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  1. #1
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    Default Whites - light pack via huts 2017

    Male NOBO section hiker, 61, have done Hudson River to Vermont border in 3 -5 day bites over last couple years. Thinking of doing the Whites hut-to-hut sometime during the summer of 2017. Would love some company or hearing from others with experience hiking the whites by hut. Careful, easy, steady hiker in pretty good hiking shape for age.

  2. #2
    Registered User One Half's Avatar
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    If you haven't made your reservations yet, it may be too late.
    https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults

    A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

  3. #3
    Registered User egilbe's Avatar
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    Still openings mid-week, but weekends are starting to fill up for 2017. Dont dawdle.

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    Roger that. Thanks.

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    We did the hut-to-hut thing southbound July 2-9 of this year. Started at Joe Dodge, next day climbed up to Madison Hut. Extremely windy! Heard from a guy who had hiked that day from Mt Washington. He said the wind "pinned him to the ground" three times on his way to Madison. Hut croo strongly advised against hiking AT to Washington the next day because 70-80 mph winds were forecast. So we went down side trail, shared a cab to the cog railway area, and hiked up the Ammonusuc Ravine Trail to Lakes of the Clouds Hut. All because we didn't want to mess up our reservation schedule by waiting it out.

    Other than that, we had superb weather almost all the way. We spent a night at Joe Dodge, Madison, Lakes, Mizpah, Highland Center, Zealand, Galehead, Greenleaf, and then a motel before heading home. Our most expensive section by far.

    We positioned a rental car at Highland Center for resupply and fresh clothes. Used the White Mtns shuttle bus to get from HC to Joe Dodge and from our exit at Franconia Notch back to HC.

    A few weeks ago I went on a short overnight to Roaring Fork Shelter (2 miles north of Max Patch). A SOBO thru-hiker in the shelter looked vaguely familiar. Finally figured out that she had been on the hut croo at Zealand Falls the same day we were there!

    The blog linked below was helpful to me. It was surprisingly hard to find good hut-to-hut trip reports. If you have specific questions, I'll try to help.

    http://www.summitpost.org/hut-to-hut...untains/641144

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by PennyPincher View Post
    If you haven't made your reservations yet, it may be too late.
    Since work for stay is often not available and reservations aren't possible last minute, what is the thru hiker or section hiker strategy for getting through the whites? Does someone have a proposed schedule with camping locations?

  7. #7
    Registered User evyck da fleet's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by FreeGoldRush View Post
    Since work for stay is often not available and reservations aren't possible last minute, what is the thru hiker or section hiker strategy for getting through the whites? Does someone have a proposed schedule with camping locations?
    There are pay for campsites with platforms along the AT in the Whites. I believe there are also some free locations if you're willing to hike off the AT on another trail for a bit and some established campsites below treeline which are at least 1/4 mile from huts that are not illegal.

  8. #8
    Registered User egilbe's Avatar
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    The Presidentials can be done in a day or two...for a thru-hiker. Easy enough for a normal hiker to do the Presis in three days. The rest of the Whites aren't as logistically difficult.

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    Thanks illabelle. Really helpful.

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    SpongeBob, have you been able to secure reservations for your entire trip? For us, that was critical. The main reason for doing hut-to-hut was so we would be able to hike with light packs. No tents, no breakfast, no supper, no sleeping bags. My husband used a bag liner, and I brought a twin-sized sheet. We each had a pillow case. The huts provide mattresses, heavy wool blankets, and a pillow - we were comfortable. Yes, there are options to camp somewhere if you can't get a reservation one night, but then you have to carry a tent and sleeping bags. And you don't just carry it that one day, you have to carry it the whole distance. What's the point in paying for a hut-to-hut if you still have to carry full packs?

    One "extra" luxury we did try out on this trip was umbrellas. While they provided very welcome shade, some areas were too windy to use them. Or tree branches intruded into the trail too much.

    I'm glad we did the trip SOBO. The descent to Galehead from S/N Twin Mtn was Steep and Long! Would have been brutal to climb up.

    The hike to Zealand Falls was surprisingly easy. A portion of it follows an old railroad bed. Didn't feel like the Whites at all. Zealand Falls was really nice. But even in early July the water in the pools was chilly.

    Mt Lafayette was memorable. We knew there were false summits, but experiencing them was another thing. After several of them, we finally reached a point where we could see the "top". A few steps more, and we could see another "top" beyond. Repeat, repeat. Umbrellas very nice here. Clouds were moving in, so fog often shrouded the terrain ahead of us. Not until we stood at the sign did we believe we were done. The next morning (after a night at Greenleaf) was a white-out, but the summit was in a neat space between the blanket of clouds below us and the blanket above us. The sun shone through that narrow layer and lit things up spectacularly! We enjoyed the summit for several minutes in the chill and wind before resuming our southward trek. Soon it began to rain, and there was no shelter anywhere, just rocks. We put on some rain gear (wind too strong for umbrellas, plus the rain came sideways) and hurried to get off the exposed trail.

