Twins & Galehead


Oct 17, 2009


Blue skies!! Sort of forgot what that looked like! The plan for the day was to head up North Twin Trail to North Twin, South Twin, down to Galehead hut and Mtn, then down Gale River Trail. We had spotted a car at the end the night before, so our group met at end of Haystack Road. The cast of characters included LRiz, Adamiata, Steve, Scott and BobandGeri. We bumped into Glen who was there with some reinforcements to continue some work on the trails - their target today was to clean up some water bars -- thanks guys!.

A brisk start to the morning, mid-20's, but the sun was out to blue skies. The leaves still had some color down in the lower elevations making for some beautiful scenery. We took the well-worn trail to keep from having to make the first 2 crossings on Little River. Good thing, as the 3rd proved to be pretty challenging. The water level wasn't too high, but the rocks seemed to be a stretch and worse... covered with ice. We carefully tried to cross, finding it better to stand on the rocks that were actually somewhat submerged (no ice on them). Geri slipped and ended up with one rather wet boot. Bob, LRiz and Adamiata shimmied across a downed tree and managed to keep pretty dry. Steve and Scott managed to stay fairly dry.

As we got further into the trail, we started to see dustings of snow. Again, with the blue skies and bright trees, it was pretty amazing. The temps warmed up, and we were delayering quite a bit, especially on the steeps. Adam and Bob ended up in short sleeves, the rest of us mostly in single layers. We pressed upwards and finally came to the approach to N. Twin. Can't say enough about the views - white covered peaks, blue skies, light clouds - couldn't get enough. Needless to say, lots of photos and ooohs & aaahhhs. Especially great after the last few weeks of less-than-stellar weather. 2 other hikers had beat us to the actual peak and we chatted with them a few moments. One sipping a PBR had us thinking of HikerEd of course. Time to summit approx 3 hrs.

More photos at the summit, and on towards S Twin. More snow as we descended into the col. We noticed a blowdown (seemed to be somewhat new) that offered a nice view of Mt Washington in the distance. We summited S. Twin, light wind, more views and photos. A solitary hiker here dressed for winter (carrying snow shoes). Heading down from South some of us put on stabizers, but certianly not enough snow to worry about snowshoes.

On to Galehead hut and time for lunch. Nothing beats the benches on the porch, facing into the sunshine. This was the last day the hut was open. We ran into Dave and Coco, who have also spent quite some time working on the trails up here. This certainly takes alot of time and energy, but so very appreciated especially after hearing how tight the trail had been previously. After a leisurely lunch, the group headed up to Galehead while Steve and Geri cautiously guarded the packs.

Time to head down. We took Garfield Ridge trail to Gale River trail, coming across a big group of a dozen or so hikers heading to stay the last night of the season at Galehead hut. The 2 river crossings here were very easy (thankfully!) so no more wet boots. Scott, LRiz, Adamiata and Bob made quick time of the trail with a bit of jogging, arriving at the parking lot in approx 7.15 from the start. Geri and Steve finished about 7:30.

A beautiful day, fun trail and great group. We wished that we could order up another couple of months with weather like this.

Length of Hike:
7:00 hours
12:00 miles



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