Men's Weekend Day 3 6/23/2013

Today's the day.  We're going to hike a long ways today.  We're shooting for Ethan Pond Campsites by way of the AT.  It's a 10 mile trek but not quite the trek we had yesterday.  Yesterday Diesel and Dad covered about 6.5 miles or so while Clutch and I covered 10.1.  Today there's no way out of it, we're all pulling double digits. 

We started the day with a trip up to Guyot Summit and there were some half decent views to the west over to the Bonds and we continued on to Zealand (4k #30 for me).  Zealand's dense woodlands prohibit any views but the sign is a little Lord of the Ringsish. 

We then continued past Zeacliff and the bog bridges were awesome.  There were some really cool ladders we had to decend too.

We stopped for a snack at Zeacliff for quite a while staring at Zealand Notch.  The views were great even though the clouds were a bit low.  It did clear for a minute and the sun came out just as we were leaving.

 

Next we found ourselves at the Zealand Falls Hut.

I think we all had more than our fair share of snickers bars and brownies and we all had a bowl of blackbean soup.  Next, we started to hike towards the Ethan Pond Shelter on the old railroad bed which you can see from the top of Zeacliff.  We were all a little tired having already covered about 6 miles and stopped for a break when we heard thunder.  4 more miles to go.  We knew we were going to get wet but we wanted to limit it as much as possible but couldn't avoid a brief side trip to Thoreau Falls.  We had done a lot of relatively flat hiking so the detour to the falls was welcomed by everyone. 

We hoofed it fairly quickly and the closer we got to the shelter, the more thunder we heard.  We finally got to the side trail and started booking it.  We got to Ethan Pond and looked across the pond and it was all black.  We ran up the trail to the shelter and there was a family of 4 in there.  They were waiting in the shelter even though they had tents set up because the weather looked like it was going to turn any second. 

No more than 2 minutes after entering the shelter, we hear a loud pop of thunder and the deluge began.  Just as it began to pour rain, we saw a runner come up the trail.  He was sprinting on the trail wearing 5 finger vibram soled shoes.  Turns out he was the caretaker.  He had moved his car from Crawford Notch over to Zealand Road and ran the 7.1 miles to the shelter as he was going to be the caretaker at Guyot starting the next night.  He collected our money, the rain stopped and we cooked dinner.  2 hikers came in doing a backpack from The Highland Center doing a loop over Tom/Field/Willey via the A-Z Trail and back.  They would be going home the next day but were sleeping in Hammocks. 

We cooked Pesto Pasta tonight and then settled in a bit.

 

Then we ran down to the lake and all had a cigar.

It rained a little bit at night but we didn't get wet.  This was my first night in a shelter.  It was very interesting and rather comfortable.  It was nice to be able to move around and socialize a bit.

Men's Weekend Day 2 6/22/2013

Today we woke up when the sun came up.  I love not having an alarm.  We packed up relatively quickly, I made everyone an oatmeal, and a coffee/hot cocoa.  We also had a few dried apples. 

We hiked out the trail and immediately went down...down...down.  The .5 miles of trail after the campsites heading towards Galehead hut seemed brutally steep with poor footing.  That and loaded with a 30 plus pound pack was difficult.  My dad had a particularly hard time. 

We made fairly good time over to Galehead Hut though after we made it down the steeps at Garfield Ridge Trail. 


We ran inside the hut, filled water bottles, bought a few brownies.  Ethan I think bought more than a few.  Then I told Dad I was heading for Galehead Summit.  He decided to sit it out and so did Ethan but Lucas offered to come along with me.  It's 1 mile to the summit and back round trip.  I told dad we would be back in less than 30 minutes.  He laughed and said yeah right.  I think we made it back in 17.  Without a pack we were able to pretty much run up to the summit which had limited views.  There was a viewpoint back to the hut we stopped at on the way up but it wasn't worth a long visit.  4,000' peak #28 complete.  20 to go. 

