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| Gale River Trailhead |
Where has the summer gone? Paloma and I have been so busy this summer unfortunately hiking has taken a bit of a backseat. Thankfully, though, we have a number of free weekends coming up to get back in the woods! On Saturday, we decided to tackle one of the easier remaining mountains on our list, Mt. Galehead. My parents decided to join us and we all set off for the Gale River trailhead up off of Rt. 3 past Franconia Notch. The ride up was uneventful as usual, and the 70 MPH speed limit on Rt. 93 made the miles go buy quite fast.
When we reached the parking lot at around 8:25AM, there were already quite a few cars in the lot. I had been holding a large iced-coffee in my bladder for the majority of the ride so needless to say I had to pee. I went to the far end of the lot down a short trail, thinking I found a nice, secluded area. Little did I know there were two people sleeping in the back of a Subaru right next to the little trail. Whoops, hope you enjoyed the show! The weather at the trailhead was just over 70 degrees, a bit overcast and quite humid. We made our final preparations and were on the trail at 8:43AM.
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| MUD |
Our route for the day was an out-and-back up the Gale River, Garfield Ridge, and Frost trails. A total distance of 10.2 miles. The Gale River trail follows along the Gale River (wow, what a unique name) for the first four or so miles of the hike. This provided a great warm-up as the trail had easy grades for nearly those entire four miles. There were a few water crossings that were easy to navigate, but I bet during rainy periods some of them could be a bit more treacherous. Despite some extremely muddy sections, we were able to keep up a pretty good pace until just before the junction with the Garfield Ridge trail, where things got quite a bit steeper and damp. Even though up to this point the hike was relatively mild, we were all sweating buckets as the humidity level was high and the temperatures were rising.
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| Galehead Hut |
We reached the junction with the Garfield Ridge trail at 10:45AM and took a quick break to cool down a bit, re-hydrate and enjoy some trail-mix. With only 1.1 miles remaining to the summit, we were in pretty good spirits and ready to tackle the remainder of the hike. The Garfield Ridge trail was quite a bit steeper than the Gale River trail, but all in all it wasn't too difficult either. It was still quite a bit damp so we had to take extra care to make sure we didn't slip into one of the numerous mud puddles along the trail. We reached the
Galehead Hut at 11:26PM, but decided to go for the summit first and then return to the hut for lunch.
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| Lookout Point |
We took the Frost Trail from the Hut for the remaining half-mile to the summit. I had read that this section was strenuous but I am not exactly sure why it got that description. Aside from a 100 yard steep section, this was an easy and fast section of the trail. We stopped at a great outlook point just before the summit to take in some views since the summit is just a pile of rocks in the woods with no views whatsoever. The view from the outlook was beautiful and we could look back down over the Galehead Hut. After we got our fill of the view, we continued to the summit, reaching it at 11:49AM. We snapped a few obligatory summit photos and then set off back down the Frost Trail back towards the hut. We were all starving so we had some extra pep in our step.
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| Summit of Mt. Galehead |
We sat down on the beautiful front porch of the hut to eat lunch. The view from the front porch was great, looking out over the valley below between Galehead and South Twin. There were quite a few other hikers at the hut, eating, refilling water, and relaxing before continuing on their adventures. The Galehead Hut is gorgeous on the inside as well, and it was interesting to read that this hut is the most remote in the AMC hut network, given that it is a 4.6 mile hike from the road. I kept thinking about how awesome it would if this hut was your summer home, and how great it would be to spend a few months living here. Dreams! After we had our fill of sandwiches, cookies, fruit and chips we decided it was time to begin our descent, leaving the hut at 12:41PM. The clouds were rolling in and looking a bit threatening so we figured we would get back into tree cover - the forecast did predict scattered T-storms.
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| Lunch a the hut |
The descent was quite easy and quick and we made very good time coming down. We reached the parking lot at 3:00PM on the dot and shed all of our sweaty clothes to attempt to freshen up for dinner on the ride back. We stopped in Plymouth, NH at the Lucky Dog Tavern & Grille which is quickly becoming one of my favorite after-hike dinner spots, mainly due to their delicious pulled pork nachos with diced pickles. We ordered a full size as an appetizer and the thing was so massive it nearly took up the entire table. It proved to be no match for us hungry hikers though! We enjoyed some sandwiches and salads and continued on our ride home, stopping briefly in Concord to visit with my Grandparents and check out their new apartment.
All-in-all a great day for a hike, a good meal, and a visit. I'd recommend the Galehead hike for those looking for a longer hike that isn't going to kill you. Even though the views aren't spectacular there are still a few nice vantage points along the way and the hut is a nice place to visit.
Hike Stats
Trails: Gale River Trail, Garfield Ridge Trail, Frost Trail
Total Time (Including Breaks): 6:15
Distance: 10.2 Miles
Elevation Gain: 2,450'
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