I gather my things as quietly as possible so as not too disturb the other 12 hikers in the small shelter. By the light of my headlamp I pack up outside of the shelter. I water the leaves behind the shelter right before I leave, and as I shoulder my pack my light illuminates a young man cowboy camping about 15 feet from where I was squatting. I don't think I woke him, but maybe he was just pretending to be asleep.
It's pitch black outside and I have to hike with my headlamp. I take the easier Kinsman Pond Trail down to Liberty Springs instead of the Fishin' Jimmy Trail, which is treacherous in the daylight, let alone in the dark. I have to lose 2,400 feet of elevation, and people on top of Kinsman yesterday were talking about how steep the trail was.
The Kinsman Pond Trail is definitely not easy to navigate by headlamp. I hike over bog bridges that are canted at a precarious angle and wobble when I walk on them. The trail Is poorly blazed just like all the other trails in New Hampshire, Not that I would be able to see the occasional blazes in the dark anyway.
I am going down a well worn path, that's for sure but maybe it's a game trail? It looks like a trail but I don't know if it is THE trail. It's definitely a stream. I use my InReach to make sure I am going in the right direction, when I look up and see a blue blaze haphazardly painted on the side of a tree that is leaning precariously iinto the trail, in the light of my headlamp.
About six o'clock the sun has risen high enough over Mount Lafayette to the east that I can hike without my headlamp. I'm getting hot and hungry, so stop and change into my day clothes, and eat a little breakfast. The smell of my day clothes makes my eyes water.
This hike is definitely taking me a lot longer than if I were hiking in the daylight but at least I'm still making some progress, albeit slowly.
The trail remains challenging for the next mile until It crosses Cascade Brook and joins the AT proper from here, when the trail becomes much easier and more like the rest of the AT to which I am accustomed further south. I have lost about 1,700 feet of altitude in the last two hours, so the rest should be less steep from here.
The sun has fully risen while I follow Cascade Brook down, and see some beautiful cascades with big pools of water that would be perfect for a splash if it were hotter. A couple campsites are randomly scattered throughout the woods. I am so paranoid about camping anywhere other than a designated ATC campsite in the national forest, because if I were to inadvertently set up in a forest protection area and get caught, it's a fine up to $5,000.
The final mile to Franconia Notch Is delightfully easy. I get a little confunded at a trail intersection and go the wrong way for a moment, but get back on track quickly. I pass a lot of clean and happy hikers heading back onto the trail from the trailhead, and as much as I'm dying for a cup of coffee and some real breakfast, I really need to focus on getting cleaned up as well. My main objective this morning is doing laundry, taking a shower, and getting back on the trail as soon as possible.
I get down to the Liberty Springs Trailhead at 8:30 AM after hiking five miles down from Kinsman Pond and another mile to the parking lot. I'm dirty and smell awful, but don't bother to change out of my clothes as I get in the truck.
I think my best bet for laundry and a shower is the Lafayette Campground, just a mile away. When I arrive, there are people directing traffic in the full parking lots in front of the campground. This is a wildly popular hiking destination and a lot of people are hitting the trail for the weekend.
I park in front of the general store and when I enter I am greeted by a kindly old man behind the counter. I see a coffee machine and I make a beeline for it while he says hello. We make some small talk and I tell him I have been hiking the trail and I would love a shower and laundry if possible. He says not only is it possible but he pulls out a map and tells me where to park to continue on my journey later today. He is tremendously helpful and kind, and I tell him today couldn't get any better!
I walk over to the bath house and change out of my disgusting clothes so that I can do laundry while I shower. There are two outlets in the breezeway, so I plug in my battery packs, InReach, and watch to charge. Nothing like one stop shopping!
An hour-and-half later my clothes are clean, I am clean, and my electronics are almost fully charged! While my clothes are drying I look over the map and come up with a plan for the rest of the day.
By stopping at Kinsman Pond last night and not getting to my car earlier, I really screwed myself up for the hike to Greenleaf Hut today. There is no way I will make it to the hut for dinner, let alone before nightfall, if I continue up the AT from here. I would have to hike the mile back to the trail from the parking lot, then climb 4,200 feet over 6.4 very rough miles to Mt. Lafayette, then hike one mile and 1,000 feet down to the hut. That would take at least an additional 6 hours.
