January 5, 2008
I carpooled today with Dave and Audrey. We got to the trailhead with time to spare. While we waited, Dave offered us a hot dog roll. No hot dog, just the roll. Audrey and I sort of looked at each other and passed.
"I'm going to have good luck today, because I didn't waste food," said Dave.
After spotting vehicles on the other end, the rest of the gang showed up. This was an AMC hike headed up by Ed Hawkins and Sam Jones. We were also joined by Catherine, her dad Ron, Mark, Joni, Brian, and Rick. Although it was a warm morning for January, I was cold as we were waiting to get moving.
I noticed Audrey hopping on one foot then the other, "Looks like you are cold too."
"Yes, I'm doing my pre-hike dance."
Here's today's track.
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We left the trailhead at dark-thirty (6:30) following some cross country ski tracks. A little while later we reached the summer hiking trailhead on Haystack Road. The road is not plowed so winter hikes are longer than summer hikes. We were warming up, so we took this opportunity to layer down.
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Catherine steps over a blowdown.
Catherine has a baby girl just a few months old. Last year she climbed seventeen 4000 footers while pregnant. Wow! She deserves extra credit for that. When she was 5 months along she finally had to stop. She said her clothes were not fitting any more and that you just can't find maternity hiking clothes.
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Looks like it is my turn to break trail.
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Mark crossing Little River
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Audrey took pictures today as well. She said that I could 'borrow' a few for my site. If you want to see more of the pictures she took along with some cool video clips click here. The picture below and several others were taken by Audrey and marked 'Courtesy of Audrey'.
Sam and Jonathan at the river crossing.
Although I've hiked with Jonathan before, he wasn't part of today's group. He started behind us, caught up to us, and continued on, breaking trail for us all the way up. Thanks Jonathan.
Here comes our long train of hikers with Rick in the front.
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Although Jonathan was the first one through, the next couple hikers still had some trail breaking as well.
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Joni in a winter wonderland.
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Catherine and Ron
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Brian looks a little like a Vulcan here, but it's his earmuffs.
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Audrey and Dave. Audrey has been trying out her new snowshoes that Dave got her for Christmas.
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Come on, some one look at the camera.
Thanks Mark.
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Although we had cloudy skies, we still had some great views today.
Here's a view of Mount Washington.
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Looking across to South Twin. . .
. . . but first we have to get to the top of North Twin.
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On the top of North Twin is a very short spur trail. If you don't take this tiny trail, you won't officially go over the top of North Twin. Ed joked, "I'll report you to the AMC if you don't go over the top." The 4761' summit of North Twin marks my 11th winter 4000 footer in the Whites. Dave and Audrey shared some homemade fudge on the summit. Dave said he dropped Little Debbie as a sponsor.
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On to South Twin.
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I can't seem to remember if it was before or after the summit, but Audrey got caught in a spruce trap. Joni and Mark helped her get out.
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Nearing South Twin
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Dave reached the 4902' summit of South Twin first. Winter #12 for me.
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Since Dave dropped Little Debbie as a sponsor, I brought some of their oatmeal creme pies along to share with everyone. I know, I know, I have the box upside down. Duh!
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Here's a sign covered with rime ice with Mt. Washington in the background.
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From here we got on the Twin Way Trail which is also the Appalachian Trail.
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We would be climbing Galehead next. From the top of South Twin, Galehead didn't look like much of a mountain.
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Catherine took this picture of me, just before the hut.
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Galehead Hut
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The hut was closed for the winter, but there must have been a drive thru window open. Brian pulled out a nice big submarine sandwich.
"I think we can take him," joked Joni.
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Ed and Dave used this time to plan a potential traverse of the Bonds and Zealand in a couple weeks.
Dave then said, "Could we do the traverse from north to south? Just in case something happens, and we have to turn back. That way I'll be sure to get the peak that I really need. (pause) You know, for the good of the group."
We were then joined by Jonathan who had already been up and down Galehead. He had been breaking trail all day solo and decided to wait at the hut and join our group on the way down. Sam said that he had been on Galehead too many times and stayed at the hut as well.
Here's a view of South Twin from the hut
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Galehead looks a lot bigger from the hut then it did from the top of South Twin.
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We left Jonathan, Sam, and our packs at the hut and headed up the Frost Trail.
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Ed was in the lead and managed to find a spruce trap, so we got to see first hand how to get out of one. Small spruce trees tend to hold up the snow keeping pockets of air. When you step on a spruce trap, you sink right in. To make matters worse, the small branches of the tree manage to get tangled around your snowshoes making it tought to get out.
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Just before the summit of Galehead there is a lookout where you can see down to the hut.
"Hey Ed," said Joni, "Sam's eating your food."
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Joni took this picture of us on the 4024' summit of Galehead (winter #13).
"I'm not sure it took," Joni said. "I didn't hear a sound."
"I have the sound turned off," I said.
"Eric's camera is in stealth mode," added Audrey.
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We returned to the hut over the same route.
"We saw you eating our food," I joked to Sam.
"I wasn't going to eat your food, but if you were up there much longer I was going to take some of your clothes."
Next we began down the Garfield Ridge Trail.
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Since Jonathan was now part of our group and not breaking trail ahead of us, we went into a 100 step rotation. After .6 miles we reached the Gale River Trail where Dave got carried away and stayed in the lead for a while as he swished his way through the deep, fluffy snow.
"I couldn't pass it up," he said. "I was having too much fun. I told you I would have good luck by eating that hot dog roll this morning."
It was dark by the time we reached the trailhead on Gale River Loop Road. This is also not accessible by car in the winter, so we weren't done yet. We put our headlamps on to see and TO BE SEEN since we were now following snowmobile tracks.
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We finally reached the Beaver Brook parking area a little after 5 pm. Audrey, Sam, Catherine, and I waited as the rest of the gang was driven back to the other trailhead. I had two Little Debbie's left and gave one to Audrey. I felt bad I didn't have one for Dave, but we knew he was enjoying his last remaining hot dog roll. What a great day!! Special thanks to Ed and Sam for heading up this hike.
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