be enjoying all of these luxuries. I have another hike planned in a couple of weeks and will be staying at the Lake of the Clouds Hut. I really can't afford to do this twice so at the Galehead Hut I am taking advantage of the self-service season. Some of the huts open before the big hiking season and are not yet full service. I will still get a bunk and a pillow but need to carry in my own sleeping bag and food. With food and water, my pack ways about 25 pounds. This is actually fairly light. Most thru hikers who are not being crewed carry about 40 pounds. Still, the 25 pounds is a lot more than the 10-15 pounds I usually carry.
I do have some company on this hike. Brent from work has decided to join me. We parked one vehicle a few miles away at the Lincoln Woods Visitor Center. We will be hiking almost a complete loop over the next 2 days. Leaving the Flume Visitor Center, we had .9 miles before we reached the AT. We were in for a nice treat. The trail was paved. This is a walking and biking path the goes most of the length of Franconia Notch State Park. With the path being paved it took no time to reach the AT. I took a picture of Brent at Whitehouse Bridge. This is where the AT intersects with the paved trail. Note the double blaze signifying a turn.
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After the bridge the AT follows the paved path for a few yards. This must be a major fake out for thru hikers who may think they are going to get to hike a paved section. But like I said, it only lasts for a few yards before the AT follows the Liberty Spring Trail off to the right. This would be our biggest climb of the day. After .6 miles we past the junction for the Flume Slide Trail. Now the trail got really steep. After a while, I could hear what sounded like an axe ahead. Someone must be working on the trail. Sure enough we met 2 men who just cleared a tree from the path.
"Are you with the Appalachian Mountain Club?" I asked.
"He is," said one of the men, "I came to help him." He sounded as if he was brought somewhat against his will.
The men continued on as we took our first break of the day. After our break and another 10 minutes of hiking we caught up to the trail workers again.
"I guess we need to slow down," I said. "We need to give them time to go ahead of us and clear the way."
"Are you going up to Mount Liberty?" one of them asked.
Mount Liberty is an
official 4,000 footer, but I wasn't planning on hitting it. Mount Flume (another 4,000 footer) is nearby and my plan was to come back another time and get them both.
"I wasn't planning on it," I said.
"The summit is only 3/10 of a mile from the AT," he said.
"You might as well, Eric" added Brent, "I know I am slowing you down."
Brent was doing great but I have been hiking a lot more than him. This was all the encouragement I needed. We had small walki talkies so we could stay in touch. I put it into high gear and headed on. I passed Liberty Spring Tentsite on the way. Shortly after I reached the junction with the Franconia Ridge Trail.
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I ditched my pack in the bushes and hiked the .3 miles to the top of Mount Liberty. Liberty is 4,459 feet and my 13th 4,000 footer. The day was overcast but I still had a great view. I could see all the way to Mount Washington which was still snow covered. They had 2 storms last week which added 15 inches of fresh snow. Because Washington is white and the day is overcast you can't really make it out in the picture.
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I made my way back to the junction where Brent was waiting.
"You're back already," said Brent
"Yep."
"I just got here."
I recovered my pack from the bushes and we headed on. The AT now follows the Franconia Ridge Trail. We entered the alpine zone where we were passed some materials for some future trail work.
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We made our way up to Little Haystack, a nonofficial 4,000 footer. From here we could look ahead to Mount Lincoln.
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On the way up to Mt Lincoln, we took a look back to Mount Liberty
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We made it to the top of Mount Lincoln. It is 5,089' and #14 for me. We had a great 360 degree view. We looked to the east to see where we would be going.
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We ran into a few small patches of snow before making our way to the top of Mount Lafayette. It is 5,260' and #15 for me.
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There were several other hikers at the top. I believe they were speaking French. Interesting enough they were swearing in English. Lynn also had encountered this once last year. The French gave us the Statue of Liberty. I hope they have received more from us than the use of our 4 letter words.
We had another great 360 degree view. To the east I could see North and South Kinsman which are on the AT, Mt Cannon another 4,000 footer that I will have to come back for, and the Greenleaf Hut. The Greenleaf Hut is the only AMC hut not located on the AT and is 1.1 miles away.
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We began our descent down Mt Lafayette.
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The AT now becomes the Garfield Ridge Trail.
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I thought this cairn was interesting. It was well built especially since its base was on an uneven boulder.
