Month: August 2013

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.

We made our way 0.6 miles up the hill from the tentsite back to the trail, which was right next to Madison hut. We stopped in the hut to get water and also had some coffee and pancakes. The huts are an awesome way to have convenient hot food along the trail. We had to pay for these pancakes but at other huts we would just ask if they had leftovers they wanted to get rid of and we’d often get tons of delicious free food.

From Madison, it was only six miles to the summit of Mount Washington. At 6288 feet, it’s the tallest mountain we will encounter for months. As we ate our pancakes at the hut, clouds began rolling in, covering the mountains in every direction around us. It sure looked like a storm was brewing. We didn’t really have a choice so we put on some layers and headed out literally into the clouds.

I was (once again) terrified it would start thunder storming while we were so high up and above tree line. This resulted in me scurrying along at a faster pace than usual. Because I was scared for my life, the trail actually seemed easier than usual and the miles flew by quickly. In reality, it was just cold and really windy, but no thunderstorms happened.

The summit Mount Washington is a strange place. People come from all around to hike to the top. But there is also an auto road and a cog railroad to the top. So next to hikers that labored for hours and sweat their way to the top are families with babies, women in high heels, obese people, etc who sat in their car or train to the top. I’m conflicted about the auto road and railroad because on one hand it allows people who might not otherwise want to or be able to experience the outdoors and mountains to be able to do so, but on the other hand the cars and train (not to mention huge lodge at the top) obviously take away from the truly natural.

I was hiking with Cool Blue and Wolf Bird as we neared the summit. The trail goes right near the railroad toward the top and there is apparently a tradition of thru hikers to moon the train as it goes past. Conveniently, as we neared the tracks, a train was headed down the mountain. Like a true lady, I yelled up to the boys to tell them about the thru hiker tradition. Before it seemed I’d even said what the tradition was, the boys had their pants halfway off and were mooning the train for a full two minutes. Unfortunately for the passengers, I don’t know how visible this sight was through all the fog and clouds.

We finally made it to the top as the weather was really picking up. The wind was insane, we later found out it was a peak gust of 72 mph that day with 30 degree wind chills. I was grateful for the lodge for its protection from the elements and its warm food. There were so many people in the lodge and many tourists. It was really overwhelming. Luckily they had this strange segregated downstairs section they labeled “hiker room” and “hiker bathroom”. Don’t know why we require separate areas to sit and pee, but it was so much quieter and tolerable there. We hung out for far too long, not wanting to go back outside in the freezing cold.

Finally we mustered up the energy to face the whipping winds. The wind was so strong it was hard to stand at times. We were going to try for work for stay at the next hut, Lake of the Clouds, about a mile and a half down from the summit. Work for stay is when thru hikers do chores for an hour or so at a hut and in exchange they get to stay at the hut overnight… On the floor. You also get leftovers after dinner and breakfast. It’s not glamorous but it’s nice to have real food and a roof over your head especially in bad weather. With so many thru hikers, and the Whites being where a significant amount of North and Southbounders cross paths, work for stays aren’t always easy to get. Most huts only take about three hikers a night and then turn everyone else away. They say 4 to 5 pm is the best bet to show up and be most likely to get WFS.

Luckily, Lake of the Clouds is the “mansion” of the huts–it sleeps over 100 people. As a result, they take more hikers for WFS. We had no problem getting it. Blue and I were immediately assigned our chore that would earn our stay. We washed a ton of dirty dishes but were pretty efficient so it only took 20 minutes tops. We lucked out big time because other people’s chores were much worse and took far longer. Later in the night, Wolf Bird and Shuffle scrubbed pots and pans for an hour and a half.

Doing a WFS was a weird experience in some ways. There were about eight thru hikers doing it and we were segregated from the paying customers staying at the hut. We sat at a table off to the side and just sat talking while the customers were served their hot dinners. The hut crew never really acknowledged us or explained who we were to the customers, so I’m sure many were confused who these smelly dirty people off to the side were. I didn’t mind that much but some other thru hikers were really offended and outraged and felt like we were getting treated poorly and it was rude no customers spoke to us. I took the position of trying to be grateful that we were being allowed to stay for free when everyone else was dishing out over $100 a night. Anyway, finally after the customers ate we got leftovers at around 7:30. The food was so good. Turkey, gravy, peas, couscous, mashed potatoes, salad, and pumpkin pie. We all had seconds and cleared our plates.

We had to wait for the customers’ lights out at 930 to be able to get out our sleeping pads and bags and set up under the kitchen tables to go to bed. It was cold and rainy out and I was so glad to be inside.

