Date: 2018-06-25
From: Galehead Hut

To: Nauman Campsite
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: light rain

Work for stay in the morning consisted of sweeping and preparing the bunkrooms after we were treated to eggs, bacon, coffee, pancakes and bread. Again, such a nice meal!After a late start around 9 when we finished our work, we climbed up South Twin mountain. Another 4000' mountain which are fun to do again and bring back memories of the first time I did them. As we neared the top while hiking in the fog and mist,the sun came out for a quick minute with hopes of it burning off the fog.We hiked from here to the next hut on the AT which happened to be Zealand hut. Here, the croo gave us the leftovers from dinner last night. More stuffed shells! It was a nice lunch! The croo often give leftovers to us because if they don't, they have to do more work composting the food. So, as thru hikers they get really excited to give us food! It's amazing!On the way down from Zealand, I took a dive. I was hooking up my iPod and not paying enough attention to the wet rocks. I pretty much dove as my foot slipped and ended up landing on my right hip and scraping both knees and badly scraping my arm. It hurt like hell. I learned my lesson though and after a minute, I got up and walked it off. The mountains don't care.I hiked past Ethan Pond Campsite and eventually down to Rt 302 Crawford Notch. The entire time I was in minor pain from my hip but I ended up popping Ibuprofen, which I try to avoid, and it worked it's miracles.My friend Mike Tryon had hoped to hike Washington with us the next day and was going to meet us at Crawford Notch where we had originally planned to stay. Well, it's so difficult to plan anything and when we hit Crawford Notch at 2pm we knew we had to keep pushing. I didn't have service so I couldn't contact him so I was hoping he would see my GPS tracks. We began the climb up the Webster Cliff Trail over the cliffs to Mt Webster and Mt Jackson. There were sweet views of the entire state and the winds were high. The gusts were probably 40-50mph! It was exciting. At the cliffs I finally got service and Mike decided he was going to follow right behind us and meet us at the Mizpah hut where we were headed-- 6 miles from 302.At the Mizpah hut, Two Clicks got a work for stay and I went to the Nauman Campsite right next to the hut and paid for a spot for myself and Mike when he showed up. I did my chores and ate a quick dinner before the cold took over. It was cold! Cold enough where I slept with my water filter and was wearing most of my layers. I was happy I had switched back to my 3 degree sleeping bag for the whites even though it weighs more! I believe it dropped down to low 30s if not lower at night.Mike arrived around 8:30 and relieved my stress. That trail was hard and I was worried about him hiking alone potentially into the dark. The only thing was I had no way to contact him and was just hoping he would make it. When he got there I forced him to stop setting up his tent and change out of his sweaty clothes in order to stay warm. While he did so, I helped set up his tent. Tent platforms suck! I talked him out of cooking food so late and he ate a few bars before jumping in his sleeping bag to stay warm. We went to bed with hopes for great weather tomorrow over Washington!