Hut, Two, Three, Four: Can this novice hiker survive the trek from Lonesome to Madison?

AMC Outdoors, May 2005

At 2:30 a.m., when I open my eyes, I can see only darkness. But I know my sister is up, because I hear her attempting to creep out of our bunkroom without waking me.

While she is off answering nature’s call, I think about the boots. Scuffed brown leather, with wide red laces, they were my first introduction to the AMC huts. I was 5 years old, watching my sisters pack for their annual trip to the mountains with their father. As I eyed their gear, I couldn’t imagine what a hut even was.

Twenty-five years later, Sarah and I are sharing a room at Lonesome Lake. While the red-laced boots are long gone, her memories are not. So when I signed on to write about a weeklong hut-to-hut trip, she jumped at the chance to join me for a few days.

Now it’s Night One. Though I’ve been to some of the huts before, this is the first time I’ve planned more than two nights out. Our hike today was brief, but the going was slow for me. And the day was so foggy we couldn’t see more than 10 or 20 feet ahead. Omens?

I hear Sarah’s footsteps returning from the composting-toilet outhouse. “You’ve got to go check out the stars,” she says, no longer concerned about letting me sleep. “Yeah, right,” I mutter, visions of a pea-soup sky in my head. But she insists.

I step into the cool night and crane my neck. The stars are so thick I reach up to see if I can scoop them out of the sky. For a few perfectly still moments I stare, and breathe. And then I feel myself begin to relax.

Next:
Day 1: Into the Woods