To our surprise, parking at 8:45 was not a problem. We started up the Lincoln Woods Trail, followed by the Osseo Trail (the latter being one featured on the T25/Terrifying 25 List). We saw a lone woman with our same Day 1 & 2 goals, before reaching the summit of Flume. Joel’s jaw dropped upon viewing the Lonesome Lake, Cannon, and Kinsman trio to our west. After a few pictures to remember a beautiful day, we took a quick trip to Liberty where he found the view even more impressive. Perhaps most importantly, there were no kids around on either summit, so we were able to safely get a Cheeks On The Peaks picture!
I mentioned to Joel that the trip from Liberty to Haystack was going to be relatively easy until we approached Haystack. It's a brief yet steep climb to roughly 4700 feet, and then another similar climb to Lincoln where we refueled. We were making good time, enjoying amazing weather, and seeing September foliage that would be typical for early October. The dry summer speeds up the foliage season- it certainly won't be happening in October this year. The short but steep section to the top of Haystack, and later Lincoln, did wear us both out. I'm still not sure if Joel appreciated the warning I had given him earlier.
The descent to the hut was fairly benign, and we arrived at 4:30. I met a woman from a church group that was painting the hut’s view from upon the deck. I’m not normally one for paintings but I’d have proudly displayed this one.
Dinner was stuffed shells, which is my second favorite hut meal. I've eaten as many as 13 in one sitting, so it's easy to understand why I booked a Sunday night at Greenleaf for us. That said, the best part of Greenleaf on this particular night was not necessarily the food. I was seated next to a recent Susquehanna University graduate with a political science degree, who was out with her family. Seeing as I have a history degree and an interest in economics, political science, and current events, we had much to discuss.
Post dinner, I took out my puzzle book from my bag and started asking people for help with some of the clues I couldn't get on my own. The two sisters who had dinner with us were happy to join in. As a group of roughly 6-8 people, we cruised through a few different puzzles– the people in the huts always impress me so much. It's always super easy going, down-to-earth people in these parts and this group was no different. When I learned the sisters had deep ties to Fairfield University, where my oldest daughter attends school as a music major and singer, I was even more amazed by the coincidence. One woman has a daughter who knows Maddie and attends class with her as a member of the same grade. I hope to see these two again on a parent's weekend or something similar. Maybe I'll even get to do a part of the Appalachian Trail with them!
After breakfast the next morning, Joel and I took our time vacating Greenleaf. We summited Lafayette in about 45 minutes, and the views were just as excellent as on the previous day. We took one last look at Greenleaf, and the Kinsmans and headed North on the Appalachian Trail. The descent is benign for a while before getting very steep. I have never traveled the other direction on this trail, and don't think I ever want to do so– it looks brutal. Once we got to the bottom of Lafayette, we refueled for what we knew would be a tough climb up Garfield. A unique aspect of Mt. Garfield is how easy it is to get there from the North, but how hard it is to get there from the Appalachian Trail (which is East/West at this point). The climb up (and later down) this mountain was our most difficult ascent and then descent on the entire trip. We did enjoy a great view on Garfield of the entire Pemi including our next destination of Galehead hut. It's a really good spot and we were fortunate enough to be there as a young lady finished her 48 and her mom finished her 48 over 60. Some high fives were given as we prepared for our final threeish miles of the day. I anticipated these three miles to take two full hours without any breaks and that's exactly what it was. The trail is just so rugged here. It's steep, rocky, and rooty and virtually nobody can do it quickly except the crazy one day Pemi loopers.
Once at Galehead, we claimed our bunks, made our beds and went outside to enjoy the views, chat with some day hikers, stretch, and snack. I didn't need Galehead for my September grid so Joel went on his own. He was able to run up it and down it in just twenty minutes. If I didn't see a picture of him at the summit cairn I would have thought he was lying about getting there. I remember it being close, but twenty minutes is ridiculous. Still, I was glad I stayed behind to work on my puzzle book and wait for the rest of the people who were coming from Greenleaf. We did it in 5:20 which was approximately two hours faster than book time. I figured most people would arrive between 4pm and 6pm. Most did, including the sisters from dinner the prior night. The church group, however, only had two of their ten members arrive during that window. All the rest missed dinner. Apparently, some of them needed 13 hours to cover the distance. My offer to go back and help was politely declined.
Some new people were at the hut that night including another Joel, this one recently divorced, and a father/son duo that seemed to be having a great time bonding. For the second night in a row, the vibe was fantastic. We did get saddled with more snorers on this night than the prior one, but I was tired enough to still get a bit of sleep.
For two days, we had known that the weather on our third and final day was very iffy. I told Joel that we had some options if it was terrible. The original plan was to summit South Twin, head to North Twin which was solely to help my grid, before continuing on the AT to get Zealand (another grid necessary mountain) and then the Bonds to finish the Pemi loop. The weather forecast remained iffy so once on South Twin we decided to skip North Twin which would have taken at least an hour round trip. The section from South Twin towards Guyot is always one of my favorites, and I enjoyed every second of it. The trees eventually just vanish and the views of Guyot, Garfield and across the Pemi are spectacular. Even Owl’s Head is kinda cool to see. We grabbed something to munch on, and decided to head towards Zealand. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the King's Rocks we felt some precipitation and decided to turn around. I was ok missing North Twin and Zealand on this adventure because it's a great hike to do next year on a good weather day. Anyway, by the time we got back to Guyot, it was full on raining and we knew we were in for a long slog up three more mountains before an eightish mile descent.
The trek up West Bond began exactly as one would want. We dropped our packs for the side trip as a group of roughly eight college kids grabbed theirs to head to Mt. Bond. We said our hellos and our see you later and made the quick out and back trip in about a half hour. We were in full on rain and very wet. There was no need to hang out at a very gray summit with no views, particularly when we knew we still had a lot of miles and rain to overcome. A refuel when we got back to our packs lifted our spirits a bit, but knowing the views were gone for the day and that we'd be soaked wasn't helping. The climb up Bond and then Bondcliff was the same: no views, rain, etc... The highlight was Joel spotting an abandoned pack with nobody around us just off the trail. I decided to carry the pack out despite it being close to ten miles. Thankfully, it was light or maybe I would have made a different choice.
We caught up to the college kids about half way down Bondcliff. They were from Plymouth State, and were studying outdoor education. If I could go back in time 32 years, I think I'd have done that too. I can't complain with what I've done in life, but that may have been more enjoyable for me. I digress. I decided to tell the group about Cheeks on the Peaks and was pleasantly surprised to hear that some of them had mooned each other on the summit. I guess if a hiker can't get the iconic picture on Bondcliff, this is a close second.
At the very bottom of Bondcliff we came across the second half of the Plymouth State group. They too had mooned each other and were excited about shirts. I passed out a business card to each of them. Some seemed amused. Some seemed to think "what's wrong with this guy". After a brief conversation with them and four or five very boring miles, we were back at the car where we could change into some dry clothes. My feet were very glad to get into dry socks and shoes!