Next Day - Galehead to Zealand Falls
On day two of our White Mountains hike, we had to go from Greenleaf Hut at about 4,200 feet to Galehead Hut at about 3,800 feet. Sounds simple, right? Just walk down 400 feet. Well, this hike of about 8 miles was the toughest hike of that distance I have ever done, bar none, that I can remember! You start, after dropping 100 feet, with a 1,200 foot climb in about a mile up to the summit of Mount Lafayette at 5,260 feet, then drop about 1,500 feet. After a series of steep ups and downs, you summit Mount Garfield at about 4,500 feet, then descend about 1,200 feet in less than a mile, including hiking down a waterfall! After another roller coaster-like series of ups and downs, you do a final uphill climb of about 500 feet to finally reach the hut. And most of the trail involve stepping on large rocks and climbing over boulders. I found it very slow going. Here is the elevation profile for the hike - we hiked right to left between the red and blue arrows - with the section hiked Monday highlighted in the red box.
Here is the track for the day's hike, hiking west to east. Mount Lafayette is at the red circle, and Mount Garfield is at the purple circle (more than halfway).
The mountains were in the clouds for the start of the hike, which began near the tree line in a spruce - fir forest.
As we climbed, the trees got shorter and shorter, and rock cairns were used to mark the trail.
At the summit of Mount Lafayette at 5,260 feet, we were in the alpine zone. There was only about 200 feet of visibility, and strong winds. My glasses were fogged over and I could barely see.
For much of this day, we were hiking in three groups: Chris out front, then Mike and me, and Mark and Josh (father and son) at the end. Each group would periodically stop and wait for the group behind to catch up to make sure that everyone was okay. This added time to the hike but also gave everyone a chance to take a break. This photo shows Chris starting to climb up a rocky area back in the forest. The rocks covered nearly every part of this trail. Sometimes, some fairly slow and challenging climbs and descents had to be overcome.
About mid-day, the clouds began to dissipate, and we got out first views, this one of Mount Garfield in the distance.
Note the white blaze of the Appalachian Trail. Most of our traverse was on the AT. Note, too, how rocky the actual trail is. This is a fairly flat section, which was rare.
I think that this boulder was nearly vertical and about 20 feet tall. It took Mike and I several minutes to get over it, and we had some touch and go moments.
Mike is climbing up another steep section.
As we went back up and up towards Mount Garfield, we began to get views above the high spruce-fir forest again.
Mike and I made a side trip down to lovely Garfield Pond.
"Flat" and "White Mountains" are rarely used in the same sentence. If you think of a trail as a nice, groomed foot path, think again!
Finally, we reached the summit of Mount Garfield. Chris was waiting for us. I snapped this photo of Mount Lafayette in the distance, 3.7 trail miles and many hours away.
The view from Mount Garfield was spectacular.
Gazing into the Pemigewasset Wilderness.
From here, we had a brutally steep downhill hike, including going down a waterfall. The three of us hiked together for this section. Somewhere along here, I slipped, fell backwards, and hit my right forearm on a rock. It didn't break (neither did the rock!), but it raised a contusion nearly an inch high within about 30 seconds, and hurt like crazy. Nearly two weeks later, it still hurts a fair amount.
The three of us reached our final meetup point of the junction with the trail to Thirteen Falls Campsite. It was now about 4:15, and we still had 2.2 very tough miles to go. Dinner was at 6:00. We talked for a bit, and the decision was made. Chris would wait for Mark and Josh (who turned out to be an hour behind). Mike and I would each take some of Chris's gear to lighten his pack, and we would hike ahead to make dinner if possible. Chris would wait to make sure that Josh and Mark, were okay, then make a dash for the hut. We took the gear, and started hiking. At this point, Mike was faster so he was ahead of me. Here is a section - a tiny one - of real trail.
The remaining trail was just uphill and downhill sections, one right after another. There were some nice views along the way. But my legs were just feeling totally shot by this point. You can't see it in the photo, but from this view, I could see the hut far away. I still had 0.9 miles to go, and it was now something like 5.30, and I was so tired that I didn't care if I ate or not. I knew that I would not be there by 6:00, so I just slowed down even more and carefully hiked, watching each foot placement on the steep trails. I'd already taken the one fall, and didn't want to repeat that. I'd get there when I got there.
One more steep section! I would groan, and swear a little, every time that I came to one of these. What I would give for a half mile of level, smooth trail!
I was hiking up one last uphill. I knew I had to be close, as it was 6:35. Suddenly, I heard a whirring noise, quite loud, to my right, and I turned my head. There, through the trees, was the hut! The whirring sound was its wind generator. I literally said, out loud, "Thank you, Jesus!" I reached the hut, and walked into the happy and busy dining room. Mike had reached the hut 5 minutes earlier. I was totally worn out, but found my bunk and dropped my pack. The hut crew gave me an ice pack for my swollen arm and I iced the injury until Chris showed up about 7:00. Then the three of us got served dinner together - so delicious. I was hungry after all. Mark and Josh arrived about 8:00. I cannot even imagine how exhausted they were. We had left Greenleaf Hut at 8:00AM!
Here is a view from Galehead Hut.
And here is another view, with the nearly full moon rising. Later that night, Chris and I used a telescope that was in the hut to see the craters of the moon, and four of Jupiter's moons, which were incredible.
In my view, this was the single toughest day of the week, although I had some close runner-ups. It was beautiful but so difficult, and despite some good preparation - including the 70 mile hike in Pennsylvania in May, I was not fully prepared for such a tough hike. Despite loud snoring going on in the hut, I slept better Monday night, probably from being so tired.
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