Date: 2004-08-18
From: Garfield Ridge Campsite

To: Zealand Falls Hut
Miles today: 9.7

It was chilly but clear last night with brilliant stars. I got going a bit before 7. The first order of business was getting down the rest of Mount Garfield. It was as steep and tricky as yesterday's part had been.Kinsman Mountain and Mount Garfield in particular seemed to border on what can only be called gratuitous ruggedness. I have seen other stretches where there was ruggedness for the sake of ruggedness but the AMC takes the cake. I found myself getting angry; aren't the Whites dangerous enough already without making the trail surface dangerous too? I really question whether avoiding safety improvements enhances the hiking experience and sections like the Beaver Brook ravine on Mount Moosilauke prove that a better job of trail construction is feasible. So there seems little excuse but sheer bravado. If the AMC wants trails worthy of Eco-Challenge, fine, but does it really belong on the Appalachian Trail? If my thruhike were ended because of an injury sustained on a bad trail section after five months of effort I'd be resentful as all get out!At Galehead I stopped for three bowls of beef-barley soup. Then I made the half mile, 900 foot ascent of South Twin Mountain. It was better trail than Garfield but still took me an hour to get to the top. The view showed what a difference a day makes. Mount Lafayette was obscured with haze, not nearly the visibility of the day before.Then came a chain of successively lower peaks. On Mount Guyot I found Tree Frog, who had passed me hours before. He was worried about whether he had made a wrong turn. I reassured him that we were on the right path and we hiked together for a while until he stopped for lunch.At the Zealand Cliff Trail Junction I hit blueberry paydirt! I had found a couple before but here were bushes and bushes full of ripe berries. Not only that but some were the largest wild blueberries I had seen on the Trail, nearly a quarter inch in diameter. I could have eaten for hours but knew that afternoon thunderstorms were forecast and I really ought to keep moving. I hardly tore myself away from one patch before I would run into another and start picking and eating again. Finally I reached a downslope where the berries gave way to other plants.At the bottom I found another potentially confusing trail junction and another right after that, neither with white blazes to show the correct way. I worried about Tree Frog. So I went back and left little AT symbols made with dead twigs to show the way. Then before going on, I listened on the chance he might be close behind me. Sure enough, I heard the "click, click" of treking poles and then saw his head bobbing through the tree. I waited for him to be sure he did not get lost, and we hiked together to Zealand Falls Hut where he hiked on to Ethan Pond to join his two companions. At the hut I asked if there were any open bunks. Miracle of miracles, there was one left! For the somewhat stiff price of $82 I could get a dry bed and two good meals. Just what the doctor ordered! Ponderer was there as well, having reserved a space by phone.I could have done the "work for stay" option for free. But then I would only get whatever leftovers there were and a bit of floor to sleep on and would have to work 2 or 3 hours in the morning, making for a late start. Sounds like Cinderalla. This way I'd get to experience the nonthruhiker hut experience, getting fed and doing no work.Had there been no space at all, I would have had to either find somewhere to camp in the woods or hike another 3 miles to Ethan Pond Campsite and risk getting drenched if the predicted thunderstorms arrived. But my friend Aloha Ann had warned me by email to slow down and that she would be checking up on me. If she got wind of me hiking 13 miles in one day here in the Whites, I think she might come up here and dismember me! So just as well I stopped here. I hate getting dismembered!Supper was wonderful: minestroni soup, salad, steamed vegatables, lasagna and chocolate pudding cake with coffee. Burrrrrrp! After that I took a walk and found a blueberry bush so I can get tomorrow's berry quota out of the way first thing in the morning.Tomorrow I hike down to Crawford Notch and stay at the hostel of camp. Then if the weather holds, I hope to climb to Lakes of the Clouds Hut the next day and go over Mount Washington the next morning.