Date: 2023-06-22
To: Garfield Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 15.1

Garfield Ridge Shelter 15.1Leaving the shelter this morning we immediately descended. I lost the trail as we crossed over a creek. I was standing in the woods and the trail just disappeared!  Turned around and went to the creek. Actually a waterfall. Not big but tumbling down the mountain. All along the trail there have been white blazes. A 2¢x6¢ white strip of paint on tres or rocks.  When there is a turn there will be two blazes which will generally indicate a turn and in which direction. The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) doesn¢t seem to follow the apple of these blazes like everywhere else we have been. Also side trails are marked by a blue or other color blaze. I backtracked to the trail just before it crossed the waterfall. No double blaze!  I looked down the waterfall and sure enough there was a blaze about 100 feet down the waterfall. So down I go. Scrambling down this creek/waterfall for about 500 ft.  Left the creek but kept going down and often scrambling down rock faces for about 1000 ft. After descending two miles we arrived at the Lonesome Lake Hut, the first of the AMC run huts. These are hotels in the woods for hikers. You get dinner, a bed with pillow and two blankets and breakfast in the morning.  Great place to stay except.  Except for the fact that you must reserve in advance which is difficult sometimes for us the predict more than a few days in advance and we often don¢t have cell service. Oh and the cost is $150/night per person non-refundable non-transferable. But the huts are fabulous. The leave the leftovers out for hikers to eat.  They also have fresh baked goods. For $2 and they have some hiker resupply stuff After such a slow start, I think it took Tim 2 1/2 hours to get down and it took me 1 1/2, we were questioning if we would make it through the planned 15 miles. Continued on down. We started at 3750 ft and went back down to 1500 ft to cross under I 93. Headed straight back up to 4755 ft for the summit of Little Haystack Mountain. A challenging climb withe some scrambling it boy was it worth it.  It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and we were above tree line again. Looking ahead we could see our first presidential mountain, Mt Lincoln.  A clear walk across relatively smooth path. Stopped on Lincoln to take in the views. Clear view of Mt Washington, the highest peak until Mt Katahdin. All around all one can see are mountains. The look like waves rolling out in all directions. Photos just can¢t capture to complexity and depth of what you see up here. As humans walking or driving around down in the valley you just  can¢t comprehend have vast this are is. Luckily for us the hiking was easier up here so we made up some time. Of course we dropped off these ranges so we could fit in one more 900 ft climb over Mt Wolf.  Descending Wolf I had my head down watching my footsteps and just trying to get to the shelter just as quick as I could. As I was going down it wasn¢t very fast. I know I should have been close to the shelter but wasn¢t seeing any sign. It felt wrong.  Sure enough the next blaze I saw was BLUE!  Now I had to go back up the f¢in mountain 0.2 miles. We all made the shelter by 7. Our latest arrival.   PS we all agreed that the photo does not capture the immensity and depth of the views