Date: 2005-06-06
From: Kinsman Pond

To: Greenleaf Hut
Miles today: 11.2

Last night it poured and I wake to an overcast morning. I am alarmed as I walk by the Harvard group on the tent platforms on my way out of camp. Everyone is rushing around, someone is shouting commands and one person is lying on the ground. After some investigation, I find out they are just doing a "burn simulation." They are leaders training for wilderness first aid. Well now that my adrenaline is flowing...Lonesome Lake is the first of eight AMC huts on the AT through the Whites. I stop in to look around and get more information on the work-for-stay program. The AMC allows thru-hikers to do work-for-stay at the huts, two hikers each night. While guests pay $75, a thru-hiker can stay for free but must do a few chores. Two meals are also included in this deal, so I am not carrying much food. Huts also sell "leftovers" for $1, all you can eat, and sometimes "bottomless" soup bowls for $2. I am not worried about going hungry while I'm in the Whites!After Lonesome Lake Hut, the trail is easy going and downhill so I can walk at my normal pace to Franconia Notch. The Flume Visitor Center is just a mile off the trial, so I check it out. The main attraction being it's grill/ice cream parlor. They offer tours of the Flume, but I am turned off by a sign warning the tourists that the tour involves some rigorous walking.Back on the trail, fueled by a cheeseburger, I jump on what the local caretaker calls "The StairMaster." A 2400-foot climb up Liberty Mountain. The trail is rocky, mostly gigantic boulders forcing you to take slow and big steps.   Living life at 1 mph--welcome to the Whites. It is only 1:00 when I get to Liberty Springs Campsite, so I push on. Soon I am walking on the infamous Franconia Ridge, a scenic highlight of the entire trail. The ridge is above timberline and very exposed. The view is astounding, peaks seen in every direction. Wow, New Hampshire is a different planet compared to the rest of the trail! The weather changes fast on me, just like they warn you. The clouds move in, then it clears, then the clouds return. The wind is really picking up. Since wind speed is a hard thing to guess without an instrument, I've invented my own meter so I can at least compare windy days. Using my Leki-hiking poles, I have invented the "Leki-Meter." You take a reading by hanging the Leki-pole from an arm by the wrist strap. If there was no wind, the pole would not move--0-degrees by the Leki-pole. Higher wind speeds will give the hiking sticks more of a lift. The angle made with the ground is the measurement . (Hey, stop rolling you eyes, this is the best I can do!) Today it is 40-degrees by the Leki-meter. Windy enough to push a hiker around. My views are gone by the time I summit Mt. Lincoln. Then the rain starts. Thunder in the distance has me on edge and I quicken my pace. This ridge has gotten pretty wicked in just minutes, and I want down! Lightening strikes down within a few miles and I let out a scream! Just minutes ago the sun was shining. The leki meter rises to 45-degrees and my pack cover has to be taken off otherwise it will be history. At the summit of Lafayette, I leave the AT and I get on the Greenleaf trail and start descending off the ridge. Greenleaf Hut is one mile off the AT--a steep one mile descent. Not in my "plans" but I'm not walking four more miles on an exposed ridge in the lightening.The Greenleaf Hut is a welcoming sight. There are only five other hikers staying here tonight, so they let me sleep in a bed, not on the floor. I end up knowing one of the workers. It's Digger--someone I shared a shelter with back in the Grayson Highlands. Think back to the morning I woke up covered in snow and stayed in Thomas Knob Shelter for a full day waiting out a blizzard. Digger was there on his "spring" break! Extreme weather brings us together again! Except this time conditions are a bit more comfortable, and I am just in time for dinner!Normally the thru-hikers eat with the crew after the guests have eaten, but tonight there is just five guests so we eat together family style. Soup, salad, rice, chicken, vegetables, followed by chocolate cake. I could get used to this! Part of my work-for-stay includes giving a talk about my thru-hike. This is done in an informal question and answer fashion, much as I go though on any given night sharing a shelter. This group is mostly females and they are asking hard but good questions: what are the most intense moments you remember (today!), did the trail ever make you cry...Digger, the hut naturalists gets his share of questions too. The weather breaks in the evening and we can finally look out the windows of Greenleaf and see something other than a white abyss. The sun is about to set and Digger takes us to an overlook just five minutes away. There are clouds below us but visibility to the horizon. We pass 30 minutes watching the sky change colors. Who needs TV when you have this.