Camping Little Haystack Mountain 1820.8

Today we needed to go for a resupply before heading deeper into the Whites. So we got up early and hiked for about three miles until we came by the AMC Lonesome Lake Hut. Those huts are special for the White Mountain National Park, because they offer bunks for about 120$ per night. So they are way out of our budget but you can do work-for-stay which means you support the ones that are working there by sweeping the floor or washing the dishes. In return you get to sleep there on the floor and you get dinner and breakfast. So it's a pretty good deal for thru hikers and therefore wanted by many. You need luck and good timing to make it.
Another thing is that thru hikers get the leftovers, so we feasted on pancakes, oatmeal and eggs this morning. Afterwards the trail led us down Mount Kinsman and along a busy street. From there we tried to get a hitch to Lincoln but it seemed like it's pretty hard to find one. So we stood there for about 10 minutes when suddenly a colorfully painted van drove by and honked. It was Ms Janet, another legend of the Appalachian Trail who has dedicated her life to the trail.
She was so nice to give us a ride to resupply and back to the trail. Lincoln is another town from our past... We've been here almost exactly half a year ago to visit the ice castles and it was extremely cold back then. Now it all looked different and instead of ice castles people ate ice cream and watched the solar eclipse. It was a big thing in the US because it's exclusively there and for the last time until about 80 years later. Around the area where we are it was only about 60% but further south like Georgia it was a total eclipse.
We only had about 4 hours of daylight left when we came back to the trail so we couldn't make it up and over Mount Lafayette today anymore. So we just stealth camped where Little Haystack Mountain started.Read more