Appalachian Trail (day 79) - Mt Lafayette to Mt Webster / mile 1856

Easiest day in White Mountain's so far, the streak of free breakfast scraps continues.

By easiest I don't mean that it was an easy day overall, only compared to the other two I've hiked through these mountains. Goal number one was to make my way to Galehead Hut for those sweet breakfast leftovers, on the way there I met Iceman and I told him about my plan, he was unaware of that deal but decided to push on with me.

We arrived with lots of time to spare, all the guests were still inside the hut, we also went in as it was raining. We met here three more thru hikers: Push from Pennsylvania who was working in trail maintenance and his two friends Mufasa and Magician, they were planning to finish AT within next 30 days.

At 8 AM our food arrived, we got few sausage patties, scrambled eggs and plenty of oatmeal. It didn't take us long to completely empty all the bowls, we also bought few cakes and coffee, it was a great stop overall. From here the trail lead us to the top of South Twin Mountain, and to another hut called Zealand Falls Hut, weather at this point got much better and so got the trail! It was pretty much level walking for the next five miles, views were also very nice with a massive boulder field we crossed right through.

At this point it was decision time, Push his friends and Iceman were planning to stay at the Ethan Pond Shelter but it was so early that I decided to go on further and use that good weather and extra energy while it lasted. It would also put me in a much better position to climb Mount Washington tomorrow.

I've descended all the way down to the carpark and started the ascent to Mt Webster, two older ladies I've met going down from it told me that the climb "gets a bit weird towards the top". It was a very steep ascent to start with, then there was a bit of boulder hopping and exposed climbing in the middle (very windy up here!) the top "weird" section of the climb was an exposed, poorly marked rock climbing session, I was so glad I've done it during the good weather.

I found an excellent sheltered camp spot at the top, a rabbit kept on interrupting me while I was setting up the tent which was quite funny, eventually it hopped away and disappeared between the pines.

Tomorrow was a big day of hiking Presidential Ridge and one of the most spectacular mountains on the entire AT - Mount Washington. I've checked the weather and it was supposed to be decent, people were discouraged to go up there in poor weather conditions, especially during the thunderstorms and high winds.

Overall a good, fun and not too taxing day in the "White's".