Tuesday, July 26th

Galehead Hut (1834.2 mi) to AMC Highlands Center (1848.9 mi)

Hiking Miles: 14.7

Total Ascent: 2,362.5 ft

Total Descent: 4,866.5 ft

Total Grade: 491.8 ft/mi

Steps: 27,633 (37,119)

RETROFILE – Romanticism

Gator/Sunrise: I had a great night’s sleep, despite getting up my usual two or three times during the night. At least we were under total cover, and it was so quiet in the hut’s open area that you could hear a pin drop. This was our fifth night in New Hampshire and we already stayed in a hostel or fully enclosed structure for four of them. So much for me worrying about where we would stay in the unfamiliar White Mountain Range each night.

We wolfed down several pancakes for breakfast drenched with maple syrup. At our table, Croc and I were exchanging our usual pleasantries (Are you thru-hikers? When did you start? Where are you from?, etc.) with a gentleman hiker around my age. Once he heard we were from Hollis, he asked if we knew a Mr. Maynard, the retired physics teacher from Hollis-Brookline High School. Apparently he was good friends with him and they actually hiked together on a number of occasions. Definitely a small world, but not totally surprising given we were in New Hampshire. The gentleman was enjoying a week of hiking in the Whites with a friend.

Upon leaving, we surprisingly recognized a hiker that we first met at the Notch. He was eating his breakfast and staring at us as we walked by. He honestly did not look like a strong hiker, but who am I to judge. I do recall thinking how remarkable it was that he made it to the hut, knowing he left the Notch well after us that morning.

Today’s hike was much more leisurely, given two thirds of it was downhill. We stopped for a break atop of Mount Guyot where I called Teresa. By midday, we started thinking about how we were going to get to the AMC Lodge once we reached US Route 302. We checked FarOut and I contacted a random shuttle driver (who lived quite far away) for a 5:00 pm pick up. He asked where we were specifically at the moment and when we told him about 11 miles away from the highway, he wouldn’t commit to picking us up until we were within a mile. We assured him we would arrive well before that pick-up time, but he was insistent that hikers overestimated their ability to hike the Whites. After effectively arguing with this clown about how we should hike our hike for five minutes, I cut him off while he was still going on and on.

Around 2:30 pm, with about 8 miles to go to the Crawford Notch parking area, I had fallen behind Croc (probably 5 minutes) due to my slow pace while descending rock strewn hills. But soon I heard him talking in the distance. Turns out he was chatting with a couple at a juncture where the Zealand Falls Trail met the AT. The couple had stayed the previous evening at the AMC Highlands, and were enjoying a day hike. They were just about to turn around to head back to their car when they met Croc.

The nice couple were from New Jersey, another ice-breaker conversation whereas that was Christina’s home state. When we both were about to head on our separate ways, they asked us if we would like a ride to the AMC Highlands, and that their car was just 2.5 miles away down the blue blaze. What a generous offer I thought, especially whereas we did not have a ride reserved yet at this point. Croc looked at me and said “I’m good with that if you are.” Honestly, I was totally down for that, so we hiked ahead of the couple so as to allow them to continue their private hike together and we waited for them at the lot. The four of us talked more as we rode down the long and dusty dirt path leading to Route 302, then subsequently to the AMC Highlands Lodge where they dropped us off. We unfortunately didn’t exchange information, but we did take a pic together reminding us of our time together.

We reserved a spacious room with two double bunks. We each grabbed the lower ones in hopes that if the house wasn’t full that no one else would claim the top ones. The room had its own private bathroom, and lucky for us, everyone claimed their spots in the larger bunk room. Remarkably, just after we arrived and settled in, we met the same guy who I previously mentioned didn’t look like a hiker. He claimed he hiked the entire way to the Route 302 (which was actually 5 miles longer than we did today) and was able to get a hitch hike from a “hot chick” (his words). He actually boasted about it like he was indeed a chick magnet, which was comical. Good for you, I exclaimed! I had no idea how he followed us so quickly, however I got the feeling that would be the last time he followed us somewhere.

We showered, changed into night clothes and headed to the main building for a buffet dinner. We each got a cold IPA (JUST A KITTEN) at a makeshift bar and enjoyed it with our meal in the dining hall, then subsequently with our dessert out on the patio. Tomorrow we would head to the base of Mount Washington, but had a few Presidential mountains to climb (Pierce, Jackson, Eisenhower, and Monroe) on the way. We were on a roadside so that meant starting our day with a big climb!

