Date: 2010-09-05
From: Eliza Brook

To: Stealth Camp
Miles today: 9.0

I know my daily mileage is low. We had a hard climb over Kinsman Mountain. Today started the section of trail maintained by the Appalachain Mountain Club. A couple of other names for them....Appalachain Money Collectors....A$$holes Making Cash. The group is not well like by the thru-hikers. Everything in this area has a fee attached. They operate the huts throughout the Whites and a couple of lodges. The AMC had revenue in 2009 in excess of $29 million, but they still charge thru-hikers to camp. This is the only place on the trail we have to pay to stay at a shelter or camp. Of course, the camp caretakers say if you dont want to pay, they just go into the woods and camp, which is what most of us do. However, the AMC is a partner with Leave No Trace and they say only camp at pre-existing campsites. Everytime the thru-hikers create a stealth campsite the caretakes comes and destroy the site so we have to pay. A constant battle.  One of the reason given for making us pay to camp is the cost to maintain the privy. They use composting privies in the area. Instead of using "duff" from the surrounding woods in the privies the AMC flys in hardwood chips to use in the privies. The cost of the helicopter to fly in the wood chips, $1,600 a hour. What a waste. Several of the other groups that maintain the AT use composting privies. Those groups just use "duff" from the forest instead of flying in wood chips by helicopter, at $1,600 a hour.The AMC runs a serious of huts in the White Mountains. Basically, these hut are very rustic hotels. There are no frills at the huts. The price per night is usually $80 - $100 per night per person. For the money, you get a dinner, breakfast and a bunk. There is no heat, A/C or private rooms at the huts. The huts are staff with a crew of 3-5. Since the crew is small, they usually allow 2-4 thru-hikers stay at the hut in exchange for doing some chores (work-for-stay). Usually the chores consist of washing dishes, sweeping out the bunkhouse or something to the extent. In exchange for the work, thru-hikers are allowed to sleep on the dinning room tables and allow to eat the leftovers. The problem I find with this arrangement is the thru-hiker have to stop hiking around 4 pm in order to get work-for-stay. That is a bit early to quite hiking. If the thru-hiker does their chores in the evening they are allowed to leave at anytime the next morning. However, most thru-hikers will stay for breakfast. The thru-hikers are not fed until after all of the guest eat, the dishes have been washed and the kitchen cleaned. Sometimes this can take an hour or two. If you wait to eat breakfast, this mean the hiker may not leave the hut until after 10 am. A 10 to 4 hiking day is a very short day. Since there are no shelters in the area, I have heard that the crews of the huts are not allowed to turn away thru-hikers when the weather is bad. We will see. Now that I am off my soapbox, I found Power Nap sitting by a creek waiting for Cerveza to arrive. So I waited with him. Since the two of the had a bit of a fight this morning, we think that Cerveza hitch into town and is staying at the hostel. We decided to walk back into the woods and find a flat spot to camp. Slightly illegal, but what else can we do. The spot we found was well hidden from the trail.