White Mountains Hut Hiking in New Hampshire

Glen Brunke, September 7, 2023

The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, or the AT for short, crosses 14 U.S. states over its roughly 2,200 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. The White Mountains, located in New Hampshire, are roughly around the 1,600-mile mark for northbound AT thru-hikers. While this may seem like a significant distance covered, the White Mountains are renowned for their rugged terrain and challenging elevations. There's a saying amongst thru-hikers that when entering the Whites: you've covered 75% of the miles, but only 25% of the effort.

My partner Jess and I decided to tackle a small section of the trail over the July 4th holiday. We made an early morning drive from Connecticut to begin our hike on the Gale River Trail, which traces its namesake river as it plunges 2000 feet from the mountain tops. The last little bit of the trail was especially rugged and steep, with the total distance for the day only being 4.8 miles.

Our plan involved a multi-day journey: hiking up to Galehead Hut on the first day, reaching a second hut the next day, and experiencing the iconic Franconia Ridge on day three before descending back to our starting point.

We arrived at Galehead Hut tired but in good spirits, as the weather was picture-perfect, and a hot meal awaited us inside. Galehead Hut is one of the backcountry huts maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) along the AT in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The AMC hut system provides shelter, meals, and educational programs to hikers and outdoor enthusiasts, contributing to the unique hiking experience in the region.



We were excited to experience the hut and its "Croo" (what the largely volunteer staff call themselves). The croo plays a crucial role in ensuring the smooth functioning of the hut, providing services to guests, and overseeing the day-to-day operations. This includes cooking and serving meals, helping hikers and guests, and notably carrying all of the supplies up the mountains on their backs.

Despite basic sleeping accommodations, a personal bunk with a thin pad felt like luxury compared to a tent on the ground.





Our second day of hiking was on a section of trail known as the "death march." We expected a difficult hike, so we started early, making our way toward Greenleaf Hut as the trail climbed up and over Mount Garfield. Tired from the long climb, we stopped for lunch to enjoy the views and take stock of our progress. We could see an enormous mountain in the distance and quickly realized that we still needed to climb that beast before we were done for the day.

We hustled to finish lunch so we could get back to the trail that dove steeply down Mount Garfield over rocks, roots, and other tricky terrain. On one such section, Jess twisted an ankle, bringing our progress to a halt. She was in a lot of pain and wasn't sure she could continue the hike, with us only being roughly halfway to the next hut. We considered our options with the map, and they were few. There was no trail down from that area. We could either hike back up Garfield and then down the Gale River Trail, or we could finish what we started and work our way to Greenleaf.

Luckily, we came prepared with an ACE bandage in our emergency kit in which we wrapped her ankle tightly to limit movement. We emptied much of the heavy gear from her backpack into mine and started off again at a ginger pace. Down Garfield, across a saddle, and we were faced with a steep climb up the monster we spied before: Mount Lafayette, 5,249 feet of granite.

Mount Lafayette is the highest peak in the Franconia Range. The summit of Lafayette provides spectacular 360-degree views of the surrounding mountains and valleys, including the Pemigewasset Wilderness to the west. The promised views felt like a distant dream; what we faced in reality was a steep climb above that reached above treeline.

We developed a rhythm as we climbed. We would pick a goal, perhaps a tree or a rock, then hike up to it, then reward ourselves with a sip of water, then repeat. The going was slow, and our water supplies quickly ran low, but we eventually summited to enjoy the promised views.



We weren't quite done for the day just yet, however. We still had to get down part of the mountain and to the hut around a mile away. After more climbing and more water sips, we arrived at Greenleaf Hut 10 hours after we left Galehead, around 8 miles away. We were afraid of missing dinner due to our late arrival after the start of the meal, but the Croo took great care of us; we ate heartily and drank deep of the cold, pure well water available to all hikers.

With the ankle injury and sore legs from the hike, climbing back up Mount Lafayette the next day was out of the question, so we made plans to hike down the Old Bridle Trail and catch a ride back to our car the next morning. We rewarded ourselves for the effort with two huge burgers on the drive home from one of our most challenging and rewarding hikes to date.