Croc: Other than having to put on some wet clothes from the prior day, my morning was fantastic. I felt well-rested from going to bed early the night prior and still a little full from the dinner (shocking!). I still managed to wolf down some pancakes for breakfast to fill up for the day and get our money’s worth. It was also fun to wake up with all the hikers and start the trail together. Gator is usually up so early, and I am up so late, that we never really hike in a big group in the morning. It has its pros and cons, but it was a fun change-up. One of the pros of hiking together was that everyone was reliving the memories from last night. One of the cons was that there were hyper little kids that would run past you, get tired and sit in the middle of the trail, and then run past you again, making you constantly have to dodge them. Another con for the morning, unrelated to the group, was that we had an immediate 1,000ft incline over the span of 0.5 miles. However, we had fresh legs and made it up in no time.

When I reached the peak of South Twin Mountain, I immediately checked my phone for internet service since I was supposed to call Target Corporation to set up interview times for a new accounting position. I mentioned multiple times that I was hiking in the woods and might not be available for calls but figured I’d try it out on top of the mountain. Luckily, I was able to set up a series of three interviews over the phone for the next week.

The rest of the morning was fairly uneventful, but we did have amazing weather today and enjoyed some nice views. I did have to go to the bathroom above the tree line, so it was a little tricky finding a spot that had coverage. I just hope that if anyone saw me, they thought I was just going off-trail for a better view.

Gator and I were making great progress and decided to grab lunch at a lookout on either Mount Guyot or Zealand Mountain. A lot of these peaks started to blend together over time. We also decided that we should call ahead for a ride to AMC Highland Center since it was a few miles off trail and we heard there was no service at the pickup spot. Gator tried calling a recommended driver on FarOut, and that was a complete mess. The guy kept Gator on the phone for 15 minutes to ultimately say he wasn’t going to come pick us up. The weirdest thing about the guy is that he offers rides but lives an hour away. So he was afraid of hikers not showing up on time. But my thought was, “why are you picking up hikers in this spot if you’re an hour away? Surely there’s another location closer to you?” It worked out for the best that he refused to get us because he was fairly expensive, and we found a better ride anyway. It did give us a great talking point for our hike down the mountain because our favorite thing to do on the trail is complain.

When we reached the bottom of the mountain, Gator and I were faced with an easy yet also very difficult decision. As noted in Gator’s blog, we met an extremely generous couple that was willing to drive us (for free) to AMC Highland Center if we walked to their car down a blue blaze (2 miles) instead of down the actual AT path (7 miles). I say it was an “easy” decision because we obviously both wanted to cut off 5 miles and get our bunks/dinner faster, as well as ensure we would have a ride, but it was also “difficult” because it would be the first time on trail that we were purposefully skipping miles of the AT. It seems like a no-brainer right now to skip 7 miles, especially since the ATC recognizes any AT hike that is at least 2,000 miles, but at the time, it was a serious chunk of miles to skip. Not to mention those miles were probably the easiest in New Hampshire (all flat)! We did decide to follow the blue blaze and ensure our ride at the end of the trail, but the next year we came back to New Hampshire to finish off those miles that we skipped. Like they always say, “hike your own hike.”

After getting dropped off, we made our way into the AMC Highland Center to see if we could grab a hotel room or a bunk in the bunkhouse. At least this decision was actually an easy one when the concierge told us that a hotel room would be upwards of $300-$400 and a bunk was a fraction of that. We even lucked out getting a whole room to ourselves in the bunkhouse with our own bathroom since everyone else slept in the separate room. The bunkhouse was very cozy with multiple rooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, and a porch entrance. Gator and I grabbed a few snacks from the hotel, dropped our stuff off at the bunkhouse, cleaned up, and headed back to the hotel for the dinner buffet. We also decided on making reservations for Lake of the Clouds hut for the next day since we had such a great time at Galehead hut. We must have grabbed the last few spots because it was absolutely packed when we got there the next day.

I chowed down on a potpourri of different foods and grabbed a few desserts. I definitely kept trying to stuff myself in Whites because I kept thinking I’d run out of food on the trail. After dinner and a beer, we called it quits and headed back for a great night’s sleep.