For our 2017 vacation at Squam I planned out a three-day hike that would have us overnight at the AMC Galehead Hut for two nights (Monday and Tuesday – 7/31 and 8/1). It would allow us to peak bag seven 4000 footers with two planned the first day, four planned the second day, and one more the third day. I had planned it that way because getting all five on the second day was very aggressive and I wasn’t sure that Jacob and I could hike that far with that much elevation gain…it turned out we could. Note that Mount Garfield is named after a president but is not part of the Presidential Range, conversely there is the 4000-footer Jackson that is in the Presidential Range but is not named after the president by the same name but by an early NH geologist.
I had originally planned on a three day hike with Owl’s Nest being the very tough one to do the first day because of how isolated it is. I ended up hurting my back (sciatica on my right side) and I was concerned I would have problems on the trail and didn’t want to risk being that isolated. It turned out that I would not have problems while hiking, only while sitting down and sleeping. In hindsight, even if I was healthy, it would have been too aggressive to do Owls Head on the first day and then the other seven mountains we ended up completing on days two and three.
Even with the perfect weather and long days, it was a lot of wear and tear on our bodies to complete all seven over two days (with five being done on day 2). We totaled over 31 miles for the three days which included the hike out from Galehead Hut on day 3, with over 14 miles, five summits, and 10 hours of hiking, coming on day 2. Our knees were screaming at us.
Day 1 began with us getting up early, eating a hearty breakfast at our Squam Lake rental home and getting on the road by 6:15 am. Our packs had been readied the night before with lunches for 3 days and enough liquids to get us to hut that morning. We parked our car (borrowed grandpas) at the head of the Gale River Tr on the Loop Rd. off of Rte 3 (Exit 36 I-93). Surprisingly, there was no requirement to pay a overnight parking fee. I’m not sure why as I thought the forest service required a parking fee in all Federal forest lands. This was the Pemigewasset Wilderness within the White Mtn National Forest. We were on the trail (above) at 7:00 am and make it to the hut at 9:30 am completing the hike in 2:30 against a book of 3:30.
The beginning of the Gale River Tr. was moderate and we moved along fast. I had previously used the AMC White Mountain Hiking guide (29th edition) to review all the planned hikes and to write down “book times” for trail intersections, as well as reviewed other posted hike logs to get distances to waypoints on the trail to see if we were keeping up with our planned times. This would allow be to figure out if we were going to be able to complete the days planned hike in the allotted time.
We were moving along fast and were an hour into the hike and we still hadn’t come to the first Gale River crossing that had been identified in the guide. I was working up a sweat and starting to wonder if we were just out of shape and not moving fast enough. We finally came to some brook crossings and I started to believe the guide had been referring to these instead of crossings of the river. About 10 minutes later we came across a sign on the trail that explained that the trail had been re-configured last year in order to remove the dangerous river crossings and move the trail away from the river to help prevent erosion. The sign explained that the forestry service had done this with our tax dollars and I thought to myself it was nice to see Federal money well spent. At that point I realized we were not going to come across those waypoints described in the guide because the guide was produced in 2012 prior to the trail changing. This is a good lesson in planning with the most up to date information.
I still wasn’t sure if we were moving along at book time but could only keep up the pace. For the next hour we moved quickly up much more steep terrain and we were both breathing hard. At 9:04 (above right) we reached the Garfield Ridge Tr (part of the Appalachian Trail) for a time of 2:04 against a book time of 3:00 for the 4.0 miles of hiking. We were happy we had crushed the book time and weren’t so out of shape after all. This was the first time we saw people who were coming from the Galehead Hut and going over to Mt. Garfield.
We had .6 miles left to get to the hut and it was more steep, narrow, and rocky, but I didn’t think it was bad, though one of the Hut tenders would later mention that they think the forest service got it wrong and it is more like 1.0 miles. I think that is just because it is the steepest part of trail and they haul as much as 80 pounds on their backs when bringing in provisions. We got to the Galehead hut at 9:30 am covering the last .6 miles in 20 minutes against a book of 30 minutes. The hut is at 3800 ft and we started at 1600 ft.
It was a theme throughout our 2 days of hiking that Jacob and I could cover the uphill hiking in about 2/3 the book time but the downhill hiking was slower for us and about the same time as the book. We are more careful, our knees take a beating, and Jacob’s legs and shorter and not as strong as mine.
We checked in to the hut on arrival and the young lady “hut crew” working at the time seemed surprised we were checking in so early. I think that most of her overnighters come from other huts and don’t normally get there until afternoon. We filled our water bottles from the sink which had cold clean water coming from a well 180′ deep. She had already assigned us to a bunk room (12 in a room) and we took the bunk at the window farthest from the door with Jacob on second bunk and me at the bottom. With my back sciatica issues I would not have wanted to climb in and out of a second story bunk. We went ahead and put sheets on our mattresses and stored a few items we wouldn’t need for hiking. We then transferred water and lunch to Jacobs small pack for our trip up the adjacent Galehead Mtn (above right). This hut was positioned in a depression between the Franconia Range and the Twin Range between Mt. Gale and S. Twin Mtn. The views to the South were spectacular into the Pemigewasset Wilderness.