Clutch and me at the Summit of Galehead.


View of the Hut from an outlook on Galehead.


We then grouped back up and headed towards South Twin.  Lucas took the lead, I followed behind lagging a bit and then my Father and Ethan were further behind.  The trail was about .8 miles long but steadily steep the entire way.  The trail didn't let up at all, but eventually we all made it.  We all dropped packs.  But the weather was moving in so we weren't sure if we should go.   South Twin is #29 for me.


Lucas and I headed towards North Twin even given the weather.  It looked like it was going to rain so Dad and Diesel headed off towards Guyot tentsites and Lucas and I took off running to North Twin.  We made the 2.6 miles there and back (4k # 30) and grabbed our packs. 

Me at the North Twin Summit.


Dad had re-organized the packs so he could have both tents set up before Lucas and I arrived.  It started to rain just as we were leaving South Twin.  At some point and I think it was mainly during conversation, Lucas go the trail name Clutch.  He's a bit of a motor head and where Ethan's name is Diesel it seems to fit.  For some reason, I still don't have a trail name. 

We hiked all the way to Guyot with barely any views and didn't stop to take any breaks.  Dad and Diesel only beat us by a little bit.  They were surprised to see us.  We made great time as the trail is relatively flat/downhill to the campsite from South Twin.  We set up camp in the rain, and we all layered up .  We filtered water and did all the camp chores.  Being the cook I didn't have to get water tonight.  Tonight was Chicken in mashed potatoes and some hot cocoa. 

The caretaker was stressed out and rightfully so.  There were about 90 people at Guyot that night. 

Diesel and Clutch got into a little bit of a fight at one point.  Diesel can be a little hard headed.  I don't even know what the fight was about but my father threatened to kill them both and they both went to bed quiet and by morning I think all was forgotten. 

Today we covered about 10.1 miles.  Not bad for a bunch of first time backpackers.  I've only been backpacking once for 1 night.  3 nighters are new to me.

 

 

Men's Weekend Day1 6/21/2013

Today's the day.  I woke up relatively early and drove up to the Dry River Campground where I met my father (Ray), little brother (Ethan) and youngest little brother (Lucas).  We drive to The Wiley House Station Site and I dropped off my car and hopped in with them in my dad's Subaru.  We then drive up to the Gale River Loop Road at the base of the Garfield Trail. 

We ate chips and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and took a lot of stupid photos together.  I'd show them to you but they were all taken on my dad's camera.  To see them go to his Trail Journal at
10-Hut's Trail Journal. 

Next, we started our hike.  This is the first time I've done any real hiking with my family in a long time.  We stopped a few times for rests and at some point, Ethan got the trailname Diesel.  He was struggling a bit going up and it got me worrying about the rest of the trip.  His backpack was a little too small and just didn't seem to fit him. 


We did finally gain the ridge and we dropped our packs and ran up to tag the summit of Mt. Garfield. This is my 27th 4,000' peak in NH. 

Excellent Views from Garfield. Some of the best views in the Whites.

 Franconia Ridge.

 From Left to Right.  Owl's Head, Flume, Liberty and the Franconia Ridge.

 Owl's Head.

Heart of the Pemi Wilderness. 

We then hiked down to the Garfield Ridge Campsite. Lucas and I grabbed all the water bottles at the spring and let my Dad and Ethan (Diesel) hike ahead to make sure they got us a spot on a tent platform. Lucas and I filled the water and then hiked in to the tent platform.

We set up our tents and then I cooked dinner. I planned all the meals and cooked all of the meals on my homemade pepsi can stove. I love this stove. It makes meal planning relatively easy and it is so light. We ate tortilla wraps with chicken, cheese and taco sauce. It was awesome to have a nice hot meal after about 5.5 miles on the trail or so.

I slept in a tent with my dad and Ethan and Lucas shared a tent of their own. Tomorrow, off to Guyot Tentsite.