Hale - Zeacliff - Zealand - Guyot - Twins - 7/10/05

This is one of those loops without a name... Hale - Zeacliff - Zealand - Guyot - South Twin - North Twin. It's kind of a neat little horse shoe, not as long as a Pemi Loop but fairly rough and challenging on it's own, I guess. Plus, to do the loop you have to go on an abandoned trail up Hale -- and this aspect actually makes Hale a lot more interesting to me than it was the first time I climbed it.

Finding the old Fire Warden's Trail is simple -- bypass the first River Crossing on Little River and continue on the East Side of the bank. This was part of the original trail most likely rerouted to keep people away from the Fire Warden's Trail once it was abandoned. Anyway, stay along the east side and shortly after that first missed crossing you'll find the trail on your left.

The Fire Warden's Trail is a beautifully cut old road, grown over but very easy to follow and of all the trails I did this day -- the easiest. But that's not necessarily what makes it interesting -- what does is that there are other roads and paths in this section of Hale (prominent NW Ridge) and, although the appear to get less travel, they could be fun to follow. There are also curious features -- areas that look like completely grown over but devastating slides. I can't be sure that what I saw was an old slide, but the steep slope and the way the gap in the trees sliced through the mountainside, it said slide to me.

Anyway, up Hale and that's when the rough, rocky terrain starts and never allows any respite for the next 15 miles of trails. These trails (Lend-a-Hand, Twinway, North Twin Trail) aren't all that steep but boy, can they be rugged with lots of ups and downs, water of every kind (mud, bogs, standing water, streams running right through the trail), and the nice feature where going down actually does feel about a tiring as going up! But it wasn't so bad and the views from many points are splendid enough that you forget about the tough going.

This hike actually wasn't that bad -- I like to complain about the terrain sometimes (even though in reality, I love it!) and if I really didn't like it I wouldn't want to go out and hike all the time. There was an issue though that makes it tough: you're going for a decently long hike 18+ miles on a horseshoe and you end up on Guyot and still have about 10 miles to go. And I wasn't expecting to see anybody for the rest of the trip -- and I almost didn't save for one thru-hiker. It's tough, standing there on Guyot, already feeling a little tired (I was moving quickly for me) and thinking, man -- I've got a lot of hiking ahead of me -- and also realizing that there's really no good bail-points. You have to finish this hike!

Also, these days I have to admit I'm missing my one, true hiking partner. Hale was the first of the non-Washington 4000'ers that she dragged me up 2 years ago (Fourth of July, 2003). These days a busy weekend schedule and other interests (jeez, what could be more interesting than hiking!?) have kept her away from the trails but long hikes like the one I did on Sunday really make me long for that time when she was up for joining me on one of these weird adventures (or suggesting her own!) So, here's to hoping the weekend gods will give me my partner back for these fun and challenging hikes.

I made good time for me on this hike (9 hours for like, 18+ miles) but I was pretty exhausted and except for 30 minutes on Zeacliff, I took no other breaks. I don't really even remember taking these photos but I was pleasantly surprised to see that they came out all right when I checked them this morning. So, here's a link for you and, if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading!

http://community.webshots.com/album/392180985Ymyolc

-Dr. Wu

Hey Dr Wu,

Nice pictures and trip report....sounds like a great loop!

-MEB

you must have been in front of me. I'd love to learn that Hale Fire Warden's Trail. I'd love to do a loop like that on a semi regular basis. What a hike. That would have been a perfect finish to my hike rather than going back the way I came, though a bit more of a workout for sure. I like the idea of being able to keep your car in the same place. Was the trail a soaking mess on Lend a Hand? I stayed off that somewhat on purpose, the Twinway was pretty soaked as we both know.

hikerfast said:

you must have been in front of me. I'd love to learn that Hale Fire Warden's Trail. I'd love to do a loop like that on a semi regular basis. What a hike. That would have been a perfect finish to my hike rather than going back the way I came, though a bit more of a workout for sure. I like the idea of being able to keep your car in the same place. Was the trail a soaking mess on Lend a Hand? I stayed off that somewhat on purpose, the Twinway was pretty soaked as we both know.

Click to expand...

The Firewarden's Trail is easy... the nicest and most pleasantly graded trail I was on that day! Why it's not 'official' is a mystery to me -- perhaps someone can enlighten. There's some really interesting stuff in there too. PM me and I can give you more details if you're interested.

Lend-a-Hand is rough going down and up! There was plenty of standing water and yeah, at one point a stream running right through it for a tenth or two. The trip was difficult really because you have rocky terrain for 15 miles or so.

The loop would be perfect for winter hiking. It's long but the soft snow will ease the terrain considerably and there's really not a lot of elevation gained to speak of. I can't wait to do this loop once there's snow on the ground! Views increase too along Twinway between Zeacliff and Zealand! What a great loop.

-Dr. Wu