Date: 2018-07-22
From: Garfield Ridge Shelter

To: U.S.Route 302
Miles today: 17.1

I was asleep by 7:30 and woke up a little after 4AM to a full shelter. The wind gusted hard all night, but the rain never came. It was 0630 by the time I finished the previous day¢s journal entry (offline), packed up, ate breakfast and hit the trail. The skies to the east were still partly clear, but clouds were thickening to the west. The biggest chance of rain and storms was forecast to begin at 1100. My goal was to finish the Garfield descent and get up and over South Twin Mountain (elev. 4,902) before then. The descent off Garfield was slow going as I picked my way through, over, and around rocks and boulders. There were some ups and downs along Garfield Ridge leading up to the base of South Twin. Not far into the 1,600¢ climb to South Twin the trail passed in front of Galehead Hut. It was 0800 now so I popped inside to check it out. The hut is nothing more than a fancy bunkhouse with a kitchen and dining room. DC, Willow and a few other hikers were sitting at a table when I came through the door. They arrived last night after 7PM and slept on the floor after pulling some work-for-stay duties. In addition to a place to sleep, they got to finish off the leftovers from dinner last night. Now they were waiting for breakfast leftovers followed by more kitchen duty. Most of the patrons had already moved on to the next hut or were hiking out to their cars. I talked to the caretaker a bit and he invited me to stay for leftovers¢sausage, cold oatmeal and crumb cake. After we all finished eating he put me to work washing dishes, my specialty. It was nearly 0939 by the time I left the hut. The wind was blowing hard outside on the exposed rock where the hut sat. Clouds were building to the west. ¢Must get up that mountain!¢ The trek up was more of the same¢bowling ball, then beach ball, then suitcase, then appliance sized rocks (think Flintstones when you picture these objects); followed by granite boulders and slabs to work over. Every now and then I would take a peek back over my shoulder to the west. Franconia Ridge was consumed by the dark clouds first. As I got closer to the top I looked back just as Garfield was about to be under siege. As I closed in on the open summit, two SOBOs were headed down. One said, ¢Find something to hang on to up there!¢ I could hear the wind howling above me now. As soon as I emerged from the 8¢ foot pines onto the rocky summit I was greeted with what must have been 50-60mph winds and rain. It was all I could do to stay on my feet. There was a sign at the top marking the summit and a trail intersection. I had my head down and did not look at the sign for fear of being blown off the mountain. I continued up the open ledge on what I thought was the AT. I went around a huge rock formation that marked the actual summit. On the other side was more wind and open ledges. Something didn¢t feel right. I ducked behind a boulder to check my GPS position on Guthook. It showed that I was off Trail and that the AT had taken a 160 degree turn back in the vicinity of the signpost. As I was working my way back DC, Willow, and another thru hiker were headed towards me. I passed the other hiker coming up the mountain and tried to engage her in conversation. She didn¢t have much to say. I figured she must be having a bad day and I moved on. As the three of them were coming over a rock in my direction I said that Guthook had us off trail. The other hiker snapped, ¢Guthook isn¢t always right!¢ I replied, ¢I agree, but something doesn¢t feel right and I want to go back to see what that sign said. Did you see the sign?¢ She just walked past me without a reply. DC was last in the line and I told him I thought we were off trail. He followed the girls as he pulled out his phone to pull up Guthook. I turned back around and followed all of them. When they got around the big rock formation and saw how things were looking iffy they stopped. By then DC had Guthook up and he saw what I saw. I said that we should go back and see what the sign said before continuing down this exposed path. They all followed me back. When we got to the sign we realized that the AT had taken a 160 turn off the mountain. The trail that went straight was a spur. Grumpy had just arrived at the top, disoriented by the gale force wind he said I was gong down the same trail we had just come up. I waited in the tree line for a few seconds until they all realized I was headed in the right direction and they followed me down. The odd thing was that within a quarter mile down the mountain the wind was calm. The rain continued to fall and would pick up in intensity as the day progressed. Fortunately the hardest terrain was behind us. I posted a short video on Instagram of my wind encounter at the summit. I hadn¢t felt that alive since Winter Storm Toby in the Smokies!It was a 2,500¢ descent to Zealand Falls Hut. Grumpy, Kylo (who I hadn¢t seen in weeks) and I hiked into the hut together. It was nice to get out of the rain and enjoy some potato soup and cornbread. After close to an hour break, the three of us ventured back into the cold rain. We were all wearing our rain jackets now, as we got a little chilled during the break. It was an easy climb over 5 miles to Ethan Pond Shelter. Kyle kept going from there, but I popped in to check it out. The 6-person shelter was full and I didn¢t get a good vibe from the spot so I decided to keep hiking. Grumpy was already on his way out when I came in. I eventually caught up with him and Kylo. We all continued on the steep, but easy descent down to Crawford Notch. To wrap this up, we ended up hitching a ride to the AMC Center. The bunkhouse was full. A guy overheard our dilemma and said he was staying at a reasonably priced hotel down in Twin Mountains, it was part of the very fancy Omni Resort at the base of Mount Washington. We checked in, showered, and took the Resort shuttle to the big hotel for dinner. We are safe, dry, fed, and getting rested for a big day tomorrow. We start the climb up Mount Washington.Peace & Blessings - NSElevation Data:Ascent - 3,175Descent - 5,800Grade - 9.6Weather:Day - 64 / Rain and StormsNight - 60 / RainOver The Horizon: Mount Washington