July 27, 2008 | Miles: 13.0
Start: Franconia Notch
End: Galehead Hut
Today ended up involving a little more than 5 hours of travel time and 5.5 hours of hiking. That's just not right... We left the house a few minutes before 6am, with Snowman cranky as ever, and headed over towards Crawford Notch. The plan was to take the AMC Hiker Shuttle from the Highland Center in Crawford Notch to the Liberty Spring Trailhead on Rt. 93 over in Franconia Notch, and then hike up to Galehead Hut, where we had reservations for the night. This meant the car was at the end of the hike. This seemed like a good plan. The only problem was the shuttle didn't leave until 9:15, and wasn't scheduled to arrive in Franconia Notch until 10:55. This was a late start, even by our standards. And to make matters worse, the huts serve dinner at 6:00pm, meaning we had 7 hours to do our 13 miles over rough terrain.
To make this a do-able feat, we decided to carry our Camelbaks instead of our normal backpacks. The huts provide dinner, breakfast, bathrooms, potable water and bunk beds with blankets and pillows. So we could travel light, but we still needed to carry lunch, snacks, toiletries, the liners we would sleep in, change of clothes, camp shoes, etc. My Camelbak was stuffed to the brim, but it worked.
The shuttle driver was a friendly man, and he actually helped us out a lot in the end. We were the last to get off the shuttle, and the official shuttle spot actually put us 0.9 miles from the Liberty Spring Trail. Today was not the day for any unnecessary extra mileage. We explained what we were trying to do, and asked him if he'd just pull over on 93 and drop us off where the trail crossed until a bridge right along the road. He wasn't quite sure, and seemed to feel we were nuts for going all the way to Galehead. He tried to change our mind, but we assured him we knew what we were doing and what we were in for. He eventually agreed to dropping us off where we asked, and we saved that 0.9. Hurray! And thank you AMC driver!
Liberty Spring Trail is pretty much straight up for 2.9 miles. After I managed to slip on a rock right into the water and mud about 3 minutes into the hike, we booked it up to the top, reaching the ridge around 12:15. After a quick stop for lunch, we strapped our poles to our packs, and headed off running along the ridgeline. The ridge is full of ups and downs, and isn't really flat, but did offer some good stretches of runnable terrain. It took me a while to get comfortable running with a full pack on my back, but I did, and I have to say it was quite a pleasant way to get over the ridge, and made for an agreeable way to get through the miles. We ran when we could, and hiked when it was too steep. Some of the gravel sections between Lincoln and Lafayette were perfect for running and we had gorgeous views along the way. It was a great day to be out. A bit humid, but pretty nice overall. We hit Lafayette, our high point for the day and the halfway point, at 2:00pm. Still 4 hours left to do the remaining 6.5 miles and make it for dinner!
The stretch between Lafayette and Garfield involved a long down and a long up. We stopped for a snack and to refill our Camelbaks with water before our final push up Garfield, giving ourselves a bit of extra energy to reach the top. From there, there was yet another long downhill, full of rock ledges, mud, water and lots of swearing before the final mile or so to the hut. And of course, the last bit was uphill, a nasty ending to a rather quick but tough 13 miles. But we had made it. It was 5:40 and we had time to check in, change and spread out our wet clothes before the bell clanged for dinner. Yeah us!
And what a dinner! We were surprised to see Howie, Snowman's boss, at the hut with a friend. It is truly a small world! There were only a dozen of us staying the night, making it a fun and intimate dinner. Our group included a few northbound thru-hikers, two brothers out celebrating one brother's birthday, a nice woman out finishing up her 4000 footer list, a father and daughter, and one couple. Not to mention the hut crew. They put on a great spread of homemade soup, bread, salad, stuffed shells and chocolate chip bars for dessert. Yum! We had fun chatting and relaxing, and then enjoyed a beautiful sunset. What a civilized end to the day! We should do this all the time :-)
Flora and fauna notes: Lots of diapensia atop Lafayette, wood sorrel, bunchberries and blue beads. Lots of juncos and white throated sparrows around the hut.
July 28, 2008 | Miles: 14.7
Start: Galehead Hut
End: Crawford Notch
I had a pretty good night's sleep, and must have been pretty tired, as Snowman had to wake me up around 6:15. We packed us as best we could, had some coffee and milled around until the 7:00am call for breakfast. Cream of wheat, pancakes and coffee. Yum. I was feeling a bit creaky from our day yesterday, and knew we had another long day ahead of us, but was feeling optimistic that we could crank out another good solid day. The only problem was the day again started with a cranky Snowman, as he had put his pack down on the bite valve of the hydration bladder, spilling water everywhere and getting his pack quite wet. Luckily, we had lined our packs with garbage bags, but it still meant he would be soaked from the wet pack as soon as he put it on.
The day started out with a steep uphill to South Twin. However, I have to admit, it was not as bad as I remembered from our hike along this section many moons ago. But it was once again humid, and Snowman was still having a bad morning. We finally got down below treeline and the trail mellowed out a bit. We packed away our poles and ran along. Snowman seemed to get back in the groove of things, and all was right with the world :-) We moved along pretty well, and were over Guyot before we knew it. We continued on, enjoying the section near the summit of Zealand, running into many people out for the day or overnight. Also ran into the two southbound thru-hikers we had picked up in Bartlett yesterday morning and dropped off at the trail crossing in Crawford Notch. We were able to run a good bit of this stretch, but finally had to stop and take out the poles for the descent to Zealand Falls Hut. We arrived at the hut around 11:45 and stopped for lunch, bathroom break and a water refill.
Then it was off on the one flat section on the AT in NH. The trail runs along an old railroad bed for a few miles. We were able to make some really good time through here, although we did stop a few times to pick blueberries! Soon after the trail got a bit rougher, and we did a fair amount of walking. At this point, I was also beginning to tire, but switching between running and hiking was a good mix, and seemed to break things up just enough. We stopped for a break at Ethan Pond Shelter, but the skies were darkening, and we really didn't want to get rained on, so we soon hit the trail again, moving along as best we could. During the final sustained downhill, about 1.5 miles long, my legs were feeling pretty beat. And then -ta da!- we popped out onto the final stretch, a road walk of about 0.3 miles down to Crawford Notch. And with that, NH was finished! Woo hoo! Stats for the day: 14.7 miles in 6.5 hours. Not too shabby :-)
This was certainly a very different hike for us. No heavy packs, wearing our trail runners and doing some trail running mixed in with our hiking, staying at the hut, repeating a lot of terrain that we've already hiked on various hikes in the past.... But it really was a fun and rewarding way to do this stretch. Going light and doing a fair amount of running allowed us to get the miles done, and really made this section enjoyable. Of course, the good weather and beautiful views helped! Not to mention, it seems like a pretty good accomplishment to have done these 27.7 miles in 12 hours of hiking/running!
Flora and fauna notes: Sheep laurel, blueberries and mountain cranberries. One toad. Lots of birds flitting about.
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