bintrepidhiker
New member
Headed up friday night with the intentions of doing the twins and maybe galehead. much to our surprise when we turned onto the road to get to the trailhead, it was badly washed out. my poor cr-v would not have survived going up that so we turned back and went to the gale river trailhead instead to do galehead and maybe garfield the next morning.
after a somewhat comfortable night in the car, we were up and 5:30 and after a muffin and banana for breakfast we were rolling by 6. temp was around 45 but it didn't feel that cold. Gale River Trail was a nice trail to warm up on: moderatly flat for a long stretch before starting to climb. The stream crossings were easy as well and felt quite refreshing when dipping your head into it hehe. the steep part wasn't too bad once we got used to climbing and not walking on flat stuff. was around 7:30 or so when we arrived at Garfield Ridge Trail and headed over the hut. Looks like a bunch of people who had spent the night were just getting organized for the day when we passed by on our way to Galehead. The half mile climb wasn't that bad either. We both made it up to the outlook in about 10 mins then to the summit in another 5. Not much to look at there but that was #23 for me. After the summit shot we went back to the outlook and ate up some food and decided to forget garfield and do the twins instead.
we met up with another hiker that was also doing the twins from Nashua named George. very nice guy and friendly so he stuck with us the rest of the day exchanging stories. Twinway heading up South Twin was pretty steep the entire way. Still timewise it took under an hour to get up top and soak in the nice views. looking out to the north west you could see above all the scattered clouds and was nice to look at. that officially made it #24 and halfway thru the 48. not a bad mountain to remember what got you to halfway. after a brief rest we pushed on to North Twin which wasn't bad at all. nice descent then a steady up to the top. at this point we lost the sun for a while so the slight amount of wind we had started to cool us off so after a another brief rest we headed back over to south twin. by this point i was getting a bit fatigued but managed to get to the top of south twin again where i chowed down a lunch then we went down toward the hut. going down took some care with loose rock and flat slabs with water on them, but we made it to the hut and again took a breather before doing the last leg of the trip back down gale river. going down this early on was quick with the steep section. was near the bottom of this when i ran into my friend Phil (grouseking) and matt who were heading up to do galehead and garfield. amazing who you run into in this area! after a brief chat we continued on. was quite a relief to get to the bottom and start walking on the flat part again since by now my knee was starting to act up a little bit. after a while it starts shooting pain thruout my whole leg if i hit it right (usually every 3rd or 4th step) so i gotta keep an eye on it. when we reached the last stream crossing we again refreshed ourselves in the stream dunking our heads and sipping the water. after a short jaunt we arrived back at the car around 1:30. i believe it was around 15 miles in 7.5 hours including stops so not bad. i should have pics up soon so those that go to my links to look for them, be patient, they'll be up tonight hopefully.
after a somewhat comfortable night in the car, we were up and 5:30 and after a muffin and banana for breakfast we were rolling by 6. temp was around 45 but it didn't feel that cold. Gale River Trail was a nice trail to warm up on: moderatly flat for a long stretch before starting to climb. The stream crossings were easy as well and felt quite refreshing when dipping your head into it hehe. the steep part wasn't too bad once we got used to climbing and not walking on flat stuff. was around 7:30 or so when we arrived at Garfield Ridge Trail and headed over the hut. Looks like a bunch of people who had spent the night were just getting organized for the day when we passed by on our way to Galehead. The half mile climb wasn't that bad either. We both made it up to the outlook in about 10 mins then to the summit in another 5. Not much to look at there but that was #23 for me. After the summit shot we went back to the outlook and ate up some food and decided to forget garfield and do the twins instead.
we met up with another hiker that was also doing the twins from Nashua named George. very nice guy and friendly so he stuck with us the rest of the day exchanging stories. Twinway heading up South Twin was pretty steep the entire way. Still timewise it took under an hour to get up top and soak in the nice views. looking out to the north west you could see above all the scattered clouds and was nice to look at. that officially made it #24 and halfway thru the 48. not a bad mountain to remember what got you to halfway. after a brief rest we pushed on to North Twin which wasn't bad at all. nice descent then a steady up to the top. at this point we lost the sun for a while so the slight amount of wind we had started to cool us off so after a another brief rest we headed back over to south twin. by this point i was getting a bit fatigued but managed to get to the top of south twin again where i chowed down a lunch then we went down toward the hut. going down took some care with loose rock and flat slabs with water on them, but we made it to the hut and again took a breather before doing the last leg of the trip back down gale river. going down this early on was quick with the steep section. was near the bottom of this when i ran into my friend Phil (grouseking) and matt who were heading up to do galehead and garfield. amazing who you run into in this area! after a brief chat we continued on. was quite a relief to get to the bottom and start walking on the flat part again since by now my knee was starting to act up a little bit. after a while it starts shooting pain thruout my whole leg if i hit it right (usually every 3rd or 4th step) so i gotta keep an eye on it. when we reached the last stream crossing we again refreshed ourselves in the stream dunking our heads and sipping the water. after a short jaunt we arrived back at the car around 1:30. i believe it was around 15 miles in 7.5 hours including stops so not bad. i should have pics up soon so those that go to my links to look for them, be patient, they'll be up tonight hopefully.