Day 33: Gorham to Valley Way tentsite
Miles today: 7.8
Total miles: 327.2

I think I’ve mentioned this before but it deserves to be mentioned again. Our group is so lazy. Or we at least get sucked into lazy spells fairly often. This is evident in how long it took us to leave Gorham this morning. After leaving the abandoned gem shop (there’s a start to a sentence I never thought I’d write), we lazed around town, getting breakfast and charging our electronics and basically wasting time until we got our acts together to head out to the trailhead around noon.

We went to the busiest intersection in town to try to get a ride and not more than a minute after sticking our thumbs out a pickup stopped for us. All five of us and Mabel squeezed in the back and went back to Pinkham Notch to pick up the trail.

We had a huge climb up Mount Madison. If you’ve ever hiked with me or talked about hiking with me before, you’ll know I absolutely hate uphills (smart idea that I chose to hike the AT, right?). I hate uphill because I get tired and out of breath so easily and feel like I go so slowly and it’s never ending. Anyway, I’m slowly starting to hate them less. Madison confirmed this when I was able to make the whole climb without a break and without getting too winded. But what really made my day was when I came upon a group of about six guys in probably their late 20s. They were all fit and young and strong looking but I came upon them as they were stopped catching their breath on the way up. I breezed right past them and smiled to myself as they looked both shocked and ashamed that I was passing them. Not that it’s a race buuuut it was definitely an ego boost for me, the girl who struggles and hates uphills.

Once above tree line I noticed ominous clouds looming overhead. Hiking has made me realize one of my biggest fears is getting caught in a thunderstorm while on top of a mountain. So once I saw those dark clouds I picked up the pace and scrambled up and over Madison down to the campsite. We got there late and by the time we set up camp and ate dinner it was almost 9. Right after we all got in our tents it started thunderstorming so I was glad to be in my warm sleeping bag and below tree line.

Day 31: Gorham to Zeta Pass

Miles today: 12.6
Total miles: 310.9

After a relaxing stay in town and being especially spoiled with my parents there, we got started hiking again Wednesday morning. We hiked over Mount Moriah and I stopped at the summit with Blue and Wolf Bird for a long relaxing lunch break. Next we climbed the Carter Range. We had beautiful weather and were rewarded with views of the Whites for miles all around us. We decided to stealth camp at Zeta Pass, at a lower elevation just past the Carters. After we set up camp we realized pretty much all the trees around us were blown over, fallen on top of each other and dying. Great decision on our part. We joked that if it was windy the remaining standing trees would surely fall on us in the night. Luckily it was a calm night and we all made it out alive.

Day 32: Zeta Pass to Gorham (again)
Miles today: 8.2
Total miles: 319.4

Twas a very chilly morning and tough to get out of my warm sleeping bag today. We climbed the Wildcats today, a series of mountains with one of them a ski resort. That mountain had a gondola to the top so at that summit we found all these tourists in jeans picnicking and lounging around as we walked by, all sweaty and smelly.

When we were taking our lunch break we talked to a northbounder who said he’d stayed at an abandoned house in Gorham the night before. He was just wandering around town looking for a place to stealth camp and found this empty house with the garage wide open. We were intrigued and very soon we changed our plans to go right back to Gorham to check it out. After the Wildcats the trail crosses a road at Pinkham Notch Visitor Center. About ten miles straight down the road is Gorham. Me and shuffle competed with Blue and Wolf Bird (and Mabel) to see who could get a hitch into Gorham first. Unsurprisingly the ladies won!

Once in town we went straight to Mr Pizza, where id already gone three times when we were in Gorham before. I felt like a local! We had tasty pizza and a pitcher of Dogfishhead to celebrate our 300 miles a little belated. Then Shuffle went to McDonalds for literally five hours to mooch off their wifi, leaving me with Blue and Wolf Bird (Google decided not to stay in an abandoned house, mature and smart guy that he is).

The boys and I went to check out the house. We had to go around the backyard and walk through the open the garage, stepping over boards and wall panels all over the floor. The inside was empty and kind of falling apart except for one room. The room had all these glass display cases and had a small room attached to it with a safe in it. We later found out the house was an old gem shop based on a sign on the ground outside. It was kind of creepy (and definitely illegal, sorry mom and dad…and law enforcement) but also was really fun in an eerie sort of way if that makes sense? The boys and I went up into the windowless attic, lit it up with our headlamps, and hung out drinking and talking and listening to music. We stayed up way past our 730 pm bedtime. At 1130 we went across the street to visit shuffle (still at McDonald’s). Wolf bird went and bought a 20 piece chicken nuggets and fries and we demolished it in two minutes so blue went and got us another which we similarly ate in a grossly short amount of time. It was a fun change of pace to just hang out for a night but I was ready to leave gorham by the next day after spending far too many days there in the past week.