Date: 2005-09-12
From: Garfield Hut

To: Zealand Falls Hut
Miles today: 7.0

A great night last night in Galehead Hut. I met with a lot of section hikers, including Rex, who is a software programmer, and two guys from Baltimore who do trail running as a sport! They both slept outside in hopes of seeing the Aurora Borealis, but had no luck. A couple, who spoke French, but who come from New York, were with me in bunkroom #2.   Bubble Toes and Rawhide, as well as Cruise Control were also here. Bubble Toes and Rawhide stayed as work for stay. It was a strange sensation, me being a paid guest and they being work for stay. They have to wait until everyone else has eaten before they get to eat anything, and they have to sleep on the floor, or on the tables, while I am waited on hand and foot. I realy didn¢t like the way that they were treated, like a sort of second-class hiker, it seemed to me. Of course that was most likely my guilt at being treated better that they were, just because I had paid and they had not. I had made a point of registering, and paying, for my stay at all of the huts, so that the thru-hikers who realy needed the ¢work for stay¢ option could take full advantage of it. There is a very strict limit on the total number of hikers allowed to work for stay at each hut ¢ it is generally only two ¢ and the policy is very strictly enforced. I just felt had that they were treated like the beggars who were waiting for the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table, and that I was the rich man. I am sure that there is a lesson in there for me!   After breakfast ¢ oatmeal, bacon, pancakes and raspberry juice with coffee, I was back on the trail by 8:00AM. The day started out with a steep climb up Twin Mountain. It is 1,500 feet in 0.8 miles and it is straight up ¢ I mean straight up! No switchbacks on this stretch. In fact, now that I think about it, switchbacks seen to be in extremely short supply since I entered NH.   It was a cloudy and overcast morning, and by the time that I entered into the Alpine Zone on Mount Guyot ¢ 4,560 feet ¢ I was in a howling gale with the misty fog being blown right up the mountain ¢ it was fantastic!   Pretty soon I was back down into the trees and out of the wind, on a fairly level and well-graded ridge trail.   I was still surrounded by the misty fog and there were no views through that fog today. An elderly couple, who had stayed the night at Galehead Hut, and I, leapfrogged all day long. It was a very busy trail. Bubble Toes and Rawhide passed me by, and Ashley, one of the crew members from Galehead Hut, passed me twice, going to and coming back from, Zealand Falls Hut ¢ a cool 14 miles in a bad weather day!   As I climbed down off of Zealand Ridge, I met with Red Eft on his way up ¢ a SOBO thru-hiker. He has red hair and beard and says that ¢Eft¢ is the correct name of those Newt/Salamanders that I have been seeing on the trail. He is a former PhD student at Edinburgh University in Scotland ¢ he is American ¢ where he briefly studied music, specifically pipeing! He told me that he had a set of pipes in his backpack!! He even took a course in speaking the Gaelic language, so I had an opportunity to practice my Gaelic ¢ who would have thought that I would ever meet another Gaelic speaker on the AT? Such interesting people that you meet on the trail.   So I am now at Zealand Falls Hut. The French Couple, and the Boys from Baltimore have already arrived, and said that the weather was much better when they went over Guyot, and that they had good views when they were hiking along the crest.   Last night at dinner Rex asked me the classic question as to why was I hiking the AT? I think that the reason that I am still continuing to hike it, is different from the reason that I started it. I started because I was fascinated by the existence of a 2,000+ mile long footpath through the mountains, and I was seized with an overwhelming urge to see if I could hike the entire length of this trail. I am continuing however, not to finish the trail, but because I have learned to enjoy the journey for its own sake. The journey is indeed its own reward.   I have learned how to live in the moment, and have begun to understand the complex web that connects us to nature, and to each other. It is now more of a mental, spiritual journey through these sacred places that I am undertaking. I now feel part of this environment, each leaf, tree, stone and rock seems particularly sharp and focused and I feel the harmonious unity of all things and my connection to them. Though for today ¢   The natural world is best experienced at a hiker¢s pace.