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    Thanks again Illabelle. The detail is appreciated. I am trying to figure out the schedule so I can book.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by illabelle View Post
    SpongeBob, have you been able to secure reservations for your entire trip? For us, that was critical. The main reason for doing hut-to-hut was so we would be able to hike with light packs. No tents, no breakfast, no supper, no sleeping bags. My husband used a bag liner, and I brought a twin-sized sheet. We each had a pillow case. The huts provide mattresses, heavy wool blankets, and a pillow - we were comfortable. Yes, there are options to camp somewhere if you can't get a reservation one night, but then you have to carry a tent and sleeping bags. And you don't just carry it that one day, you have to carry it the whole distance. What's the point in paying for a hut-to-hut if you still have to carry full packs?
    Understood, but in the Whites I would still recommend carrying some type of minimalist emergency shelter, even something like a space blanket, along with some truly warm clothing. A mishap that made it impossible to make it to the next hut could become not only very uncomfortable, but quite dangerous, even in summer.

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    Can snow any day of the year.

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    Agreed! We did carry one o' those two-person SOL emergency bivies, and we had both rain gear and down gear.

    Quote Originally Posted by jeffmeh View Post
    Understood, but in the Whites I would still recommend carrying some type of minimalist emergency shelter, even something like a space blanket, along with some truly warm clothing. A mishap that made it impossible to make it to the next hut could become not only very uncomfortable, but quite dangerous, even in summer.

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    Quote Originally Posted by illabelle View Post
    Agreed! We did carry one o' those two-person SOL emergency bivies, and we had both rain gear and down gear.
    Very wise indeed!

  16. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by FreeGoldRush View Post
    Since work for stay is often not available and reservations aren't possible last minute, what is the thru hiker or section hiker strategy for getting through the whites? Does someone have a proposed schedule with camping locations?

    This becomes more personally obvious when you have the AT Data Book/AT Thru Hikers Book. You can also use the AT distance calculator site to gain some better understanding of how you personalize the NH/White Mountains segment. By the time the vast majority of thru-hikers hike the White Mountains they know themselves and their backpacking approaches well enough they easily plan for this segment.

  17. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by SpongeBob View Post
    Male NOBO section hiker, 61, have done Hudson River to Vermont border in 3 -5 day bites over last couple years. Thinking of doing the Whites hut-to-hut sometime during the summer of 2017. Would love some company or hearing from others with experience hiking the whites by hut. Careful, easy, steady hiker in pretty good hiking shape for age.
    Even with pre arranged seamless hut to hut reservations, as others have wisely pointed out, even in summer don't totally forgo some type of basic kit.

    First, consider it being summer you should being saving wt with your kit because it is a summer wt White Mountains AT kit that can be employed. Many will opine on dropping wt from the kit narrowly focusing on gear wt.

    Second, factoring in your ability to cover ground as you stated, the AT White Mountains segment has multiple opportunities to drop consumable wt because 1) it's not a long food haul between potential resupply locations in the first place whether you buy and/or mail some. 2) supplementing and/or mailing is available at multiple locations (huts, Mt Washington cafeteria, Pinkham Notch/Joe Dodge Lodge, Lafayette Place CG Store, Lincoln, Gotham, etc)

    Third, even in summer reliable AT water locations through the Whites are well analyzed and documented so hauling excessive amounts of water wt isn't necessary if you make it a point to understand the significance of unnecessarily carrying water.

  18. #18

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    [QUOTE=Dogwood;2110963
    Third, even in summer reliable AT water locations through the Whites are well analyzed and documented so hauling excessive amounts of water wt isn't necessary if you make it a point to understand the significance of unnecessarily carrying water.[/QUOTE]

    You can get water at the huts but otherwise it's scarce above tree line. There are a couple of springs located down and off the trail, which may or may not have water.

    Yes, it can snow any month of the year, but I don't believe it's snowed in the summer time for quite a few years now. It seems we're lucky to get any snow by late October these days. Afternoon or evening thunderstorms, which can have accompanying strong winds and hail is the real hazard. Getting caught in a nasty T-storm and getting soaked to the bone with cold rain and pelted with hail is not good.
    Follow slogoen on Instagram.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Slo-go'en View Post
    You can get water at the huts but otherwise it's scarce above tree line. There are a couple of springs located down and off the trail, which may or may not have water.

    Yes, it can snow any month of the year, but I don't believe it's snowed in the summer time for quite a few years now. It seems we're lucky to get any snow by late October these days. Afternoon or evening thunderstorms, which can have accompanying strong winds and hail is the real hazard. Getting caught in a nasty T-storm and getting soaked to the bone with cold rain and pelted with hail is not good.
    Yep. I'll take the snow over 33F, rain, hail, gale force winds, and lightning strikes. Bailing out to quickly get below tree line can be a very prudent decision. Been there, done that.

  20. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by Slo-go'en View Post
    You can get water at the huts but otherwise it's scarce above tree line. There are a couple of springs located down and off the trail, which may or may not have water...
    Right, so you take that into account. One might easily note through the White Mts huts are only one source of water locations on the AT but certainly are not the only potential water sources. By reducing the known water locations for an ATer to just the huts it's surely going to result in carrying extra water wt. Typically water locations in summer require no more than about 6 miles or less on avg between known reliable water sources that are documented in the Data Book. I may be off some on the exact mileage since I'm going off memory and the AT Distance Calculator and Google maps but that's a fair ballpark number I think.

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