|
July 15, 2002. Monday.
Day 1. 50-60 degrees, showers early, mostly clear, thunderstorm (A little bit of everything.) 7.7 miles, 5.5 hours, 1.4 mph. 1800� of climb. Met my sister (who will henceforth be known as �Round in Circles� or �Circles�} at Shakespeare�s Inn, Twin Mountain, New Hampshire on Sunday. Remember, Circles is a �peak bagger�. Her hobby is hiking to the top of all the mountains in New England that are over 4000�, and that qualify (must be named, have a trail to the top, and have at least a 200� drop before the next mountain). Dropped my car off at parking area just north of The Flume. We parked at Willey House parking area. Since we�re staying at AMC Huts, our packs are light, about 25# ea. Sheets are the strange added item.
High but easy climb along Ethan Pond Trail. Easy long, gentle down hill. We get hit by a shower just beyond Ethan Pond Campsite, where we meet Million Miler. Rocky, but gentle climb up Zealand Notch on the Twinway Trail, along Whitewall Mountain, mostly along old railroad grade, and through a slide area. Beautiful view of Zealand Mountain. Some boulder climbing to Zealand Falls Hut. No aches, no blisters so far. The waterfall is pretty.
 We checked in, found some good bunks. Sat out a thunderstorm. Diesel (a thruhiker) planned to be on Mount Washington the next day. Bless his feet. The bunks are three high, eighteen each in two rooms, with the men�s room out the back door of one, and the women�s room out the back door of the other. Dinner served promptly at 6 PM. Food is, as promised, plentiful (but not very good.) Marinaded (sic) Beef was tough and salty (salty is not bad when hiking.) Peas as vegetable (I don�t eat peas). Three-bean salad (sorry, but corn is NOT a bean). Minestrone Soup (fair, but Minestrone is made with white Navy beans, not black beans). Rice pilaf (umm, this was couscous.) Excellent oatmeal raisin bread. Dessert. I probably should not have drunk the coffee; I had trouble sleeping. (I shall now stop criticizing the food.) Three girls, about 9, out of control. Is parental supervision a thing of the past? 36 people here, and three little girls are permitted to make so much loud noise?? July 16, 2002.
Tuesday. Day 2. 50 degrees and windy. Cloudy morning, foggy most of the day. 7 miles. 9 hr, 55 min. .7 MPH. 2800� climb. (Actually, with optional side trip to bag West Bond: 9 miles, .9 MPH) Wake up call at 6:30 (I was up at 5:15), breakfast at 7. Morning skit concerning how to fold blankets, and the need to tip the Croo (sic). [Yes, I know. I�m being very critical. But staying at the Huts is not cheap. I�m not an AMC member, so my cost is $55/night. Circles is a member, so her cost is $45/night.] Long, high, but fairly gentle, rocky climb along The Twinway Tail up Zealand Mountain (with short side trip to bag the mountain.) Very nice view of Whitewall Mountain from Zeacliff, with clouds scudding up the notch. Climb up Mount Guyot (which is over 4000�, but doesn�t count for bagging purposes, since there is not a 200� drop before South Twin.) Mount Guyot has a large Alpine area (treeless), and is VERY rocky. We are completely shrouded in fog. About 50� of visibility. Cold and wet. I�m wearing three layers to keep warm. We are traveling slowly, but Circles needs to bag West Bond. (She was on an AMC-led �Women in the Wilderness� hike, and already bagged Mount Bond, and Bondcliff Mountain, but not West Bond.)
