rocksnrolls
Active member
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2005
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- 47
Despite weather reports indicating a 98% chance of rain, Clown and I decided to stick to our plans to head up Gale River Tr to the Garfield Ridge to bag Garfield and Galehead.
We hit the trailhead around 8am with a few cars already there and several more pulling in before we had finished gearing up. We hit the trail at a rapid pace and were only passed by one group of 4 hikers heading to Galehead Hut who were lead by an 'evil taskmaster'. Encountered about a half dozen hikers heading down, including one croo member.
The Gale River Tr was a beautiful and fairly easy hike. The stream crossings were no problem despite the recent wet weather. The trail was damp and slippery in places, but with care we managed to hit the ridge in about an hour and a half with only one minor incident: I slipped on a rock and managed to bend one of my poles a bit while avoiding a tumble.
Near the ridge we had caught up with the evil taskmaster and his minions and parted ways as they headed east while we headed west. Garfield Ridge definatly lived up to it's reputation: lots of PUDs, rough and rocky with a few rock slabs to scramble on. The dampness didn't help, but the lack of moss on the rocks and the general roughness of their surfaces made for decent enough footing. We were lucky enough to catch some views on the way to Garfield through some sparsly wooded sections - south to Owl's Head and the Bonds, east to South Twin and Haystack and west to Garfield (looming in the distance
). The sun even peaked out of the clouds for a little while!
We stopped for a little while to chat with the friendly caretaker (and his little dog too) at the Garfield Ridge Campsite and a couple hikers who would soon be following us to Garfield. When we got to the summit, a father with his young son (from the Concord NH area) were just getting ready to head back down so we had the peak to ourselves for about 10 minutes. We had our lunches and talked some more with the two guys we had seen at the campsite. Turned out they were a couple of submarine engineers from around Mystic CT who were enjoying their yearly trip to the Whites. Nice guys - hope to run into you next year! Say 'hi' to the belugas for me!
So we gathered our strength best we could and started the trek back across the ridge to Galehead. Man that trail seems to take forever! Up and down and up and down ad infinitum! The clouds/fog had rolled in pretty completely by the time we had gotten to Garfield (no VFTTs ) and stuck around for the rest of the hike. I'm glad we had those views on the way west along the ridge! The trail was virtually deserted but we had fun cracking bad jokes and good-naturedly complaining about the trail and wondering if we'ld ever reach the hut. Well of course we got there eventually and we set up in a corner of the main room to rest up a bit. I had some of the delicious veggie and pasta soup and some of the baked goods to restore my energy levels. There was a group of about 10 people hanging out talking and I gotta say the aucustics in that place are lousy! It was so loud, I felt like I was on a subway platform or something. It must be aweful when the place is packed!
At this point Clown and I were pretty beat and with a 4.6 mile hike back to the car ahead of us, we decided to forego the bagging of Galehead and just head back to the trailhead. As per usual the trip down seemed to take forever - my feet always seem to start complaining when they know we're heading back to the car - it's like a chorus of Bart and Lisa saying 'are we there yet' over and over
Only met two people on the way down the Gale River Tr, both hut croo heading up for the night.
All in all a great hike! This was the longest day hike either of us had done but the weather had been great. Cool temps, not much wind, almost no bugs and beating the 50-to-1 odds on the rain was sweet. I hope to hike with Clown again sometime. I guess this mini gas crisis had a few benefits for me, getting to meet and hike with Clown this weekend and last weekend heading up the Arrow Slide with the tough-as-nails jessbee. I'm looking forward to meeting and hiking with more VFTTers in the future
We hit the trailhead around 8am with a few cars already there and several more pulling in before we had finished gearing up. We hit the trail at a rapid pace and were only passed by one group of 4 hikers heading to Galehead Hut who were lead by an 'evil taskmaster'. Encountered about a half dozen hikers heading down, including one croo member.
The Gale River Tr was a beautiful and fairly easy hike. The stream crossings were no problem despite the recent wet weather. The trail was damp and slippery in places, but with care we managed to hit the ridge in about an hour and a half with only one minor incident: I slipped on a rock and managed to bend one of my poles a bit while avoiding a tumble.
Near the ridge we had caught up with the evil taskmaster and his minions and parted ways as they headed east while we headed west. Garfield Ridge definatly lived up to it's reputation: lots of PUDs, rough and rocky with a few rock slabs to scramble on. The dampness didn't help, but the lack of moss on the rocks and the general roughness of their surfaces made for decent enough footing. We were lucky enough to catch some views on the way to Garfield through some sparsly wooded sections - south to Owl's Head and the Bonds, east to South Twin and Haystack and west to Garfield (looming in the distance
). The sun even peaked out of the clouds for a little while!We stopped for a little while to chat with the friendly caretaker (and his little dog too) at the Garfield Ridge Campsite and a couple hikers who would soon be following us to Garfield. When we got to the summit, a father with his young son (from the Concord NH area) were just getting ready to head back down so we had the peak to ourselves for about 10 minutes. We had our lunches and talked some more with the two guys we had seen at the campsite. Turned out they were a couple of submarine engineers from around Mystic CT who were enjoying their yearly trip to the Whites. Nice guys - hope to run into you next year! Say 'hi' to the belugas for me!
So we gathered our strength best we could and started the trek back across the ridge to Galehead. Man that trail seems to take forever! Up and down and up and down ad infinitum! The clouds/fog had rolled in pretty completely by the time we had gotten to Garfield (no VFTTs
) and stuck around for the rest of the hike. I'm glad we had those views on the way west along the ridge! The trail was virtually deserted but we had fun cracking bad jokes and good-naturedly complaining about the trail and wondering if we'ld ever reach the hut. Well of course we got there eventually and we set up in a corner of the main room to rest up a bit. I had some of the delicious veggie and pasta soup and some of the baked goods to restore my energy levels. There was a group of about 10 people hanging out talking and I gotta say the aucustics in that place are lousy! It was so loud, I felt like I was on a subway platform or something. It must be aweful when the place is packed!At this point Clown and I were pretty beat and with a 4.6 mile hike back to the car ahead of us, we decided to forego the bagging of Galehead and just head back to the trailhead. As per usual the trip down seemed to take forever - my feet always seem to start complaining when they know we're heading back to the car - it's like a chorus of Bart and Lisa saying 'are we there yet' over and over
Only met two people on the way down the Gale River Tr, both hut croo heading up for the night.
All in all a great hike! This was the longest day hike either of us had done but the weather had been great. Cool temps, not much wind, almost no bugs and beating the 50-to-1 odds on the rain was sweet. I hope to hike with Clown again sometime. I guess this mini gas crisis had a few benefits for me, getting to meet and hike with Clown this weekend and last weekend heading up the Arrow Slide with the tough-as-nails jessbee. I'm looking forward to meeting and hiking with more VFTTers in the future