We left the hut at 9:50 am after only being at hut for 20 minutes with our morning hike. We were going to get the climb to Galehead Mtn out of the way and eat lunch at the top. It was supposed to be a one hours round trip climb up and down but we made it to the top at 10:07 am for a 17 minute climb. We would end up being back at the hut at 11:00 am with a good long break at the lookout for lunch. So it only took us 0:35 round trip against a book time of 1:00. Jacob carried the day pack with out lunch and drink, I didn’t carry any pack.
Above left is a cairn marking the top of Galehead Mtn which is in the woods with no view. We came back down a couple hundred feet to a lookout to have lunch and take in the views. It was beautiful, warm, and sunny. Jacob loved the salami, cheese, lettuce, and mayonnaise on ciabatta that I had made that morning. Said it was the best sandwich he ever had.A couple came along and we talked with them for a few minutes. They had done a lot of hiking in the White’s and had completed more 4000 footers than we had. We talked about Owl’s Head and they told us that coming to Galehead Hut from Owl’s Head could be problematic because it is a trail not traveled well and so it is not clearly marked.
We were back at the Galehead Hut at 11:00 am after lunch. Above left is hike down from Galehead and Below left is trail that would go to Owl’s Head and the 13 Falls campsite. Above right is the view to the southwest from the hut with the peak of Flume Mtn on right in distance and the Loon mountain ski runs in the distance in the middle left about 7 miles away as the crow flies.
When we got back to the hut we met an AT thru-hiker named “Granite” because he was from NH. He started at Springer Mtn in Georga on April 18 so he had been travelling 3.5 months to that point. He said he had 4 weeks to go and that the Whites beginning with Moosilauke had been “by far” the most strenuous and challenging. Prior to Whites he was averaging 25 miles a day and was now at 18.
We would see a few AT “thru-hikers” that day and a half-dozen the next day at the hut. The AMC has a policy where they will feed the thru-hikers with any food left over from the patrons meals. In our experience there was always a lot of food left over so the “thru-hikers” were salvating at the chance to get free hearty meals. The AMC also had a policy of working for meal/lodging which a couple of guys inquired about on the second night but I’m not sure they took the AMC up on the deal. I did see the thru hikers get fed well both nights and on the second morning noticed at least 6 of them sleeping on the floor in the dining area. I guess the AMC just gives them shelter as long as there is room. They also use the bathroom facility.
The Galehead Hut was one large single building with four bunk rooms housing 12 people each. So dinner would have as many as 48 people sitting at 3 large picnic tables with benches on either side. There as a large kitchen area for the crew to prepare meals. There was a mens and women’s bathroom with cold running water and two toilets that were essentially outhouses. The toilets were relatively clean but you can look right in and see all the human wasted and there is a slight smell. We found out that they compost all the human waste by adding a bacteria to it an letting it break down naturally. There was no shower for guest but there was a shower somewhere for the “crew” because they need to be clean for food service.
The hut itself is pretty green with all electricity use coming from solar and wind generation. There is a backup generator should those power supplies not be available. There communication between huts is via radio but we did have a weak cell signal and so could communicate at the hut. Their cooking is done with propane and the large 500 gallon tanks out back are brought in by helicopter along with their other dry goods at the beginning of the season. Everything else for food and supplies is brought in by the “crew” with wood frame packs. They carry up to 80 pounds in a load and we were told that one crew member made the hike up the Gale River Tr with a full load in 1.5 hours. That is hard to believe.
Meals are served family style with food being passed from one end of the table around to the other end. There was plenty of food with fresh bread, soup, salad, along with main course, vegetable, and dessert. You could eat as much as you want but highly encouraged to eat everything you put on your plate as leftovers had to be packed out by the “crew”. While we had little time to enjoy the hut as most of our time was spent hiking, if you took a more leisurely schedule there was plenty of reading and games to enjoy in the hut.
Jacob would take a 50 minute nap after we got back from lunch and climbing Galehead Mtn. He had stayed up late the previous night. I thought he was done for the day but when he woke up he was refreshed and ready to go. We packed a few snacks and plenty of fluids into the smaller Kelty pack which I would wear for the hike over to Garfield. We left the hut at 12:00 noon and took the Twinway Tr reaching the intersection of the Gale River Tr (above right) that we had taken earlier in the day at 12:20 covering the 0.6 mi in 0:21 against book of 0:30. This is the start of the Garfield Ridge Tr. We reached the intersection of the Franconia Brook Tr at 1:10 pm covering the 1.6 mi in 0:50 which is equal to book time.
