The Hike Begins - On to Greenleaf Hut!

Next Day - Greenleaf to Galehead

In the White Mountains, the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) operates eight "huts," which are actually fairly large buildings with bunk rooms, a dining room, a kitchen, and men's and women's bathrooms with sinks and composting toilets.  They are operated by a crew ("croo") of young people who do the cooking and cleaning, conduct a naturalist program, check guests in, and attend to any problems.  They also hike supplies in and hike trash out.  For this reason, there is minimal consumable stuff - for example, no napkins with dinner (use your neighbor's sleeve!) or paper towels in the bathrooms.  There is a potable water supply, and there is basic electricity generated by solar, wind, and in one case, water.  The entire hut, each of which have dozens of guest or even up to 90 in once hut's case, use about 10% of the electricity of a typical home, and generate a fraction of the trash.  They also have natural gas cylinders dropped off by helicopter for cooking, because they supply an excellent breakfast and dinner each day, served family style.

The five of us: Chris ("Hawkeye"), Mike ("Brother Mike"), Mark ("Foghorn Leghorn"), Josh, and me ("Grey Ghost") - have been anticipating this hike for a long time.  I think that we made our hut reservations back in January.  We spent Saturday night bunking in the AMC's Joe Dodge Lodge at Pinkham Notch, and after breakfast that morning, a shuttle van dropped us off at Lafayette Campground on the west side of the White Mountains.  After a nearly 3 hour shuttle ride, where we did see our only moose of the trip, we were all ready to hit the trail, and hike up to Greenleaf Hut.  We checked our packs one last time, slung them on our backs, and started hiking.

This first day was the shortest hike of the week, about 3 miles.  But it was almost 100% uphill, starting around 1,700 feet and ending up at Greenleaf Hut at 4,200 feet.  We took the shortest path, the Old Bridle Trail, and parts of it were extremely steep.  Here is a track of the hike for the first day, hiking southwest to northeast.

I got a shot of the group of five at the very start of the hike as we left Lafayette Campground.  From left: me, Chris, Mike, Mark, and Josh.

 After some gentle uphill, we reached the junction of the Old Bridle Trail.  I asked Chris to snap a photo of me.  This was the last gentle uphill we would see for a very long time!

In northern New England, and New York, the plant communities follow a fairly predictable pattern.  At the lower elevations in the mountains, there is a zone of northern hardwoods dominated by sugar maple, yellow birch, and beech.

As one continues to climb, the hardwoods are left behind and you enter a spruce - fir zone, dominated by balsam fir and red spruce.  Eventually, the fir and spruce trees become very short and, if one keeps climbing, disappear altogether as the alpine zone is encountered.  On the first day, we didn't get above 4,200 feet, so there were always trees.

Hawkeye leads my compadres up the steep trail as we climb higher and higher.

Eventually, we started seeing our first views.

Parts of the trail were very steep.  In this section, the trail rose about 50 feet in very short order.  Trekking poles were a hindrance rather than a help, and we had to climb using our hands.

As higher elevations are reached, the prevailing winter winds build up heavy ice on the windward side of the conifers, and the branches on that side break off.  It becomes more and more difficult for the trees to survive.

We reached a great outcrop that we very cautiously climbed out on to.  When the clouds would dissipate, there were great views from here, but it was in and out of the clouds.

Finally, we reached Greenleaf Hut for the night.  It had a view of a small mountain lake, and there were spring peepers calling.  After just three miles, I was plenty tired.

I also managed to smash my left ankle on a ladder trying to climb into a bunk.  It bled right through the sock and would hurt every step the rest of the trip.  What a clumsy and stupid way to injure myself on the very first day!  Still, we were on the trail, and after a great dinner, and some conversation, it was lights out by 9:30.  I listened to the earth-shattering snores coming from the bunk above me for a long while, jamming my ear plugs in so tight that I thought that they would break the ear drums, but eventually, I drifted off to sleep.  I knew that the next day, Monday the 25th, would be a very tough day on the trail.