Date: 2007-07-03
From: Blister SisterÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs House, N. Woodstock, NH

To: Galehead Hut, NH
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I love the Whites. The views are so spectacular, and continuous. Franconia Ridge has some of the best views on the entire trail. You can see back South to the Kinsmans and Moosilauke, and North (Trail North, that is) to the rest of the ridge, running all the way around the Pemigewasset Wilderness. Today, it cleared off enough that I could even see Washington and the whole Presidential Range.Of course, the downside of all this is that the terrain is much more rugged. We crossed four peaks over 4,000 feet, and between each one, the trail dropped a long ways. The section over Mt. Garfield was especially steep, climbing straight up and straight back down. However, I did get to check another 4,000-footer off the list: I¢d never climbed Garfield before.We slept in a little late at Blister Sister¢s this morning, then went out to breakfast in town. When we got back to the trail head, she left us at a different spot than we¢d been yesterday, and we got a little lost trying to find our way back to the trail. By the time we got straightened out and hiked the blue-blaze back to the AT, it was 11:00. Hut dinner starts at 6:00, and it was slow progress, but I pushed hard the last few miles and showed up at 5:58, just in time, or so I thought.I went inside and asked about work-for-stay. The croo (the hut staff) said that even though they usually only do two, and Scoops and Professor had beaten me here, they¢d find something for me. Then they said that they were going to serve dinner to the paying guests, and then we¢d eat with the croo afterwards. We¢ve had to sit here, listening to them eat, and smelling the lasagna. After the hiking today, I¢m hungry, and this is like torture.One thing I forgot to mention yesterday: while we were sitting at the bar, a guy at the other end bought us two baskets of onion rings when he found out we were thru-hikers. When he found out that it was Scoops¢ birthday, he gave us each a $20 for our dinners! After, he wanted to play pool, so Scoops went upstairs to play. We had to go to the grocery to resupply, but we could not get him to stop buying games. If he was paying for our dinners, we felt guilty wanting to leave. (Writing later) dinner was delicious, well worth the wait. They had lasagna, soup, salad, wild rice, and fresh bread, with chocolate cake for dessert. After dinner, we climbed onto the roof and watched the sunset. It was beautiful over the mountains, pink and orange. The croo sat up there with us, and we chatted for a while. One of the guys goes to Middlebury, and it turns out he lived across the hall from a friend of mine. For work-for-stay, I had to scrape the ice out of the fridge. It didn¢t take too long, so it wasn¢t too bad. I¢d never stayed at a hut before, so it¢s cool to be here.One more thing before I go to bed. I met my first SOBO today. There had been two staying in Glencliff, but I didn¢t go into town, so I missed them. Just north of Lafayette, I met Gary. We took each others¢ pictures, and moved on. On top of Garfield, I met a huge crowd, four or five more SOBO¢s. Hopefully, it won¢t be too much of a problem trying to get work-for-stay as we start to see more and more SOBO¢s.The Brain