Date: 2003-08-03
From: Mt Lafayette, Greenleaft Hut (5249') 

To: Galehead Hut (3820') 
Miles today: 6.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Aloha! My-oh-my what a glorious day! Check out the mileage. Huh? Huh? What cha think? Pretty good, yea? And to top it off, this entry is coming to you live (for me anyway) from the Galehead Hut. Thanks to Pizazz I'm living the life of luxury once again.   What can I say but... ahhh.....   This morning started out with a tasty breakfast of oatmeal, scrambled eggs, bacon and coffee. The day has ended with turkey soup, stuffed shells with a pesto sauce, broccoli, fresh baked bread, and an apple cobbler for dessert. This hut thing is pretty cool!   Wonder if I can work my way through the rest of them. Hmmm... definitely worth a thought.   After the "how to fold your blanket" demonstration using three young girls, Pizazz and I were off to conquer the mountains. All through breakfast we had breathtaking views of Mt Lafayette and the Franconia Ridgeline. Most impressive. The moment we started hiking however, the scenario changed.   The clouds rolled in and we saw nothing. Absolutely nothing. It would have been nice to have fantastic views for that 1.1 mile hike back to the AT trailhead but since I had them going down yesterday I wasn't terribly disappointed. Life was still great.   We spent the day leisurely hiking along with Pizazz teaching me many of the plants and fauna found out here at elevations at and above-tree line. A most informative day. In '01 I believe I stated that one of the best things a person could do prior to starting this hike was to take a course in plant identification or attend a Sierra Club hike at the minimum.   I still believe that to be true. Unfortunately I didn't take my own advice. Duh! For future hikers, go find a course. You'll appreciate it later. Anyway, it was neat just walking along and discussing the various plants and whys and wherefores of each.   The plant life out here is obviously so very different from that of either Hawaii or Virginia. Pretty neat!   (Cool! A husband and wife team just picked up a guitar and mandolin and is entertaining us with some excellent blue grass music. Cool Beans!)   Walking along above tree line, which is at about 4000' in the Whites, is so spectacular for me. I don't believe I could come even halfway close to describing the sense of wonder and awe that takes over as I hike along. The feeling that I'm on top of the world if you will.   I know I'm not anywhere even close but that's beside the point. You're up there hiking above everything and everyone. The views are spectacular when you get them and the terrain before you awesome when you don't. I know I'm doing a bad job at trying to describe what it's like up there and for that I apologize.   Just know that it truly is one of the most spectacular places I've ever been to and made even more so because I walked there. It's a wondrous feeling.   (The music continues. I'm loving this!)   The hardest part of today, besides the 1.1 mile UP back to the trail that wasn't all that hard, would have been climbing UP and then crawling back down Mt Garfield. Once on top our view was ... nothing. Well, that's not true. There were the clouds.   Lovely white puffy things above, below and around us. So that's something. Again, it really didn't matter. It's still great out here no matter what the view.   (Neat! The guitar and mandolin belong to one of the croo and he's just taken over the mandolin. That boy (21) can play!)   Coming down Mt Garfield was probably the worst the day had to offer. Coming down 1200' in approximately a half mile can play hell on a gal's bruised knees. Slow and easy was once again the mantra for the day. I'm getting good at it too! Check out that mileage again!   We really did take our sweet time getting here this evening. We arrived with something like an hour to spare before dinner was served. That's pretty good timing in my eyes. It gave me just enough time to cool down, find a third-story bunk (ugh) and clean up. Not too shabby at all. This hut, the Galehead Hut, was rebuilt in 1999-2000 with a wheelchair-accessible design. If I understand the history correctly, when it was decided to rebuild this hut it was noted that by being on federal land the building needed to be handicap compliant.   Instead of spending several hundred thousand dollars fighting the requirement in court, and probably losing, the decision was made to spend $30,000 and make it as required. And it is. The humorous part to me though is that the mountain trails leading to the hut are not anywhere near considered wheelchair-accessible and the closest parking lot is almost four miles away!   {sigh}   (It's 9:30p and the concert is over and the lights are going off. Bummer. It was great!)   It has just started pouring for the second time this evening. The first drenching caught my socks still "drying" outside. Oops! Sure hope this means that tomorrow will be sunny and clear. Tomorrow Pizazz and I are going to hike the 6.5 miles to the Zealand Hut where she will take another trail down to her car and I will continue another 7 miles to Crawford Notch.   At that point she will pick me up and we'll head to North Conway to locate Gutsy and my stuff. After that we're on our way to Maine for a zero/reorganization day. Time to set up a couple of food drops, send out journal entries and figure out how I'm planning on doing the next phase of the Whites - the Presidentials.   Thank goodness for Pizazz!   Well, guess I should go off to the nosebleed bunk and let the thru-hikers that worked for stay have their table to sleep on. I'm still thinking the work-for-stay is an excellent way to go if you can beat the kids in to get one of the positions.) For now though, gotta close.   You sleep well. I know I will.BSandTs: basically none...cool!AandPs: same-same but without the little toe thing and the arch feeling much better.MandGs: pounding downs... I have to be an inch shorter... waah!Critter count: 1x red squirrel