Date: 2009-08-30
From: Franconia Notch/Lincoln, NH

To: Campsite near Galehead Hut 
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: broken clouds

What a day... Bark and I cooked lots of pancakes this morning for our fellow thru hikers staying at Chet's hostel. It was great! Plenty of food for everyone and the perfect meal to get us up the mountain.We hitched back to the trail with no problem and started our ascent to Liberty Mountain and then up to Franconia Ridge- a real highlight on the AT and in the Whites. After hiking up to Liberty, the trail continues uphill and above treeline for the next few miles. The views were incredible, we were very glad we had waited out the storms yesterday. There were a lot of hikers up there- day hikers and section hikers, no thru hikers that we could tell. Bark took every chance to take pictures of everything we saw. Just beautiful...and windy. We stopped for lunch before summitting Mt. Lafayette, one of the tallest peaks in the area. We had a few conversations with the Ridgerunner and other folks who asked us to snap their picture or who were curious about this crazy thing called a "thru-hike". It was about 1 o'clock before we started our descent and then it wasn't too long before we started our next ascent up Mt. Garfield. Our elevation profile, via the thru hiker handbook, led us to believe it would be a nice short climb...boy were we surprised, but I guess we had been cautioned with the difficulty of the Whites. One positive about making it to the top was seeing Gozer, Fancy Pants, and Team Stick Cakes. They were all planning to head to Galehead Hut, about 3 miles away. Bark and I took a peek at the view from on top, and then pressed on for the hut as well.Once again we were horribly deceived by our elevation profile (we should really just stop looking at it) and were very tired by the time we made it to the hut at 6:00pm. In the Whites there are several "huts" (lodges) where weekenders or vacationers can pay and reserve a bunk. The hut crews make breakfast and dinner for the guests as well. As a thru hiker it is possible to do "work for stay" at these huts. So far this season Galehead has not had the most thru hiker friendly reputation, but the 6 of us thought we should give it a try anyway. We all sat on the porch for over an hour and a half while the guests ate dinner. We would be able to go inside and do work for stay and finish the leftovers when the guests were done. Stick Cakes and Fancy Pants had arrived first and checked in with the hut master. They let her know that there would be 3 more hikers coming, and she nodded in agreement. Well, unfortunately, around 7:30 she came out to inform us that they did not have enough dinner to feed all of us (only enough for 2) and if the rest of wanted to stay we could pay $10 to sleep on the floor. Bark and I figured our tent was free and probably more comfortable so we opted out. Fancy Pants decided to head on and camp as well, but told his hiking friend, Gozer, that she should stay and take it. It was a little frustrating for all of us that we sat outside for that long under the impression that there would be room and work we could help with. By 7:30pm the sun was gone and it was just plain cold outside. Oh well, it was a chance we took and we did have an excellent time hanging out with everyone else. There was a trivial pursuit game on the porch of the hut which was definitely entertaining and made for some laughs. It was a fun time while it lasted. Bark and I put our boots back on and headed out. We were both fairly cold so it felt pretty good to hike. Luckily we did not have to far. Bark has a great eye for camp spots and somehow, through some pine trees, he saw some flat ground. After setting up our tent in the dark we ate a quick dinner and are now warming up in our snug sleeping bags. Good to be done for the day, finally.