I've done that trip before and it is very challenging, even on fresh legs, and something you want to start very early in the day, not at 11 A.M.. While I have hiked many sections of the trail before this journey, I have re-hiked all the sections I have previously done in order to get a real thru hike experience. This is the one time I am pulling the "I already hiked this part" card and taking a short cut.
The Old Bridle Path is a 3 mile trail that leaves directly from a parking lot and goes straight to Greenleaf Hut. I will still need to gain about 3,000 feet, but I can make it in about 2.5 hours, including breaks.
I pack the essentials for the next couple nights in the huts; toiletries, sleeping clothes, snacks, and my top quilt. A stay in the huts includes all-you-can-eat dinner and breakfast in addition to a bunk, so I'm essentially slack-packing with a couple extra things.
The hike up starts off easily, on steps made of stone and a groomed walking path. So nice after the crazy jumble of rocks of the last three days. The trail becomes more like a trail with fewer steps as I head up, and eventually it is a much rougher trail, involving steep rock scrambles, but I'm having a great time!
I am enjoying the views and the cool breezes that occasionally waft over the trail as I gain elevation. The surrounding mountains are very hazy today, but still spectacular.
I am forced to stop and take frequent pauses in my hike up, as the trail is quite the busy thoroughfare. I am passing hikers right and left, but the trail is so narrow in places that it's almost impossible to step off it. By unwritten rules of the trail, uphill hikers have the right of way, but most of these hikers are apparently unschooled in trail etiquette, and fail to yield. I get fed up and finally start pushing upward, making the other hikers stop.
I arrive at the hut at 4 pm, my legs feeling much better than this time the last two days. Lots of people are milling about outside the hut, and I go inside to check in.
I am in bunk room 7, and when I go to claim a bunk, I'm disheartened to see the bottom two bunks taken. The person beneath me will get woken by my middle-of-the-night forays to the ladies room, but that's the breaks. At least I'm not stuck on the very top bunk! As an aside, when I did this each time before with large groups, We would make the youngest hikers sleep in the top bunks, leaving the lowest for the oldest hikers.
I ask the Croo (what the hut staff are called) for a bowl of soup when a young man comes up behind me. He says "I recognized your voice." I recall his face, but like so many other times on the trail, I have a hard time placing people's faces to situations; I've met so many people over the days on the trail, plus I tend to stay a little befuddled in general, in a tired haze from weariness.
He says that he drove me to Hanover from The Barn Door Hostel. It's the young rock climber who had a lot of questions about hiking.
"Will!", I exclaim. He said he wanted to go hiking and had a backpack and gear but he wasn't sure where to start. I grab my soup and sit down with him and his cousin, who is from Baltimore, of all places. We chat for a while until they realize the time. They say goodbye and head down the trail I just came up.
I spend the next hour sitting behind the hut, relaxing on a rock, watching about 50 hikers trying to figure out how to get back to their cars. A volunteer naturalist with the AMC stands at the trailhead junction and tries to help people get on the right trail. Several times people hike down the one trail, only to return to ask directions to the right trail!
At 6 PM the hut guests gather in the dining room for dinner, which is always a lively affair in the huts. There are about 35 of us seated at the two long tables. Dinner is announced by a dinner bell and a chant by the Croo. We are served minestrone soup, followed by salad and stuffed shells with peas, all served family style. While we eat, the other guests around me ask lots of questions about trail life and my experiences. The Croo brings out big chocolate cookies dusted with sugar, and the gentleman across from me grabs two extra and gives them to me for later.
After dinner the AMC naturalist holds a trivia game for interested guests, and I lose but learn a lot about the history of the mountains in the process. I'm having a great time but I'm exhausted and yawning, eager for the end so I can go to bed.
At 8:20 I climb onto my bunk. The room is dark and the other two people in the room are reading on their Kindles. I can't make out who they are, but I can tell by the voices that they are women. I say goodnight and I'm out within minutes of my head hitting the pillow.
Today's Stats: 9 miles, 2,900 feet gain
Trail Stats: 1,831 miles, 364K feet gain
Miles to Katahdin: 363
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