Hale (#41), Zealand (#42), South Twin (#43), North Twin (#44) via North Twin, Fire Warden's (aka Mount Hale), Lend-A-Hand, Twinway, North Twin Spur, North Twin, 18.0 miles, 5510', 11:30 (Tim and Larry)
This weekend finally opened a weather window where I was comfortable with the conditions. Larry came by my house and we drove to Haystack Road (passing a young bull moose near the junction of Route 3 and Trudeau Road) and parked at the North Twin trail head. The lot was rather full. A first for me, there was a sign-in register asking for a name, zip code, destination, and how long you were planning to be on the trail. I signed us in and we were under way at 7:10am.
The trip to the first crossing passed quickly and without too much mud. The brush was damp from Saturday's T-storms, but not soaking wet. The first crossing looked challenging, but not impossible. I took a picture for documentation purposes, checked my watch, and began the 5-10 minute walk to find the Fire Warden's Trail. Sure enough, after about 6 or 7 minutes, a likely-looking herd path appeared and a quick scramble up the bank dropped us off on a tractor road carpeted in ferns with a well-worn foot path down the middle. I had been cautioned that it was easier to find it and follow it while coming down, but it was neither difficult to locate nor to follow, and despite being abandoned, had only one blow down. Even in the absence of water bars and the recent heavy rains, it wasn't overly wet or muddy (it was both wet and muddy, just not as bad as I imagined it could be.) We both appreciated the beautiful and open birch forest with its fern carpet.
Towards the top of the FWT, it essentially dead-ends in spruce. I could see daylight through the spruce, however, and 15-20 feet later we popped out on the summit of Hale at 9am. That's a heck of a cairn. The Presidentials were under clouds, but the Twins were looking very nice. As the crow flies, they aren't that far away. As the hiker (non-bushwacker) walks though they are a good seven miles off. We had a snack, took some photos, and I noticed my cell phone was on. I went to shut it off to save the battery but had 3 or 4 bars, so I called my kids to say good morning and told them I wished they were there. Later it appeared that South Hale ("Zeale") might have a cell tower on top.
After our short break, we began our way down the Lend-A-Hand to Zealand Falls, a net loss of 1350 feet. A few minutes down the trail, 3 or 4 grouse greeted us and quickly scurried into the spruce. One posed on a branch long enough for me to snap a picture, and we continued down. Along the way, you can get occasional glimpses of Carrigain. The viewpoint to the east offered a restricted view through Zealand Notch. We continued along, wading through the water on the trail until we came to the traditionally wet section which had some bog bridges. They were above water, but not by much. From this wet, but open, section, the bump which is South Hale is quite obvious. It appears to have a cell tower (one of those disguised as a tree) which might explain the good reception on Hale itself. A bit more hiking along the L-A-H and soon you can hear Whitewall Brook as it crashes over Zealand Falls.
When we hit the Twinway, we discussed whether or not to make the detour to Zealand Falls Hut. As it was the only hut I'd not yet seen, we took the detour. Not until the hut (10:45am) did we run into another human being. While the falls were impressive, I was kind of expecting more, given all the rain. What was pretty cool was the water-powered (gravity fed) well pump. I know people complain about hearing it all the way to Guyout in the night, but it is a pretty unique feat of engineering, and certainly "green power." Having been warned that the hut water tastes rather unpleasant, I pumped 3 liters from the brook itself and we took off up the Twinway.
Now that we were on the AT and going against traffic, we had occasional meetings with folks coming down the hill. At the Zeacliff outlook (12:15pm), we took the detour, and as the weather clouded up by South Twin, it held the best views of the day. Here we took our first real break and had lunch. The presis were still clouded up, but Tom, Field and Willey stood proudly behind Whitewall, and you could see the bottom of Zealand Notch, straight through Carrigain Notch, around to the Hancocks, out to the Osceolas and around to the base of Mount Bond. Not wanting to get too comfortable, we left the awesome views from Zeacliff for the views of... Zealand.
Zealand, while being so publicly bashed, is essentially free, and has that neat sign. Today it offered a copious supply of mud to boot (ha ha ha.) For you Douglas Adams fans, there are two appropriate references. First, "Always bring a towel" because it was wet and muddy pretty much the entire way along the Zealand Spur. Second, while 42 is the answer, one possible question will always be "What number was Zealand on Tim's NH 48 list?" Devoid of any reason to stay after taking a picture, we booked it on over towards Guyot. It was cool, cloudy, and breezy here so out came the long-sleeve jersey for the short exposed stretch.
