4 wet days, 10 4Ks or Why I Missed the Party

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Double Bow

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So to celebrate my birthday, I decided to head out and hit a whole mess o' 4Ks. I decided I'd even book a hut stay on my birthday to go ultra-posh.

On the 18th, I had a hard time gettin' out of Dodge. When I finally got to the Basin, I realized that it would be too wet to go up Flume Slide and too late to head up Liberty Spring and hit Flume and still make dinner at Greenleaf. So, I went up to the ridge, dropped my pack and then hitting treeline dropped my poles, on my way up to Liberty in the thunderstorm. At one point I lost my balance and fell jamming and cutting a couple of fingers.

Heading over toward Little Haystack after tagging the summit, I saw a couple of girls I had seen on Madison the previous weekend and chatted for a bit. On LH, I met an ATer named Padre. Sure enough, he was/is a preist. We hiked and chatted together all the way to Lafayette. Then he headed off toward Galehead and I went down toward Greenleaf. Soon hale was pounding me and I was scrambling to get me gear out of my pack. With my raincoat and packcover on, I continued down throwing my poles ahead of me. With the lightening crashing directly over my head, I opted to leave my poles where they were and to scamper on down the trail.

I finally reached the hut and spent it peaceably enough despite the screaming kids and the subpar dinner (Mac & cheese... for THAT price?!?). The next morning I climbed 500' to get my poles and then doubled back to the hut for my pack before continuing down. Reaching the road, I tried to dry some gear with the hand driers at Cannon's base before heading up, but it was little use. After hitting the summit of Cannon I grabbed a burger and a beer before setting back off againat 3:30pm. Hours later I reached Kinsman Pond Shelter and dropped my pack before dashing out and back to hit North and South Kinsman. As I made it back to the shelter just before total darkness, I thought of a tem for those of us obcessed with "The Grid". My term? Gridiots. Pass it on. I got to the hut around 11 o'clock and the hut croo persueded me to spend the night hence I didn't make it to the party.

The next morning I had planned to hit the Carters, yet getting down I changed my plan and kept it short just doing Waumbek. Still, it was enough and I was happy to check into Hiker's and then spend the night watching the cartoons on FOX and drinking beers.

On Monday, I headed up Avalon and on to Field which was my 300th 4K, a couple after hitting my 50th of the year. I noticed that at least 10 trees were cut expanding the view... The weather stayed dry until hitting the summit area up Tom and then we got poured on the entire way down.

It was a wet weekend, but definitely a fun one!
 
Double Bow...couldn't think of a better way to spend a Birthday.

Happy...Happy...Birthday!!!!!!

Nice job on the 4k's!!
 
Huts

"I finally reached the hut and spent it peaceably enough despite the screaming kids and the subpar dinner (Mac & cheese... for THAT price?!?)."

Never stayed at a hut, never plan to. This reinforces my theories. :)

Would have liked to see you at Barne's, but glad you got in a lot of hiking!

KDT
 
Double Bow, sorry you missed the party! Sounds like you accomplished a lot of hiking with the weather thrown at you...
Mac & Cheese & screeming kids????? Wow we only had to deal with looking at Marc in pink w/red fluff and then had to suffer through Kevin's Steak kabobs w/ veggies and shrimp kabobs with sides of Mac salad & cole slaw..yumm

BUt I'm sure your mac & cheese was equally delicious! :p

Happy Belated Birthday!!
 
Kevin said:
"I finally reached the hut and spent it peaceably enough despite the screaming kids and the subpar dinner (Mac & cheese... for THAT price?!?)."

Never stayed at a hut, never plan to. This reinforces my theories. :)

Would have liked to see you at Barne's, but glad you got in a lot of hiking!

KDT
FWIW, the hut meals are usually quite a bit better than MnC.

My only 'beef' is their 'veggie nights'! :D
 
Friday, 7/18

Did you realize it was me "ASKUS3" that everyone applauded when I walked into Greenleaf Hut that Friday evening on 7/18! I was holed up on the ridge below Lafayette coming from Galehead Hut at the junction with the Skookumchuck Trail waiting out the lightning storm in the scrub. It is fun to just lie down and watch lightning dancing all around you and the trail turn into a river within a couple of minutes. I got to the hut about 6:20 PM and my friend arrived ten minutes later. What a day dodging storms and hearing rolling thunder from the time I stepped foot out of Galehead Hut. But that last storm just got us good!

The next morning my group went back up to Lafayette. When we were going up I saw those lightning rods lying next to the trail and I knew exactly why someone would discard perfectly good hiking poles alongside the trail. Glad they were still there. My buddy finsihed his 48 peaks on Flume at 1:25 PM. We then continued down the Osseo which I consider one of the longest and well maintained hiking trails in the Whites.

Sunday, was so bad we took a zero and scratched my AT traverse oof Mooislauke. No regrets on passing that day away.

On Monday, I was over at Kinsman Pond Shelter. I was very impressed with the new lean-to there. That is quite a nice structure they built there! We were hiking the AT from Franconia Notch to Kinsman Notch and the rains soaked us just a half mile before we made it to Eliza Brook Shelter. The stretch of the AT from South Kinsman to the shelter was quite a beautiful piece of trail. First the steep descent and then I took a ton of pictures of the Eliza Brook - it was so scenic that I didn't pay attention that the rains were moving in. From Eliza Brook out to Kinsman Notch was boring, too many ups and downs and the trail was completely waterlogged. After awhile I gave up trying to keep out of the pools of water. Got out after dark!

By the way: I agree that of all five nights we stayed in the huts last week, Greenleaf's Mac & Cheese was the poorest dinner. They had some good cooks at Galehead and the chicken Monday night at Zealand was superb. But all the soups were terriffic and hit the spot!

It was interesting how our travels crossed each other. I certainly have a feel for your experience.
 
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askus3 said:
Did you realize it was me "ASKUS3" that everyone applauded when I walked into Greenleaf Hut that Friday evening on 7/18!

I din't realize that was you, or I would have introduced myself. I did appluade you though and thought you looked somehow familiar... strange. Glad your adventure was a good one too. For what I paid, I was quite dissapointed that the only meat between the dinner on my birthday and breakfast the next day were a few pieces of bacon. I'm sorry, but I expect a little better than Mac 'n' Cheese for that price. Baked Chicken or spaghetti and meatballs would have been far better. I had dehydated Chili Mac down at my car that I thought would have been better.

Still, after hearing what you, Tom, and my former hutmistress friend have had to say, I MIGHT give the full service huts another chance someday...
 
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