Date: 2007-08-11
From: I-93

To: The Green Leaf Hut
Miles today: 6.6

The day started out perfectly! I enjoyed an excellent breakfast at the Woodstock Inn and the promise of wonderfully clear, sunny skies ahead.After an eight-dollar shuttle ride and a one-mile walk along a paved bicycle path I had come down yesterday, I reached the trail head and started up¢¦and up¢¦and up¢¦In just under five hours I covered over 6.6 miles on the AT and climbed over 4,000 feet, crossing the summit of Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette, each above 5,000 feet. That¢s a lot of steep vertical! Unfortunately, by the time I reached the more gentle Franconia Ridge section, the sunshine was gone, and when I emerged from the trees into the alpine zone at 4,700 feet, the top was covered in a cold, dank cloud that was whipping over the top at 40 mph plus. (UPDATE - peak winds were actually 84 mph that day) To make matters worse, just before I reached the tree line, I realized that ¢Wilson 2¢ (my ¢hiker-to-town, hiker-to-trail, and ¢sweat towel¢) had gone missing. Wilson, where are you? After 40 minutes of trudging through the whipping cold wind above tree line, I reached the junction of a side trail to Green Leaf, whereupon I realized that not only is the hut 1.1 miles off the AT, but (to my total dismay!) it is also 1,100 feet below the summit - 1,100 feet that I will have to reclaim tomorrow morning before I even begin to reach the trail. Basically, that is one hour of climbing. Being cold, wind-burned, and tired from the intense workout, I found this realization to be extremely discouraging. Down I went, though, and thus began my first-ever AMC hut experience. I wandered in, met volunteer, Dave (a committed AT Section hiker with the trail name ¢Skeeter Bit¢), who told me to pick any vacant bunk. There were no lower level ones left and only two at the midlevel of the 24 sets of triple level bunks that extend in opposite directions from the main hall. The main hall serves as the dining room (dinner is served family style at 6:00 pm by the hut crew of six; breakfast is served at 7:00 am sharp). The area is also used as a common area for lectures provided by the crew (one on the ¢Green Operation¢ of the hut and a very interesting one on ¢Mountain Weather¢), as well as, for meetings, card playing, and general socializing area. Dinner was excellent - chicken soup, salad, rice, mixed veggies, and ham steaks with frosted brownies and decaf coffee for desert (all you can eat, too)! The people here are mostly families, college-age hikers, and a boy scout troop - the only other AT hiker who was dumb enough to hike all the way down here like me is a SOBO. The main hall is the only illuminated area (powered by solar and wind generators) with ¢lights out¢ at 9:30 pm. The main hall is a very active place in the evening - a group of college kids are playing hearts; the boy scouts are playing ¢go spit¢; several adults are reading; some are looking at maps and discussing tomorrow¢s hikes; and others are just sitting on the benches chitchatting. There is also small library (mostly books on mountain lore, flora and fauna, geology, wildlife, etc) where one can do some research on their own. The scene is very reminiscent of being a camper at camp again in terms of its feeling. It is very non-cosmopolitan and very folksy. I like it. There is even hot coffee and water for anyone to drink or use. ¢Skeeter Bit¢ is now manning the small counter in one corner of the main hall, where they sell t-shirts and other hut memorabilia. *do you want to put overweight hikers. How about tired and weary instead? Don¢t want to offend anyone. Or out of shape hikers, in poor shape, or out of condition. Two very overweight hikers just arrived a few minutes ago - two hours after sundown. They are wet, exhausted, and were very relieved to have made it by the light of their headlamps. Apparently they miscalculated the difficulty of the trails and the time it would take them. The crew quickly whipped up some dinner for them, which was nice to see. It is almost time for ¢lights out,¢ and I am ready for some shut-eye. My bunk is made up with a queen sheet folded in half (which I mailed to myself at North Woodstock), and there are wool blankets (compliments of the AMC) galore. Oh, by the way: the people following me up the Franconia Ridge found Wilson 2 hiding in the middle of the trail and brought him here to me for a tearful reunion.