The Garfield Ridge Tr. was more strenuous than I expected. It was the hardest terrain we had seen yet. We came across quite a few people on the trail. Some were “thru-hikers” and many were hiking from hut to hut and we would see some of them that night for dinner at Galehead. Rarely were Jacob and I ever passed on the trail but when we were, it was a “thru-hiker”. Above right we reached the Garfield Tr. intersection at 1:51pm covering the 0.5 mi in 0:41 against book time of 0:30.
We would reach the top of Mt. Garfield at 2:00 pm on July 31, 2017 completing our 19th 4000-footer. We covered the last 0.2 mi in 20 minutes, so the entire 2.6 mi hike from the Galehead hut to top of Mt. Garfield took us 2 hours against a book of 2:20. It was warm and breezy (10 mph) at the top with about 8 people hanging out enjoying the day. Couldn’t have asked for a better day to hike. We relaxed, enjoyed some snacks and the view.
We left the top of Garfield at 2:40 as I wanted to get back to listen to the naturalist talk at 5pm with dinner being 6pm. We made it back to the Franconia Brook Tr at 3:23 covering the 0.7 mi in 24 min which was twice as fast as it took coming in. On the way back we started heading thunder. We couldn’t tell how far away it was because the sound carries so far up the valleys. We did notice some dark clouds to the north but didn’t appear to be anything imminent. On the way back we encountered an older couple hiking and they asked about young kids they had seen on top of Garfield. I hadn’t thought much of it but there was a couple of young kids that didn’t seem to be as well prepared for the strenuous hike on the Garfield Ridge Tr. and they were starting down the mountain very slowly when we left with the daughter calling ahead to the father. I assumed they were hiking down to their cars but it turned out they were coming over to the Galehead Hut and I was very concerned that they would never make it before dark or worse before the thunderstorms hit. As it turned out they made it to the hut at 6:30 about 30 minutes after dinner was served and they got rained on very hard for 15 minutes. We made it to the Gale River Tr intersection at 4:16 and back to the hut at 4:37pm with the return trip taking less than 2 hours, so about 7 minutes quicker than the hike to Garfield.
Jacob and I attended the short talk with the naturalist who had talked to us earlier in the day explaining how the hut functioned. This afternoon he was talking about the boreal forest and the Alpine zone of the forest. In the White mountains it is dominated by the Balsam Fir and Spruce. You can tell difference between Fir and Spruce because the Balsam fir needle smells like a Christmas tree when broken and you can roll the needle between your fingers (it is flat) like you can with a Spruce (it has 4 sides). He also explained about a “fir fall” that only happens here, in the Adirondacks, and somewhere in Japan. When you look across the sides of mountains here and see horizontal area of dead trees, this is a “fir fall” and is naturally occurring. It has something to do with a primary tree at the head of the “fall” being weakened and dying and that exposes the trees behind it to disease. They eventually will be replaced by new growth. Above Jacob is standing on a “glacial erratic”. These are large boulders that differ from other boulders in the area because they don’t actually come from the area. They were transported there in the ice age by glacial ice, with them eventually settling down as the ice melted.
There was an older group of hikers that started singing around 5:30. The woman had a good voice and was joined by a ukulele and someone on table drums. It was entertaining.
We did end up getting hit with a thunder shower at 6:15 just after dinner started and the young family hadn’t come in yet. There was actually an entire table of people that hadn’t made it back for dinner. They all came in around 6:15 soaking wet and everyone cheered.
For dinner we had split pea soup (delicious), salad, fresh bread, beef stew over noodles and fudge for dessert. We talked with a couple of families that were doing hut to hut hikes and were having a great time. Made me think I need to bring Lauren, Jennifer, and Ana Sofia on a hike to one of these huts.
After dinner I sat outside and talked with a thru-hiker, then had a game of chess with Jacob. I was tired and so was in bed by 9pm before lights out at 9:30. With my ear plugs and mask (still light out at 9 pm) I was asleep quickly as was Jacob. Unfortunately, there was a “thru-hiker” woman who was up all night coughing. Even the ear plugs couldn’t drown it out. Not sure how she was still hiking and I don’t think she went to sleep all night. Seemed like she needed medical attention. I saw her sitting outside the next day. The “crew” woke everyone at 6:30 am with a guitar and singing “rock me mamma like a wagon wheel” by Darius Rucker.
Epilogue: After posting the above, Jacob came how seriously ill. He ran a fever at 104 for 3 days and it went as high as 105. He ended up having this ailment for more than a week. While it didn’t start for 7 days after we returned from our hike, I can’t help but think that the thru-hiker woman who appeared terribly sick may have passed something on to Jacob. He ended up with a similar terrible cough for five days and had to start school on 8/21 still recovering from his illness (had it for 11 days).