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.
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