The rough day, 12 hours

It is hard to tell, but this is scrub pines. They stand about three feet tall and won't grow any higher, this is what they call an alpine area, above the tree line. No trees over 8 feet.

Hikers like to stack rocks as they sit and rest.

She said she did not want to stack rocks today!

Direction signs for the many trails in the Whites. BTW if you do not know, the Whites are called that because 99% of the trees here are White Birch.

Distant mountains over the scrub carpet.

These are the first pictures of this day, and we have been climbing six hours. We are above the tree line on the Summit of Mt. Guyot. We are beat. It is still two and a half miles to the peak of South Twin Mt. We are not allowed to camp above the tree line and it will be awhile before we will be below it.

I guess I show some were and tear here. But the intent was the backgrounds. the view is fantastic from up here.

Gorgeous view. I sat and counted nearly a hundred mountain peaks, an that was without turning around.

I took this picture to show these small hemlock pines. They sit on the peak of a rock mound in a bout six inches of dirt.

I meant to blow this up, it is a Grouse I think. There were dibbies with her. She is a big bird. I first thought female pheasant.

Another picture I meant to blow up. A father and small daughter having their picnic. We saw them earlier on the trail, the little girl passed us at a run, what energy. We were to see them later, two more times.

These shots are from atop Twin Mt. We have now been climbing eight hours, but cannot stop. I also made a bad judgement call on this climb. I cut back on four pounds of water to make the packs lighter. WE were out of water soon. I took some BLACK bog water and strained it through my kerchief. Then used our water puifier to purify the water. It was enough to save the day and wasn't bad at all. The purifuer is one of the best.

View over the rocks at a distant peak.

Just a beautiful vista.

I don't know. I was pretty tired. I musta liked this rock for some reason.

This is looking back at Mt. Guyot, where we just left a few hours ago.

This is our best views but the worst we have felt. The sign reads, "8/10 MI to Galehead Hut'. And yes we are willing to spend what ever it takes for a place to sleep. WE are not allowed to camp between here and the Hut or a quarter mile past. We just don't think we can make it. We had NO IDEA what we were about to face in that SHORT eight tenths of a mile.

Once we started down we could see the HUT. Doesn't look far does it? It took us a record two hours to climb down that short distance.

We figured we would be there before supper. BUT we weren't. The GAle Head hut is the most isolated of allthe AM huts. It houses 36 people. They had one lady's bunk left. It was the fourth one up. Shery turned it down. Of course we missed supper. But they did have some left over soup for $2 a bowl and $1 for refills..YES we ate it and had coffee. We also met some very nice folks. It is hard to believe there are folk who will pay $95 for a night out here, but they sure act like they enjoy themselves.

Since there were no bunks we agreed to help set up for breakfast, for a spot on the floor. You bet we took it. Sherry slept on a bench. LIghts were out at 9:30 so we were asleep by ten, or rather I was. Some snorrer kept my girl up. To be honest, the floor felt good. I didn't have to pitch the tent, and I was able to bring the packs inside and not hang them.

Thanks for coming this way.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

***** The advantage of exercising every day is so when you die, they'll say,'Well, he looks good doesn't he.'

******. If you are going to try cross-country skiing,start with a small country!

***** I know I got a lot of exercise the last few years,......just getting over the hill was enough.