So, I unfortunately do not have a lot of notes from Day 133, only a lot of photos, mostly of the same beautiful stretch of balds, particularly, before and over Mt. Lafayette. I was pretty hyped up from what I remember. The views were stunning, and it was also cool to see people. Would have been nice to know what I had been thinking. Anyway, started the day down the mountain, passed Lonesome Lake Hut on a beautiful lake with a dock that I noticed I do not have photos of. If I am remembering correctly, there were sun bathers on that dock in my line of shot. Ha! Then, under I-93 and up the mountain to the 5k footers, Mt. Lafayette being the tallest one in this stretch, at 5,250 feet. If you are visiting the whites, I would say this is one of the most beautiful spots along the Appalachian Trail aside from Mt. Washington in the Whites.
The summit of Lafayette was quite crowded, there was even a glider sailing in the clouds above. I noticed this couple on the summit who were drinking this drink with a neat design and asked what it was. They said it was a brew from the Tree House brewery in Maine. Aside from hiking in the Whites, this particular brewery was one of their destinations, which sells only a limited supply (4 cans per person) on certain days of the week to pick up.
I mentioned that I had been 1800-miles in to my hike and startled them a bit. The guy was so fascinated with my trip, he offered me a sip. It was hands down the best API, I ever had. To be fair, everything I ate tasted fantastic during my journey, as if my taste buds were enhanced. For example, I revisited a salad I had at Delaware Water Gap this year and it was not as good as I had remembered it to be. Though now that I think about it, I did have other beer on trail, not as good as this so keep this in mind if your blessed with the opportunity of getting a taste. 😁
Maybe a mile after hiking over Mount Garfield, I arrive at the above view which pretty much shows my entire hike for the day from Little Haystack Mountain at Mile 1823.6 to what I think would be Galehead Hut in the boulders off to the left in the shot at mile 1831.9. It may be a little hard to visualize.
I arrived at Galehead Hut. After asking about work for stay, the person running Galehead Hut said they did not need help and did not have any more bunks available. She said they usually start accepting helpers at 4pm. I got there after 7pm. Not knowing this, I probably expressed concern so the woman said I could have some left overs and stay for a bit. I wasn’t too concerned. I just needed to figure out where I should camp. While browsing Guthook’s comment section under the Galehead Hut, I noticed that “ActiveDuty” user commented there was a nice stealth camp area just .1 north of the hut. So, I stayed until sunset and made my way to the stealth site. I had a neighbor in this stealth site which was nice. It’s always easier to sleep when you know another person is nearby.
Side Notes:
– From this day forward, I stopped attempting to aim for huts as camp destinations. I personally was not comfortable sacrificing the three plus hours of extra hiking left in a day after 4pm nor was I going to pay $120 for a bunk.
– It is actually illegal to stealth in the Whites.