 Rocky trail along the Bondcliff Trail to the West Bond side trail. Fairly nice trail until we reach West Bond. Rocky crag with 360 view, and steep drop offs. I sit, petrified, on top. Absolutely petrified! The fog has lifted, for about an hour, and the views are spectacular!! Especially of Bond and Bondcliff. The optional side trip was probably 2 miles, and took 2 hours. Back along Bondcliff Trail to the fog and the Twinway Trail. Fog lightened up. Trail to top of South Twin was not too bad. Bagged South Twin. (Finley is very proud of himself for bagging three 4�s in one day: Zealand, West Bond, and South Twin!) Somewhat foggy, no views. Very nasty, steep, rocky 1250� climb down South Twin on the Garfield Ridge Trail. With the large rocks that are here, it would probably be difficult to build a trail with switchbacks, but I thought the AMC should try. Make it in to Galehead Hut at 6 PM, just in time for dinner. Aching a bit in the quadriceps. Hot spots on both big toes.  Galehead is the most remote of the AMC High-Mountain Huts. Five-mile hike to the nearest trailhead. This Hut was recently rebuilt, and is handicapped accessible. ?!? Yes, the ADA even applies to High Mountain Huts. Sometimes Political Correctness has NO common sense. This Hut probably has the only wheelchair-accessible composting toilets in the world. (At least I hope there are no others!) And a wheelchair ramp that has not, nor will ever, be used by a wheelchair. The bunks are only comfortable for people under 5�10�. Go figure. My feet stick out. Since we�re late, the bunk selection is not good. I get a 2nd tier, Circles gets a 3rd tier. (She�s so kind, letting me have the 2nd tier.) I sleep better (after I kick the door stop out of the door. Sorry, light was in my eyes.) Again, a raucous bunch of children, with no parental supervision. One 8-year-old keeps screaming �Oh, My God� every time he got a good cribbage hand. Guess I�m a curmudgeon. Profanity is not nice to hear from adults, but from an 8-year-old??? July 17th, 2002.
Wednesday, Day 3. 60 degrees, mostly sunny to lost in the clouds. 6.6 miles. 10 hours. .66 MPH!! (And I was complaining about hiking slowly in Virginia?) 2800 feet of climb. (This is a very tough section.) Same wake up and breakfast times. Different skit, same story line: Fold your blankets right, and be sure to tip the Croo. We start the day bagging Mount Galehead (It was there, and it�s a 4! Took about 45 minutes.). Easy climb, one minor view. Gentle, rocky (Okay, so every trail on the trip is �rocky�) descent on Garfield Ridge Trail. Three �bumps� to climb, 200� to 500� tall. And then we come to Mount Garfield� From one of the �bumps� we could see a scar on Garfield; either a rock slide, or the trail. It is the trail. Mount Garfield is 4488�; climb starts at 3600�. 400� of the climb is probably a 75 degree boulder climb, sometimes requiring hand over hand climbing. Probably took us an hour. I perched for a while, terrified at what we�d climbed. I do not think that I would have been able to descend this part of trail. Steep slab climb to the top of Garfield. Some beautiful views from here. Gentler descent of Garfield. Hike over several �humps�. Begin ascent of Mount Lafayette. Another steep, rocky climb to tree line. Slabbing ascent for the next .7 mile. (Slabbing is bare, solid rock hiking.) No trees here. Three or four false summits (Psychologically, it helped that we knew in advance about the false summits. Reaching a summit, only to find that there�s another 40� of climb to the next summit can be very discouraging.) We keep revising our arrival time; finally realizing that we would not arrive until after dinner was served. Mount Lafayette is 5240� tall. (Somehow, if it were 5280�, it would have been more satisfying.) Low flying clouds swoosh in. Finley has bagged another three 4�s! Galehead, Garfield, and Lafayette!
 Greenleaf Hut is a 1040� descent in 1.1 miles on the Greenleaf Trail; reasonably easy, but it took us an hour. Arrived at 7 PM. Greenleaf is the �tourist� Hut; 2500� climb on an old bridle path from Franconia Notch. This Hut sleeps 48 in four-tiered bunks. After the others have finished dinner, we are served leftovers. Again, plentiful, nourishing, and not very interesting. Three hikers arrived and were served after we�d eaten. More kids here wreaking havoc. (Excuse me! I�m paying $50 a night; I�d like a little consideration.) One potty in each bathroom is out of service. (This should not be permitted.) The bunks have low clearance. It�s nice to have pegs to hang things on, but being enclosed by other people�s clothing hanging adds to the claustrophobia. The sweet little kid sleeping above me keeps getting in and out of his bunk, and shining his light in my eyes. Thunderstorm rumbles through in early hours. July 18, 2002. Thursday. Day 4. Temp 50-70. Cloud has nestled along the ridge. 50� of visibility, or less. 6.4 miles. 