Date: 2018-08-30
From: Chet's House

To: Greenleaf Hut
Miles today: 6.4

Today I woke up pretty sweaty at Chet's place. His place was hot last night. I got up around 7 am. Only a few people were awake. I heard Chet rolling around and talking to other hikers. He was in his element. Butters, Too Sweet, 50 Cent, and Scatter were going to slack pack over Mt Wolf and Kinsman. It would be much easier with a lighter pack. Maga and I ate our breakfast burritos that we bought the other night. They were pretty bad and it was hard to finish them. Scatter was wondering if he should slack pack since he had been feeling sick for the past few days. Maga and I headed out for our climb up Franconia ridge. We grabbed coffee at the gas station. A man named Dave asked if we needed a ride back to beaver creek but we were headed to Franconia Notch. He went on his way. Maga and I walked a short distance and Dave drove up to us and offered us a ride. Dave was retired and moved to the area 3 years ago. He had hiked all over the white mountains too. Dave dropped us off at the access road. We got our packs ready and headed for the climb up to Franconia ridge.The sky was blue and clear from the beginning. It was warm as well. The trail up to the first campsite before the ridge was well maintained. It had boulder steps and was clear of roots. You could tell this path was more popular than Mt Wolf or the Kinsman. We made it up to a campsite and met a guy named Deluxe. He was called that because he carried a lot of extra weight. He had hiked many trails around the states and some abroad. Maga and him talked about the PCT a lot. We hiked together just before the treeline ended. Maga and I needed a snack break. I ate a thawed chimichanga and a bagged salad. I also called Theresa to catch up on what was going on in Austin. By this time clouds had rolled in and there wasn't anything to see. We hiked out onto the ridgeline and was instantly greeted with freezing wind in the clouds. The weather forecasted 40 to 60 mile per hour winds with gusts up to 75 miles per hour. I had to put on my warmer layers since my rain coat wasn't doing enough. We hiked on the exposed ridge and saw nothing because of all the clouds. At Mt Lafayette we decided to head to the Greenleaf hut to try score a work for stay. It was 1 mile downhill and we didn't think any thru hikers would make the trek. The downhill to the hut was steep and wet. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to stay in the hut since other hikers could be there.  When we arrived at the hut there wasn't any other hikers there. Janna, Charlotte, Kyle, and Allie were the hut's croo. We asked Janna if we could do a work for stay and they did! She told us that we really didn't need to do anything until 7:30 pm. Charlotte gave the history of the huts in the whites. Some had been around since the 1880s. We watched as they served salad, pizza, soup, and cookies for dinner for all the guests.  We would get to eat after everyone else. The clouds eventually parted over the ridgeline and we could see the Franconia ridge. Part of the ridge was still covered with clouds and they draped over like a blanket. The clouds were flowing over a section of the ridgeline. It looked surreal. At 7:30 pm the croo fed us the leftovers. They were so good. I made sure to eat everything. The pizza was really tasty as well as the soup. Afterwards they put us to work scraping pots and pans. Maga sang Garth Brooks songs as we scrubbed along. The croo told us that we could stop cleaning since the pans took awhile. They let us setup our sleeping stuff in the common area.  Tonight I'm in a hut on the Franconia ridge. I can't wait for breakfast tomorrow!