Date: 2015-07-27
From: Garfield Ridge Shelter

To: Crawford Notch
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: broken clouds

7/27, 17.4, Crawford NotchMore of the same. It seems my journal has become a broken record repeating itself over and over. Hiking was hard, weather was warm...no...wait...it was a good day. While the hiking today was definitely hard, and the weather was warm and humid, the climbs we made today finally gave us some interesting views of the New Hampshire mountains. We set out a bit early, around 6:45, because we were trying to cover 14 miles today over difficult terrain. Starting from the Garfield ridge shelter we climbed a bit, but mostly walked a muddy, rocky trail for two miles before starting our first significant climb. The trail up South Twin mountain was a 1500 foot climb and took us past an AMC hut. The Appalachian Mountain Club operates several huts which have comfortable indoor lodging and meals, but otherwise are relatively primitive. Getting to hem requires a hike in, except Lake of the Clouds hut, so it is not your typical vacation resort. It is however a good way to introduce young kids to the wilderness gradually. We took our first break at Galehead hut around 10 am where they had leftover coffee, peanut butter bars and homemade energy bars for sale. After indulging a bit we nosed around some books where I located the hut registers, like shelter logs, from back to the 60's. I was pleasantly surprised to find a reference to Grandma Gatewood as she stopped there on her third thru hike in 1964. She was the first woman to thru hike the trail and was from southern Ohio making her one of e first people to flee Ohio by hiking e AT. We hiked on from Galehead up the climb to the top of South Twin mountain and then across the ridge to Mt Guyot. From there the trail appeared to head downhill to Zealand Falls hut and then level out to the shelter that was our chosen destination at Ethan Pond. We arrived at Zealand Falls hut around 2:30 and decided to have an afternoon snack of a bowl of soup and a slice of fresh baked bread. We quickly finished the snack and hiked on around 3. Otter had been at the hut ahead of us and in speaking with the staff learned that the Lake of the Clouds hut, where we plan to stay tomorrow night, was expecting an influx of a hiker bubble. He is debating hiking further to avoid the crowd but will decide at the hut tomorrow when he arrives. After the Zealand Hut we hiked down a bit and then hit our first level trail in several days of hiking. Consequently we made great time and arrived at our destination at 5:30. Unfortunately, we met a couple other hikers leaving the shelter area, including Otter, who let us know the shelter and tent sites were full. They were headed to stealth camp down near Crawford Gap 3 miles ahead where they had heard there were many sites to do so. We hiked on as well to find a place to camp.We reached Crawford Gap and found little or nothing for campsites. Otter sets up in a hammock so he was able to find an area, but tent sites were few. IB, JP and I decided to get to the road and hitch hike to a motel or campground nearby. At the road we tried hitching for about 10 minutes and decided to start walking to a campground 1.8 mikes away. We continued to ply for rides as we walked and shortly a young couple, both long distance hikers, stopped and gave us a ride. They had been out day hiking and were on their way home so they were glad to drop us off at the campground. It was now 7:15 so we selected a campsite and a couple groceries before the store closed at 8 and headed to set camp. We got organized, put up tents and selected a tree to hang our food later and I decided to head for the shower. I walked to the bathhouse and discovered the showers ran on quarters, something I did not have since hikers carry little or no change, and the store was closed. I was disgusted that after paying for the site the showers were coin operated! I washed up in the sink and headed my hungry self back to the campsite to cook. After dinner it was time to turn in so we hung our food and prepared for what we expect to be a rainy night. Tomorrow the difficult hiking returns as we head up the Presidential range toward Mt Washington. We hope to stay at Lake of the Clouds hut as work for stay but that is hard to plan, since they take the first few thru hikers for those arrangements. If not hen we will stay in the hiker bunkhouse, called the dungeon, since there is nowhere else to camp or hike to from the hut.Silverback