Hut, Two, Three, Four
Day 2: Grinding Toward Greenleaf

AMC Outdoors, May 2005

The next day dawned clear and bright—and I do mean dawned. Every hut offers a melodious wakeup call at 6:30 a.m., since breakfast hits the tables at 7. It’s a far cry from my normal routine, but long days of hiking and each night’s 9:30 lights-out make it feel manageable.

If, like me, you still tend toward drowsiness at that hour, AMC culture has the answer: Blanket Folding Demonstrations (“BFDs”). These skits, handed down over generations, remind guests to fold their blankets, pack out their trash, and tip the croo. Over the course of the week, I’d see BFDs ranging from a two-man puppet show to an eight-person Cinderella story, complete with wigs and wands. At Lonesome, we were treated to a group of “elderly” women kvetching—and, as is practically requisite, one was a male with an impressive falsetto.

Later, venturing out through the surrounding boggy lowlands, Sarah and I got the glorious ridge views we’d missed the day before. Then we headed away from the lake for the 6.7-mile route we’d mapped to Greenleaf along the Greenleaf Trail.

This wasn’t exactly wilderness. The route along the “western front,” as Dodge christened this section of huts, took us up and over Cannon Mountain, where sneakered tourists eyed us with a mixture of curiosity and concern. At about four miles, I was ready to be done. An hour from the hut, I began asking every passing hiker how close we were. My sister, meanwhile, hopped nimbly among the rocks; a mother of two and a runner, she inspired me even while putting me to shame.

At last we reached the hut, whose stacks of bunks in open, connected rooms provided a sharp contrast to the intimate lodgings at Lonesome. So, too, did the lively Saturday-night crowd, which filled the building to its capacity of 48.

Diners at Greenleaf feast not only on homemade bread and soup and cake, but on the rocky flanks of Mount Lafayette, which fill the plate-glass windows. The assistant hutmaster, Tom, assured us this was the best dining-room view of any hut. A solo female hiker from New York City, a family of five, and a volunteer AMC Alpine Steward who’d spent the day up on the ridge were some who watched the light of the setting sun play on the mountainside.