The next three days through the Whites were good. After Mt Washington we went over and around a few of the presidentials and then down to Crawford Notch. It rained a little and ominous clouds followed us all day but it wasn’t terrible. We stealth camped by a road in Crawford Notch.
The next day we encountered something unheard of in the Whites: flat terrain! We had seven miles of easy and mostly flat trail that were awesome and we beasted out quickly. We took a break at Zealand hut and scored some awesome leftovers: chicken and stuffed shells. We were even allowed to take some to go if we wanted! After the hut we went over Mt Guyot, which was right near where id gone hiking with my brother in April when we got caught in a big storm and had to camp on the trail and I got self diagnosed minor frostbite. It was crazy being back in the same area but without all the snow and with actual visibility. The summit that was in a cloud and with huge wind gusts and whipping rain in April was now just a half mile away in the sun—and I could now see how exposed the bald summit actually was. After Guyot we continued onto the Twin range and then stealth camped right near Galehead hut. Wolf bird, whose tent is just a rainfly and mosquito net, camped the roots of a fallen tree.
The next morning we scored leftover breakfast from Galehead hut then headed over Mt Garfield followed by Franconia Ridge. We had great weather, which was good news as Franconia Ridge is two full miles above tree line. I did this hike with Rama, who I studied abroad in Nepal with, last summer so again it was weird to be back in a different context. This hike is a popular day hike so we passed tons of families and even a girl hiking wearing a dress and Mary Jane type shoes. The views were beautiful but it was a long day that felt well over the 12 miles it was.
We got to the trailhead and went to hitch into Lincoln NH. One car stopped for us (me, wolf bird and cool blue) but didn’t have room. The girl had hiked southbound last year though and gave us beers! It was awesome.
We quickly found a different ride and stayed at Chet’s place in town. Chet’s place is not a hostel. It’s really just this dudes house. He allows hikers to stay in his garage. He has a room with couches and some chairs and bunks and also lets people set up tents in his yard. He doesn’t charge anything but accepts donations.
That night we went out to dinner at a restaurant in town and I just happened to run into Andy, a kid I went to high school with who is hiking northbound. I’d known he was thru hiking and he called me a couple weeks back to see where I was and where we would cross paths. We hadn’t talked in a while though and I think neither of us expected to see each other for a while yet. It was crazy we just happened to be in the same restaurant in the same town at the same time and a crazy situation to see someone the first time since high school.
Speaking of seeing people I know, I also met a girl that graduated from Wash U that worked at one of the huts in the whites. We chatted about mutual friends and which dorms we lived in and gushed over a professor we both loved. It was crazy to meet someone from Wash U in the middle of the woods in NH. At another hut I met someone who went to Tufts who knew people I know. It’s such a small world sometimes.