(Between Zealand and Guyot, encountered several groups of hikers, both through hikers and day trippers. Alligator eggs meant nothing for a while, and then out of the blue it produced Ellen "eruggles". She name-dropped about the usual uber hikers heading over to the Bonds, and enduring the T-storms, including hail, on Saturday. Since we were going in opposite directions, we didn't chat long.)
On the approach to South Twin, I started noticing leaves and needles strewn about the trail. It was either strong wind, or more-likely hail. Not too much further along we got the answer, as the soft, shaded, mossy depressions still contained pea-sized ice pellets. We passed a few more hikers going towards Zealand and soon popped out of the trees and scrambled up onto South Twin (3pm). Summit #3 for the day, and again we had it to ourselves for a short while. A couple appeared from North Twin. They asked about our trip which we told them and they smiled and said "That's a good hike". I asked about theirs and they were doing a Pemi loop with side trips for 38+ miles. Lincoln Woods at 5am, planning to be out between 9 and 10 -- for a claimed 2.5 mph average pace. Larry and I felt rather small at this point, packed up, finished chewing and headed across the North Twin Spur.
North Twin's official summit appears to be the highpoint on the trail, marked with a cairn under a spruce tree (4pm.) On the way to the viewpoint however it appears quite obviously higher than the cairn. I poked around a bit but found no other herd paths in the area, so I guess I can call it good. Looking back to South Twin the clouds had thinned just a bit and allowed bits of sunlight to stream through. Lincoln and Lafayette were completely covered up. While the elevation was done at this point, all 5510 feet of it, and while a lot of descending had taken place too, it was a fairly steep and slow trip down, beginning with the thick spruce closing in around the trail. After about 90 minutes of descending, the sounds of running water became apparent. After crossing a brook twice we realized it could not possibly be the Little River and so down we continued. Eventually the third crossing appeared and we made it over without difficulty by going to the island of rocks, walking upstream a few dozen paces, and then crossing (above the collection of trees) the rest of the way.
The official trail is now on the east side of the river, and we encountered one step-over blowdown. Skipping the second crossing and continuing on the old trail, there were at least a dozen blowdowns, most easily stepped over. We made it back to the car at 6:40 pm (11 hours, 30 minutes), cleaned up, and beelined it for the Common Man in Lincoln for cheddar burgers, sweet potato fries (no maple syrup this time...hmmm) and Common Man Pale Ales. Got home about 10pm, making for a 17-hour day.
All photos here:
Tim
This weekend finally opened a weather window where I was comfortable with the conditions. Larry came by my house and we drove to Haystack Road (passing a young bull moose near the junction of Route 3 and Trudeau Road) and parked at the North Twin trail head. The lot was rather full. A first for me, there was a sign-in register asking for a name, zip code, destination, and how long you were planning to be on the trail. I signed us in and we were under way at 7:10am.
The trip to the first crossing passed quickly and without too much mud. The brush was damp from Saturday's T-storms, but not soaking wet. The first crossing looked challenging, but not impossible. I took a picture for documentation purposes, checked my watch, and began the 5-10 minute walk to find the Fire Warden's Trail. Sure enough, after about 6 or 7 minutes, a likely-looking herd path appeared and a quick scramble up the bank dropped us off on a tractor road carpeted in ferns with a well-worn foot path down the middle. I had been cautioned that it was easier to find it and follow it while coming down, but it was neither difficult to locate nor to follow, and despite being abandoned, had only one blow down. Even in the absence of water bars and the recent heavy rains, it wasn't overly wet or muddy (it was both wet and muddy, just not as bad as I imagined it could be.) We both appreciated the beautiful and open birch forest with its fern carpet.
Towards the top of the FWT, it essentially dead-ends in spruce. I could see daylight through the spruce, however, and 15-20 feet later we popped out on the summit of Hale at 9am. That's a heck of a cairn. The Presidentials were under clouds, but the Twins were looking very nice. As the crow flies, they aren't that far away. As the hiker (non-bushwacker) walks though they are a good seven miles off. We had a snack, took some photos, and I noticed my cell phone was on. I went to shut it off to save the battery but had 3 or 4 bars, so I called my kids to say good morning and told them I wished they were there. Later it appeared that South Hale ("Zeale") might have a cell tower on top.
