Galehead
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April 1, 2018
Deb and I set off from the Twin Mountain ski loops at 7:30. The snow was thin, with the occasional completely bare
patch of trail,
but we put our snowshoes on right from the start as it was easier going in the soft mushy snow. A short while later
we hiked out onto the Gale River loop road and then once across the river, went for a quick bushwhack until we
intersected the trail. A long gentle slope followed, and we plodded along in the gray day. It even started snowing
as we went, which was a little odd as it was well above zero. After about two hours of walking the trail finally
steepened, and we quickly ascended up to the ridge with the heel lifters up. A short traverse brought us to Galehead
Hut which was boarded up for the season but still had a
great view down into the valley. It was cooler here so we layered up
for the final summit push, however, the sun started to make an appearance which greatly increased our comfort and moods.
Galehead looked impossibly far away, but we knew that this was a deceiptful look, and in almost no time at all we were
climbing up the final very steep portion of the trail. Here we met our first person who was descending in very balled
up microspikes. We exchanged greetings and then continued up past an amazing lookout ledge and then to a treed in
summit. We returned to the ledge and sat down in the snow for a lunch, which turned out to be a very comfortable spot
in the sunshine. We knew we had a long walk ahead of us, followed by a long drive home so we reluctantly left this
amazing perch and began the descent. As we stopped to delayer we met our second fellow hiker. His greeting was "are
you wearing snowshoes?", and after ensuring that we were, he thanked us for it. I can only imagine what kind of earful
he gave the other spiker that was killing kittens in front of us. The slog home was long, but easy along this smooth
trail. I turned off the hardened path into the soft snow to give my joints a break wherever I could as I snowshoe skied
downwards. Finally we reached our bushwhack path, which we took back to the road. There was even less snow now, so I
decided to stash the shoes and barebooted the rest of the way (kittens be damned). Debbie remained in her shoes, even
though at times she was walking across stretches of grass and mud. We arrived back at the parking area after a six
hour day of hiking.
Arriving at Galehead hut, we see our objective.
Looking down into the Pemigewasset valley.
Summit of Galehead.
Looking down at the hut from our lookout perch.
Grass shoeing at the end of the day.
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