garfield ridge campsite to north conway, nh

i decided not to set an alarm last night. the sun is coming up pretty early these days, so it’s really not necessary. i’m not really sure what time i got up, but i was on trail at 06:30.

at breakfast we were visited by two very curious canada jays. (i had to send a photo to my bird nerds for an id.)(photo via maestro)

on trail i began the descent of garfield. there is one part in particular that is really treacherous and perpendicular. an older couple who had left a good half hour before me were only halfway down when i caught up. it was nerve racking watching them. i moved past but kept an ear open just in case.

the morning went pretty quickly. i passed galehead hut and headed up south twin. i didn’t see any signs of bugs, lyric, and rocket, so i carried on. near the top of mt. guyot the trail diverged from the pemi loop magz and i did last october onto the zeacliff trail.

there weren’t many views on this part of the trail. i even took the short spur to the summit of mt. zealand, but found myself at a dead end in the woods. the summit of galehead was the same when magz and i went up it last year.

i continued on, descending to zealand falls hut where i caught up to kick. apparently bugs, lyric, and rocket had just left.

the thru-hiker passes come with two free baked goods and a cup of soup at the huts. i got a free ginger cake and ate a clif bar and kick and i headed off together. we stopped again after only about 5 minutes at the bottom of zealand falls.where kick wanted to have a quick dunk.

i stayed for a minute and dunked my head, but wasn’t hot enough to do a full immersion. i headed out while kick was drying off.

the rest of the day the trail was gloriously flat. some of it was even smooth dirt or sand and i made great time. kick caught up to me once we got back into the rocks and we stopped at ethan pond shelter for a bite. i didn’t eat a full lunch because we were only a few miles from town.

when we got to rt 302 there was a man looking around for a kid’s walkee talkee. he was more than happy to drive us to the hotel.

we got to the hotel about an hour after bugs, lyric, and rocket. we went straight to the grille and i ordered a huge lunch. a blt, a hamburger, and a massive appetizer platter. maestro caught up to us while we were eating lunch.

after lunch i planned on taking a shower. someone was in the one in the room and rocket suggested we go to the showers by the pool. we passed the got tub on the way and ended up showering and then immediately getting in the hot tub. all of us hung out in the pool and hot tub for a few hours before eventually retiring to the room.

i did some journalling while vaguely paying attention to the movie on the tv. it was the sequel to “kickass”.

around 18:00 we haeded out to dinner. we planned on hitting a pizza joint about a mile away. while we were walking bugs put out her thumb and a truck with a small family stopped. we all piled in the bed and off we went.

the driver however didn’t stop at the pizza joint a mile down the road. he took us 12 miles into north conway. when we got there we told the driver we jad planned to only go about a mile and had a good laugh. now we had a much better selection of restaurants to choose from. the driver said he and his family would probably be in town an hour and then he’d be heading back up the road and would be happy to take us. sweet!

we ened up at a pub named “horsefeathers” where i got a calamari caesar salad and then we went to ben and jerry’s across the street for dessert. i got a hand packed quart of ice cream to bring back to the hotel. the truck driver texted rocket right as we were finishing up our ice cream orders and we got our ride back to the hotel.

once at the hotel we watched a couple movies, “one for the money” and “wolverine”. i ate my quart of ice cream.

some additional images from today: