Five of us OTHH met at the Gale River Trail parking lot and took one car over to the end of Haystack Rd for the start of a long, 12-mile day with over 3600 ft of elevation gain. The day started off warm (low 70s) and very humid, but as predicted the air dried out considerably. The view looking down from the top of North Twin toward the roof of Galehead hut is always nice. Then it was down and up even more, to South Twin, smack in the middle of the Pemigewasset Wilderness, with spectacular views in all directions. A nice breeze felt nice and kept the bugs off us as we had lunch. Then it was off westward, down a thousand feet over rocks and almost a mile of trail, very slow going at times, to Galehead Hut. After a brief stop there, we dropped our packs, hiked up the half mile to bag Galehead Mtn (because "it's right there - may as well"), and returned to the hut. After another brief stop at the hut, we began the descent down the Gale River Trail, 4.6 miles of initially steep and rocky trail, then fairly easy walking, to the cars left at the trailhead earlier. After 10 hours of being on our feet, in still somewhat warm weather, all of us were more than glad to be off those feet and headed home!
Below are Pat, Larry, Andy, and Jonathan at the lookout literally five minutes from the top of North Twin. Behind and to the right is the view over to South Twin (pic by Dick).
Below is a shot from the viewpoint by the top of North Twin, looking down at the rooftop of Galehead Hut (white dot in the middle of the shot), nestled in the col below the long slope down from South Twin (on the left) and that short climb up to Galehead Mtn (to the right). Behind Galehead and farther out is the long ridge of Owls Head, and to the right (west) of that is the "back side" of the Franconia Ridge, topped by Mt Lafayette, partially obscured by cloud.
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