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Near
the top, the Twin Brook Trail became steeper, the woods brighter, and the firs
shorter. Suddenly, the trail emerged from the brush and we were at the junction
of the Twin Brook and Frost Trails. The summit of Galehead Mountain loomed directly
above, and I could see the hut a short distance off to the north.
We
decided to stop at the hut first, then climb to the summit. The trail
ascends easily over huge boulders to the hut. I remembered these boulders
from the previous year when Muffin and I had climbed the Twins and
Bonds.
Near the bottom of the steep Twinway Trail, just before approaching
Galehead Hut, we had come upon the boulders, which ranged in size from a
desk to a small car. We had hopped from boulder to boulder over deep, and
sometimes wide, gaps. While not difficult for me, poor Muffin had had a
tough time, partially slipping between two boulders and hurting her leg.
But on the Frost Trail, there were only a few of these, the
trail wasn't steep, and we made it safely to the hut.
With
Muffin tied up on the sunny porch outside, I went inside for a tour.
Despite the controversial nature of the hut’s government
regulation-dictated handicapped facilities, they were barely noticeable.
Yes, there was a wheelchair ramp, but it could just as well have been any
sort of ramp, and I didn’t notice anything particularly odd inside,
except maybe that the new hut was a lot more spacious than the old one
was. Many of the huts, especially the stone buildings such as Carter and
Madison, are somewhat dank and chilly. But the new Galehead Hut was nice,
spacious, airy, and well-lit with lots of large bright windows, and the
new wood smelled fresh and clean.
It
was also arranged better than most of the huts. There were four bunkrooms,
and for a change, the bathrooms were built off the dining room/common area
instead of being accessible through the bunkrooms. In the old days, when
one bunkroom was designated for men and the other for women, the two
bunkroom/bathroom arrangement had probably made sense. But since the
bunkrooms had all been made coed a number of years ago and the bathrooms
hadn’t, it had been very inconvenient if you were a man in a bunkroom
with the attached women’s bathroom, or vice-versa. Having to pass
through the other bunkroom to go to the bathroom was not only awkward, it
was disturbing to the occupants of the other bunkroom. |
Muffin
sitting on one of the large boulders that form the section of the Frost
Trail between the Twin Brook Trail and Galehead Hut. In contrast to last
year, when Muffin hurt her leg in the gap between similar boulders on the
Twinway, she hopped from rock to rock with no problems. |
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