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Then we began the steep climb up to Mt Garfield. We met a woman with two dogs who had come up the Skookumchuck Trail. We passed Garfield Pond. With its close proximity to the trail I was surprised not to find a short access trail to it. I started to get a little ahead of Brent. There were a few small patches of snow here and there. When ever I passed one I would make a snowball and leave it on the trail. Just sort of an encouragement for Brent that I wasn't far ahead. I made it to the top of Mount Garfield and waited for Brent. About 10 minutes later he made it as well.
"Have you been leaving snowballs on the trail?"
"Yes."
"I guess I am holding you up if you have time to stop and make snowballs."
"Just a little"
"You know what."
"What?"
"Never leave ammo behind," he said, throwing a snowball which landed by my feet.
At 4,500 I can now cross Mt Garfield off my list. (#16)
There was another great 360 degree view. I just wish I had some blue sky. To the south I could see five 4,000 foot mountains. I will have to return for Mt Flume and Owl's Head
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To the east I could make out a very small speck which was the Galehead Hut. We still had a long way to go to get to our destination for the night.
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I heard the sound of a helicopter. When I located it, I noticed it was flying to the hut. The hut was about to turn from self service to full service and supplies were being brought it. As fresh supplies are needed throughout the year, they are brought in on the workers backs.
We began the steep descent of Mt Garfield. It was a little tricky because we ran into some patches of ice. We made it to the side trail for the Garfield Ridge Campsite. There was a stream here so we pumped some water through my filter. It was a hot, muggy day and that ice cold water felt good. Brent waited here while I went to checkout the campsite. Part way there I found a bench. This far out in the Whites, it's not often to come across such a comfortable spot.
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I sat to enjoy the view for a moment when a dog ran by. It was one of the dogs we met earlier. The woman who had the two dogs must be at the campsite. When I got to the campsite I saw the dog, but the woman wasn't around. I asked two other hikers who were there, but they hadn't seen her. I wasn't sure what to do. Right now the dog was all right, but if he got off the trail, he might never be found. You could tell the dog was nervous as he anxiously looked for his owner. I stopped to take a picture of the Garfield Ridge Shelter.
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~ ~ I turned around so I could decide what to do about the dog but he was gone. I hiked back to where Brent was waiting for me.
"Did the dog we saw earlier run by here?"
"Sure did. He went back up towards Garfield."
A few minutes later we could here the woman calling for her dog. I felt awful. There are a couple of trail intersections here so there was no way to tell where she was. I could hear her voice and I had seen the dog, but right now I knew where neither of them were. There was nothing I could do. I had to comfort myself with the fact that the dog was close. If I could hear her, then the dog could too. Within a minute or two we could no longer hear her voice. I assumed and hoped that this meant the two had found each other. It was a reminder to me to keep an eye on Snoopy when I bring him.
We still had a little over 2 miles to get to the hut. Brent said that I could go on ahead. This worked out well because I had an extra mile to do once I got to the hut. Galehead Mountain is a 4,000 footer. There is a separate half mile trail (one way) to get to the summit. I quickened my pace and we kept in touch by walki talki as we walked through the dense woods.
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I came to a viewpoint where I could see the hut. It was still a ways away. The helicopter I had scene earlier was still making dropoffs. I could hear it go overhead about every 15 minutes.
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I continued on for another half hour or so. I could hear the helicopter coming again. I knew I was close so I quickened my pace even more so that I could get there in time to see the helicopter dropping off supplies
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It really started to look like it was going to rain so I dropped off my pack, grabbed a couple essentials and headed up to Galehead Mtn. I made it to the summit at 4,024' (#17 for me). There is no view from the summit but I found a small cairn with an American Flag.
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Although there is no view from the summit. There is an outlook just a couple of minutes from the summit. I stopped on the way back. I got a good view back down to the hut.
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From here I got to see the helicopter make its final drop of the day. Then to my surprise it landed. I didn't think there was enough room but obviously there was. The chopper picked up a couple people who had been receiving the dropoffs and they went on their way. I made my way back to the hut. Brent wasn't there yet. I got a hold of him on the walki talki. He had to be close. I headed back down the trail to encourage him. Within 5 minutes I met up with him and we made our way back to the hut. It was 7:00 o'clock and we made it inside just before the rain started. We made ourselves some spaghetti, sat in the dining room until lights out at 9:30, and headed to our bunks. It was a long, tiring, but wonderful day.
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