Kindness, Carried Up
Fresh fruit, real bacon and a thank-you for the Greenleaf Hut croo.
There are plenty of reasons to carry a heavy pack into the White Mountains. Watermelon usually isn’t one of them.
But on a recent hike to Greenleaf Hut, Burgeon’s Nick Higgins arrived with a pack filled with fresh fruit and real bacon for the hut croo.
It was a simple gesture of appreciation for a group of people whose work has made many of Nick’s own days in the mountains a little more memorable.
“This started before I worked at Burgeon,” Nick explained. “It was a way to give back to the AMC croo members who have gone above and beyond countless times to make my days in the White Mountains even better.”
Sometimes that has meant hot cocoa and a cookie while running a Pemi Loop. Other times, it has simply been a warm welcome while passing a hut on a shorter hike.
“They never fail to make this space even more special for me and so many others.”
The answer is watermelon
When Nick asked the Greenleaf croo what they would enjoy, fresh food was high on the list.
Hut croos carry much of their food and other supplies up the mountain themselves, including dairy, meat and produce. That makes fresh fruit a particularly welcome treat during a long season at the hut.
So, naturally, Nick brought watermelon.
“Watermelon is always on my list,” he said. “Who wouldn’t want watermelon at a hut, especially when you don’t have to carry it yourself?”
Of course, somebody still had to carry it.
“The hardest part is the sheer weight,” Nick said. “Watermelons add up quickly, and they take up a lot of room in your backpack.”
This was Nick’s first food carry to Greenleaf. Hikers along the trail noticed the unusually full pack and asked what he was carrying. None expected the answer.
Watermelons. Multiple watermelons.
The work behind a hut stay
For visitors, a hut can feel like a welcome pause in the journey. For the croo, it is home, workplace, kitchen and around-the-clock responsibility.
The Greenleaf croo described a typical day like this:
“Wake up at 5:00 AM, help all of the early Lafayette summiters, make breakfast, wash dishes, look out the window in awe, and do chores. Lay in the yard in the sun. Make coffee. Tell someone we don’t have a trash can. Make dinner, wash dishes, giggle and dance, sleep.”
It is a wonderfully honest summary of hut life. There is hard work and repetition, but also friendship, humor and the undeniable privilege of living in a remarkable place.
Much of that work remains invisible to hikers.
“We are always working. It’s 24/7 customer service,” the croo explained. “We really do keep this place running. We don’t have extra help. Everything you see and hear is our work.”
This fall, that workload has been especially significant. Greenleaf has been operating with four croo members, two fewer than originally planned. Yet their guests would likely never know it.
The team continued welcoming hikers, preparing meals, washing dishes and keeping the hut running with the same warmth and energy.
A community above the treeline
The friendships connecting the huts are another part of croo life most visitors never see.
Croo members across the hut system stay in touch and support one another throughout the season. Sometimes communication takes a decidedly backcountry form: notes written on pieces of cardboard and passed between huts on delivery trucks.
It is a community shaped by shared work, long days and a love for these mountains.
A surprise dinner does not lessen the workload or make a heavy food carry any easier. But it lets the people doing that work know that someone sees it.
When asked what an outside gesture like this means during a long season, the Greenleaf croo’s answer was simple:
“Everything. Kindness keeps us going. We appreciate it so, so much.”
The White Mountains are made special by more than their summits, ridgelines and trails. They are made special by the people who care for them and welcome the rest of us into them.
This food carry was one small way to carry some of that kindness back up the mountain.