9.5 hours (including optional side trip to bag Mount Liberty, and an hour to hike back to the top of Lafayette.) .67 MPH (or .85 MPH along AT.) 1600� of climb (including Liberty). [By now, we are aching very badly. My toes ache from walking on all the rocks. My quadriceps ache from all the lifting of the body on one leg, climbing boulders. My trapezoids ache from pulling myself up using trees and rocks. My calf muscles ache. We�ve decided that the planned one day recuperation in Lincoln is not going to be enough to regenerate ourselves for the steep, rocky climb up South Kinsman. So, we decide to take the day�s rest, and postpone the overnight backpack until next month.] Met a thruhiker who had been on Moosilaukee the previous day. Bless his feet! This is definitely the worst organized of the Huts. Instead of having the thruhikers (a few are permitted to stay free for �work� - usually setting and clearing the table and washing dishes) the Croo has the kids set the table. The kids do a terrible job and the Croo doesn�t rectify the problem. The food is served in small portions, so it doesn�t last around the table. (Must have been a very good sale on black beans, cream of paste, cranberry juice, and turkey sausage.) (To give credit where credit is due, the Croo of four backpacks in all the food and supplies, and backpacks out anything not compostable. In 60# backpacks.) This section of trail is along the top of Franconia Ridge. Spectacular 360 views, when there are views. But the cloud has settled in for most of the day somewhere below the 4000� level. With 50� or less of visibility, we set out. Above the tree line, so the course is marked by cairns. 1040� ascent of Lafayette. We hiked along Franconia Ridge Trail through the cloud to Mount Lincoln (5089�) and Little Haystack (which doesn�t count). Several pictures of �Hiker Emerging From Mist�. Some rather interesting climbs, and sharp drop offs. It may have helped that I could not see how far the drop-offs were. Steep boulder-laden descent to the tree line. Optional side-trip to bag Mount Liberty (4459�). Circles had been considering bagging Liberty on a loop hike when she bagged Mount Flume; but I convinced her that it was easier to bag on this hike. (And Finley bagged another 4.) It was an easy half hour detour with a nice view of Mount Flume. Three mile, 3000� descent on the Liberty Springs Trail. The first half was boulder-strewn and very steep. An extra mile hike along the bike path and the Pemi Trail to the parking lot. (Finley bagged two more 4�s: Mount Lincoln and Mount Liberty. He�s so proud of himself.) We settled in to the Woodward Resort, aching very badly. Total distance on the AT: 27.7 miles. Total hiking time (including optional side trips and the mile to and from the Greenleaf Hut): 35 hours. Average hiking speed: .8 MPH. Deducting 5 hours for the optional side trips: 30 hours. .92 MPH. Afterword: WE thought we were in pretty good shape. And we were! But this is an extraordinarily tough section of trail (Bless the thruhikers who do it in two days.) I�m glad we did it southbounding. The 3000� drop off Liberty was interminable going down. It would probably have been unbearable going up! On the other fin, I�m glad we climbed Garfield southbounding. It was a terrifying climb. I guess I might have been able to descend it, and perhaps I might not have been able to. It was the steep grades and the boulders and rocks what done us in. As for the weather: You puts your nickel down and takes your chances. The forecast had been for mostly sunny days, with temps in the 70�s. A low-pressure system settled in, and brought the mist, fog, and low-flying clouds. The day we left, it turned sunny! The Whites are always unpredictable. I�m very happy that we didn�t get caught in a thunderstorm on any of the treeless ridges. Now, I understand the warnings. On our day of rest, we drove over to retrieve Circles� car, and stopped by the Cog Railway to Mount Washington. Washington was in and out of the clouds; mostly in. If the ride had been cheaper, we would have ridden it (3 hour round trip). But not for $59 each in the clouds. Instead, we took the Mount Cannon Tramway for $10 each. Into the clouds (misty view of North Kinsman, but little else.) The half hour in the Jacuzzi definitely helped; but not enough to overnight the next section. The Stoly Lemon Vodka was a good idea, and it was good in lemonade. (Oh, I didn�t mention the Stoly? 16 oz of Stoly in a Diet Pepsi bottle. Good for two cocktails apiece, each night.) The 7-hour drive each way for the four-day weekend to hike the overnighter over the Kinsmans is going to be very tiring (and expensive), but otherwise, we�d never finish New Hampshire at this rate. Next year�s plan is The Presidentials. Pinkham Notch to Crawford Notch. 27 miles, three Huts 7 miles apart. Three days of 2000� climbs with very little descent. One day with a 3000� descent. It shouldn�t be much more difficult (he says in his innocence.) We will definitely plan the three-day hike from Gorham to Pinkham Notch next year as a separate trip.
 This page hosted by  Get your own Free Home Page 
Free search engine submission and placement services! |