Day 31 - Wednesday, July 13

Linda

The sky was a bit overcast when we started out around 7:00, so we put on our rain gear. But it cleared up and turned out to be a decent day - extremely humid, but no rain. The 5 miles to Zealand Hut were great, almost flat and gravel over an old railroad. At the hut we were treated to leftovers from their breakfast and crammed down pancakes rolled with butter and sugar. They were better than the ones we had warm at Lake of the Clouds. We lingered for a while and chatted with the Hut crew, and played with their kitten Rega, a very cute, playful kitten with a weakness for cold pancakes.

Later we headed up the mountain, then walked along the ridge for a ways. It was pretty easy walking mostly, with a little up and down from time to time. We stopped for lunch on Guyot Mountain, but the wind came up, so we moved on in a few minutes. We met hikers all day long, mostly day hikers doing the Hut System. Got a lot of conflicting information on trail conditions and times, etc. - can't really count on a day hiker for a fair assessment of how tough or long a stretch a trail is - the perspective is so totally different now. We reached Galehead Hut around 3:00 and managed to look pitiful enough to mooch more free leftovers. We've gotten to be great scavengers!

We set out again at 3:30 toward Garfield Shelter. It was supposed to be a fairly easy 3 miles, but ended up being half way up Garfield over quite a few hills and many rocks. Also, the guidebook was totally outdated here, so we were beat when we reached the shelter. It was already inhabited by 7 others, so we crowded in. Ray arrived later in the evening, so it was wall-to-wall sleeping bags by the time we went to sleep. The shelter was brand new, and sealed up against the wind. It faced to the west with a sweeping open view.

There was a hiker in the shelter who said he'd started at Katahdin on June 17^th and made it all the way to Mt. Washington by July 5^th. Then his partner dropped out and he took a few days off. Couldn't quite buy his story. There were too many large areas he couldn't remember. We think he's been skipping around a lot. He said he wanted to hike with us for a while, but I'm not too wild about the prospect. We'll see. . .

Another plus at the shelter was the fancy solar outhouse, similar to the one we had seen being built just outside of Gorham. Only this one had a heart-shaped seat cover and a heart on the door - nice touch!. First class all the way! Just before sunset, as we hunkered down in our bags, drinking in the view before us, the sun suddenly shot through the clouds creating a silver lining, and a double rainbow appeared, in sharp contrast to the darkening sky. It was dazzling!. Our tired bones were very glad to be here to witness this spectacular display.

Ron

Weather was poor with heavy overcast skies when we started this morning. The first five miles were fast and flat. When we arrived at Zealand Hut we were treated to all the cold pancakes we could eat for a quarter. It made me feel much better after last night. After a half hour we started the climb up to Zeacliff. For the next few hours we climbed up and over Mt. Guyot and sweated through the hot humid air. After a long climb we made it to the top of South Twin. We were chased off the mountain with the threat of rain and cold wind.

We made it to Galehead Hut following a steep downhill run. We talked to the hut boy awhile and managed to get a few pieces of cake. At the hut the sign said it was three miles and an hour and a half hike to Garfield Ridge Lean-to. After making it to the bottom of the mountain we checked the guide books only to find that the lean-to was on the other side of the mountain. Fortunately for us they had moved the lean-to to the ridge and the climb wasn't bad. The hut here is crowed but we managed to make room.

(14.7 Miles - 358.7 Total)