Galehead Mtn, South Twin Mtn, North Twin Mtn., NH, 10/07/07

[threecy]

Galehead Mountain, South Twin Mountain, North Twin Mountain, NH

Date(s) Hiked: October 7, 2007

Trails(s) Hiked: Gale River Trail, Garfield Ridge Trail, Frost Trail, Twinway, North Twin Spur

Total Distance: 14.4 miles

Difficulty: Moderate

Conditions: Cloudy with sprinkles in the morning, clear later in the morning/early afternoon

Special Required Equipment: None

I had been planning to hike the Twins and Galehead Mountain via the Gale River Trail for quite awhile - however, time and weather just never allowed. My latest plan was to hike them on Saturday, however a last minute Friday night forecast showed rain. The weather ended up being great most of that day, but oh well.

Plan B. I arrived at the Gale River Trail trailhead just before 7 in pretty crappy weather - dark, drizzly, kind of cold. The weather forecasts said it'd be sunny by late morning, so I decided to take their word for it.

Though I could hear the river roaring through the woods, the crossings weren't bad at all. The first few miles of the Gale River Trail is pretty easy going - easy, gradual pitch, decent footing. Things do not get anywhere near steep until after the second Gale River crossing (where you end up back on the same side of the river that you started on, opps I ended with a preposition. Almost.). At this point, there are a few moderate pitches, until the trail turns up into the mountainside and gets somewhat steep for a few hundred vertical feet.

Up until this point, I hadn't seen a single person. From here forward, crowds were rather heavy.

I found the Garfield Ridge Trail to be just about the most challenging part of this hike - all .6 miles of it. It dips up and down with rather crappy footing. Not only that, but its not wide enough to allow passing - in other words, I was stopping every few minutes to let the overnighters by.

Soon at the hut, I kept chugging to Galehead Mountain. Once starting this last piece of initial ascent, I could see very brief moments of blue sky and sunshine.

After taking a quick break at the infamously dull summit, I went a few minutes back down the trail to the outlook. Though much is said about Galehead being a viewless peak, the outlook is relatively close to the top and does appear to have nice views - when it's clear. Nonetheless, I was able to get brief glimpses of the Twins as the clouds were flying through at warp speed.

Not wanting to summit South Twin Mountain in a cloud, I decided to stop off at the Galehead Hut and burn a little bit of time. Quickly growing impatient, I had a snack and was on my way after ten minutes.

There continued to be somewhat heavy traffic going in the opposite direction as I took the Twinway up to South Twin. I've heard a lot about this section of trail being very steep, but it really didn't seem that bad. It gains over 1,000 feet in less than a mile, but to me it felt a lot less vertical.

The summit was brilliant - the clouds to the west were at just over 4,000 feet, so the Franconia Ridge was sticking out in a neat way. To the northeast, Mt. Washington was just barely sticking through a blanket of clouds.

After enjoying the views for a bit, I continued to North Twin Mountain. With the exception of two large rocks, it's an easy to moderate pitch the whole way. The scenery from the view ledge is great - though not nearly as awesome as South Twin. Nonetheless, the relative flats to the north had an excellent red tint to them, and the valley to the southwest, surrounded by the Bonds and the Franconia Ridge, had an orange tint with low clouds passing through.

After having lunch on North Twin, I went back to a crowded South Twin Mountain. By now, most of the clouds were long gone and the views were great - Mt. Washington, the Franconia Ridge, the Bonds, Passaconaway, etc. were all easily seen.

The next stop was back at the Galehead Hut, mostly to break up the downhill trip a bit. Very crowded outside on the deck, but nice and quiet on the inside.

The rest of the descent was rather uneventful - the scenery was great due to the peak fall colours down low.

The ride back was to the tune of the Red Sox starting (and later, on television when I made it back home, winning) game 3 of the ALDS. Not bad. Not bad at all.



http://www.franklinsites.com/hikepho...-2007-1007.php

[Mike P.]

Nice TR, the view is decent it's just of South Twin. love those rare days when the tops are above the clouds, had a day like that 11 years ago on Mt. Mitchell in NC