Galehead Hut (8/9-10/23)

Has there ever been anyone who divided the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire up into more sections to hike than me? I kind of doubt it. I had previously hiked from Mt. Garfield over to Galehead Hut with my friend Sylvia, and I had hiked from Crawford Notch to Madison Springs Hut previously in summer 2023. Now I needed to link those sections together. The problem was that it's impossible to simply start your hike at Galehead Hut. You have to get to it first. Thus, the first day of my hike wasn't even going to count, as it would be all about getting to Galehead. The second day would be the AT section.

I decided that the easiest way to start would be to hike from Lincoln Woods to the 13 Falls Tentsite, and then climb from there to Galehead Hut. As usual, this endeavor would be aided by a car spot from my amazing fiancee Dragonfly, without whom this AT section hiking would be impossible. I began my hike by driving to Crawford Notch, dropping my car at the same trailhead that I had started hiking from back in June when I was doing my Presidential Traverse. On the way there, I saw a rainbow! I wish I had a good picture to post, but my pictures were taken from the car and aren't great.

Dragonfly picked me up there and drove me over to Lincoln Woods, where I started hiking at 9:22 AM. I began with one of my favorite trails, the Lincoln Woods Trail. The trail is long and a lot of people consider it boring, but personally I have always liked it. I can make a lot of speed on it, which I appreciate. Back in August of 2022, I managed to make 4.2 mph walking on Lincoln Woods Trail, which is likely a personal record for that distance.

From Lincoln Woods I turned onto the Franconia Brook Trail, which is one of the easier trails in the Whites. It's a nice gradual ascent for most of the way, gaining only 800 feet or so in five miles as it saunters towards the 13 Falls Campsite. Thus, I was expecting a nice, easy hike, at least until I got to 13 Falls and had to start climbing. Instead, what I got was some of the most difficult water crossings that I have ever attempted. In fact, if this was a day hike and I didn't have reservations, I might have simply turned back and said that it wasn't worth the risk.

At all four crossings, the water was rushing, and I knew that I couldn't ford (except at the third one), so I had to find alternate ways across, usually shimmying across logs. For the first crossing, I had to walk upstream a bit before I found a log I could us to shimmy across. I sat down on it and slowly pulled myself across, being careful of the painful nubs sticking up out of the log. It wasn't pretty, but I made it.

The water was really rushing.

The second crossing was even worse than the first. I had to go over a hill to find a log that I could use to cross on, and the log was very low to the water. That meant that my feet were getting hit by the rushing water as I crossed, and it almost knocked me off the log. Falling in the water there could well have resulted in serious injury or death, so I had to concentrate to keep myself upright. Thankfully, I made it across, but I realized that I was now in no man's land. I had to keep going forward, because there was no way back. What's the saying? The only way out is through. Well, that was certainly true in this case.

I dropped a text message to Dragonfly on the Garmin and let her know my situation just in case things went badly. Thankfully, as I mentioned before, the third water crossing wasn't as bad, and I was able to ford that one. For the fourth water crossing, it was back to crossing on logs, but it wasn't as difficult as the second one had been. Now finally done with the water crossings, I breathed a sigh of relief as I headed towards 13 Falls Tentsite.

When I visited 13 Falls the first time, I had dinner with a group of guys at the water source in front of the site. In fact, this water source is where people have to cross if they are coming to 13 Falls from Owl's Head. On that trip, the water source was a nice little stream, easily crossable with a bit of rock hopping, and pleasant to sit by. This time, it looked like the picture below.

Good luck crossing that.

If you're getting the idea that the water was very high on this trip, you have the right idea. It had been raining for most of the summer, and it showed. Normally these types of conditions are spring conditions, not August conditions.

When I arrived at 13 Falls, nobody was there, so I took a quick break and then headed up the Twin Brook Trail. This was significantly more ascent than I had been doing so far, but still not bad. It was only 1,500 feet of ascent in 2.4 miles.

When I made it to the top, I checked in at the Galehead Hut. The view from right outside the hut is beautiful, which makes up for the fact that Galehead itself doesn't have any views.

The view from Galehead Hut.

Of the hut croos that I have dealt with, this was my least favorite one. They were very insular, talking to each other but not really to the guests except when they had to. Add in the fact that the guests weren't super friendly, either, and I felt pretty isolated as a solo hiker. With nothing else to do, I mostly sat on a bench and read books on my Kindle.

Thankfully, the food was fine, and I felt well prepared to hike out the next morning. Right out of Galehead Hut, there was a very hard climb up South Twin Mountain. It was over 1,100 feet of gain in just 0.8 miles. I certainly felt it and I struggled a bit. Thankfully, the payoff on South Twin is always worth it, as it offers some of the best views in the White Mountains. This day was no exception.

The view from South Twin.

From South Twin, I followed the Appalachian Trail (technically the Twinway Trail) over towards Mount Guyot. That mountain will always have a special place in my heart because I stood there in March 2020 and watched my last sunrise before the pandemic hit.

At Mount Guyot, I turned towards Zealand Mountain. I was on familiar terrain here, as I had covered it on both of my prior Bonds Traverses. On this day, I bypassed Zealand, as I didn't need it for anything, and it doesn't have a view, anyway.

I love a good bog bridge, especially with wet conditions.

I stayed on the Twinway as I approached Zealand Hut. Sometimes I forget just how steep that trail is above Zealand Hut, but then the ladders remind me.

This is how you remind me...

Normally after I pass the hut, I proceed down the Zealand Trail towards the Zealand Road, but on this day I was turning the other direction and following the Ethan Pond Trail towards Crawford Notch. The trail featured a lot of cliffside hiking, and the view was quite beautiful.

It's rare that cliffside hiking is this wide open.

I guess this area is technically called the Zealand Notch, though it's certainly not as well known as Pinkham, Crawford, or Franconia Notches. The Zeacliff Trail is a steep trail that connects this area to the area above the hut. I checked, and Zeacliff is apparently not on the Terrifying 25.

I made good time on my descent, averaging about two miles per hour hiking speed. I found the hike enjoyable as a whole, despite the water crossings and the frosty reception at Galehead. Nonetheless, I was happy to make it back to my car and have another Appalachian Trail section completed. Always remember, you can't take flight until you spread your wings.