Greenleaf Hut

I hope everyone has been having a wonderful summer.  Earlier this week, Olivia and I went to visit our dear teammate Hannah Benson at Greenleaf hut.  This is Hannah's second summer working in the Whites, and I was eager to finally witness Hannah in action.  We left Monday morning from Boston and found Greenleaf hut inside of a literal cloud.  We were freezing and could even see our breath inside the hut.  

Olivia and I helped to make the sign for dinner which was a delicious beef stew with pasta, fresh bread, split pea soup, salad, and brownies with cream cheese frosting.  We were so grateful for the hospitality of the hut and enjoyed meeting Hannah's hut croo.  A group from Canada was staying in the hut, and Hannah really enjoyed practicing her French even though they had a different accent.

Olivia and I slept upstairs with all the food just in case we got hungry in the middle of the night.  

In the morning, we woke up still in the middle of a cloud with roaring winds.  Three inches of rain had fallen over night!  It looked pretty miserable outside, but after a lovely breakfast and a skit in which Hannah was a trash bird, we decided to head outside.  We hiked to the top of Lafayette which is about a mile from the hut.  It was pretty windy but we could almost see the top of the cloud.  We had planned on hiking along the ridge but changed our plans due to the poor weather conditions.

After summiting, we returned to the hut for lunch, and Olivia and I packed our stuff to head down the mountain.  We hiked into the valley and it was a beautiful 65 degrees and partly cloudy.  Looking behind us, we could see the top of Lafayette.  I couldn't believe how quickly the weather could change.  Olivia and I decided to continuing hiking through the valley and up the other side.  We had to use our hands to climb up open rock faces and ladders past Lonesome Lake and to the top of Cannon.  At the top, there was a beautiful 360 degree view of New Hampshire.  Both of us had never hiked up Cannon.  

I highly recommend going to visit Benson this summer!  It was such a blast and Benson is a wonderful host.