Day: 119
Date: Monday, 21 August 2023
Start: Garfield Ridge (AT Mile 1835.9)
Finish: Ethan Pond (AT Mile 1850.5)
Daily Kilometres: 21.7 (Ascent 3081', Descent 3645')
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 3030.1
Weather: Cool to mild, foggy in the morning then mostly overcast.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pancakes and cold oatmeal (neither with any condiments)
.: Pop tarts and trail mix
Dinner: Rehydrated meals
Aches: Dave - left knee sore; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: The awesome views from Zeacliff were some of the best yet for our trip. To the north we could see Mt Washington, its top shrouded in cloud, and to the east range after range of mountains in different shades of blue.
Lowlight: None really.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We let ourselves sleep in until 6:00am because of our late night and were hiking by soon after 7:00am on a mild mostly morning.
We had about the same distance to go today as we did yesterday, so were a bit anxious about how long it would take. The early miles didn't help. They were grindingly technical on rocky trail with steep ascents and descents. It took us nearly two hours to do the first 2.7 miles which took us to the Appalachian Mountain Club's Galehead Hut. At these huts, from 9:00am, after the paying guests have had their breakfast, the leftovers are available to thru-hikers. Thru-hikers seemed to materialise from everywhere at 9:00am and we joined them. Not very inviting at any other time, we were all devouring the cold pancakes, with no butter, syrup, etc, and the cold claggy oatmeal. It was particularly welcomed by us since we hadn't had much for dinner the night before and Dave ate many pancakes.
Amongst the thru-hikers there was discussion about how hard the trail had been, but also the news that the last few miles of today's hike might actually be quite easy, which lifted our spirits a little.
From the hut we had a very slow and technical climb up to South Twin Mountain (4902') which turned out to be our highest point of the day. There were no views because of the fog and we continued on.
After summitting Mount Guyot and the shoulder of Mt Zealand in fog, it began to clear and we were lucky enough to get fabulous views from Zeacliff, touted as one of the best viewpoints on the AT.
Around 3:45pm, we reached the AMC's Zealand Falls Hut and hoped to get some thru-hiker snacks, such as cookies and soup but, sadly, they were all gone.
From there the trail became much easier, though very boggy after a few miles, and we reached our target tent site for the day around 6:45pm, a little later than we had hoped, but not too bad.
A cold wind blew up as we set up camp and had dinner and we were in our tent as quickly as possible.
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