Date: 2018-08-01
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Miles today: 0.0

Wed Day 138 8/1 Surprise SurpriseWoke up at four without any intentions. Really didn't make a plan for today. We had talked to PT the day before. He was taking today, August 1st, as a zero to avoid the heavy rains that had been forecast for today. I felt somewhat better but I didn't know whether it was a fake better and as soon as I start a hike I would feel terrible. We hiked a stiff, steep uphill eight tenths of a mile. We got to the Galehead Lodge at 5:40. People were already moving around. The staff was up cooking. A number of hikers were in the dining area or milling about the building. This is the most remote of the huts in the Whites. There was a lot of history about how this hut was established and how the men and mules carried the lumber and tools in to build this hut in 1933, during the Depression. It was a spectacular, beautiful location with great views. I took some pictures of the bunk rooms. These Huts are all sold out months if not years in advance. I was feeling okay after that steep climb. We had run out of water the day before so we were hydrating quite heavily today. We were supposed to get here and fill up with water yesterday but I just couldn't make it yesterday. There was a strange quiet in the hut. People talked in low voices or not at all. Many people were stretching. They had very nice bathrooms. At 6:30 they started to serve breakfast. I told them I was at through hiker. They said they couldn't serve any food for through hikers until eight am. I already consumed 2 two liters of cold water. So with that news and carrying a half lieter, we headed out. No sense waiting an hour and a half for some food. We were facing two days left on the trail, a day extra that we hadn't planned. So we were really running short on food, but we weren't waiting an hour and a half for whatever they were serving. Our next water source was the Zealand Falls Hut seven miles away. This was where we were trying to get to the day before. Now we were going to be just trying to get maybe three or four miles past it to call it a day. It was very nice hiking and the trail was very accommodating. We made excellent time and got to the Zealand Falls Hut by 11. We showed our through hiker pass that we had gotten at Liberty Springs. I got a baked good and Ibex got the soup. I also bought the pasta lunch. Being short of food, we were trying to stock up. We were pleased we had made such good time getting here in four hours. We thought it would take us seven, cuz everything seems to go one mile an hour in the Whites. I talked to the girls who were working there. They said the trail down to Crawford Notch was a highway. You could make three miles an hour or better. So we ate all the food we had except for a couple bars. We thought maybe we could make it the eight miles down before dark and hitch hike down the Peter and Patty's. Well, they were right. The trail was wide and dirt. Every time you crossed a stream it would be rocky, but it was a beautiful Virginia type trail. We were so stunned that we originally thought we might be able to make it by five or six p.m. Now we started thinking we might be able to make it there by four p.m. We kept quite a pace and did the eight miles down at three miles per hour in three hours. Probably didn't need to go so fast cuz my knee bothered me a little the next day. I didn't know it was going to be fast all the way. It took us a while hitch hiking but finally a local picked us up and drove us to Bartlett. He said normally he would take us further, but with the traffic so heavy it was going on four in the afternoon. He wasn't going to brave the intense traffic in Conway. I gave Patty a call and she came and picked us up. So here we ended up doing 15 miles in one day when we weren't even sure we'd be able to do 9 miles. Making plans is just a way of structuring and evaluating what you're able to accomplish today. We don't seem to be able to follow through on any particular plan perfectly well. We just keep making miles and see where we end up. Our next section will be up over Mount Washington. I don't think we'll be able to plan that too exactly either. We ended up coming out on Wednesday. It started to rain when we were in the car, so we missed all the rain, which was perfect.