After our short break, we began our way down the Lend-A-Hand to Zealand Falls, a net loss of 1350 feet. A few minutes down the trail, 3 or 4 grouse greeted us and quickly scurried into the spruce. One posed on a branch long enough for me to snap a picture, and we continued down. Along the way, you can get occasional glimpses of Carrigain. The viewpoint to the east offered a restricted view through Zealand Notch. We continued along, wading through the water on the trail until we came to the traditionally wet section which had some bog bridges. They were above water, but not by much. From this wet, but open, section, the bump which is South Hale is quite obvious. It appears to have a cell tower (one of those disguised as a tree) which might explain the good reception on Hale itself. A bit more hiking along the L-A-H and soon you can hear Whitewall Brook as it crashes over Zealand Falls.
When we hit the Twinway, we discussed whether or not to make the detour to Zealand Falls Hut. As it was the only hut I'd not yet seen, we took the detour. Not until the hut (10:45am) did we run into another human being. While the falls were impressive, I was kind of expecting more, given all the rain. What was pretty cool was the water-powered (gravity fed) well pump. I know people complain about hearing it all the way to Guyout in the night, but it is a pretty unique feat of engineering, and certainly "green power." Having been warned that the hut water tastes rather unpleasant, I pumped 3 liters from the brook itself and we took off up the Twinway.
Now that we were on the AT and going against traffic, we had occasional meetings with folks coming down the hill. At the Zeacliff outlook (12:15pm), we took the detour, and as the weather clouded up by South Twin, it held the best views of the day. Here we took our first real break and had lunch. The presis were still clouded up, but Tom, Field and Willey stood proudly behind Whitewall, and you could see the bottom of Zealand Notch, straight through Carrigain Notch, around to the Hancocks, out to the Osceolas and around to the base of Mount Bond. Not wanting to get too comfortable, we left the awesome views from Zeacliff for the views of... Zealand.
Zealand, while being so publicly bashed, is essentially free, and has that neat sign. Today it offered a copious supply of mud to boot (ha ha ha.) For you Douglas Adams fans, there are two appropriate references. First, "Always bring a towel" because it was wet and muddy pretty much the entire way along the Zealand Spur. Second, while 42 is the answer, one possible question will always be "What number was Zealand on Tim's NH 48 list?" Devoid of any reason to stay after taking a picture, we booked it on over towards Guyot. It was cool, cloudy, and breezy here so out came the long-sleeve jersey for the short exposed stretch.
(Between Zealand and Guyot, encountered several groups of hikers, both through hikers and day trippers. Alligator eggs meant nothing for a while, and then out of the blue it produced Ellen "eruggles". She name-dropped about the usual uber hikers heading over to the Bonds, and enduring the T-storms, including hail, on Saturday. Since we were going in opposite directions, we didn't chat long.)
On the approach to South Twin, I started noticing leaves and needles strewn about the trail. It was either strong wind, or more-likely hail. Not too much further along we got the answer, as the soft, shaded, mossy depressions still contained pea-sized ice pellets. We passed a few more hikers going towards Zealand and soon popped out of the trees and scrambled up onto South Twin (3pm). Summit #3 for the day, and again we had it to ourselves for a short while. A couple appeared from North Twin. They asked about our trip which we told them and they smiled and said "That's a good hike". I asked about theirs and they were doing a Pemi loop with side trips for 38+ miles. Lincoln Woods at 5am, planning to be out between 9 and 10 -- for a claimed 2.5 mph average pace. Larry and I felt rather small at this point, packed up, finished chewing and headed across the North Twin Spur.
North Twin's official summit appears to be the highpoint on the trail, marked with a cairn under a spruce tree (4pm.) On the way to the viewpoint however it appears quite obviously higher than the cairn. I poked around a bit but found no other herd paths in the area, so I guess I can call it good. Looking back to South Twin the clouds had thinned just a bit and allowed bits of sunlight to stream through. Lincoln and Lafayette were completely covered up. While the elevation was done at this point, all 5510 feet of it, and while a lot of descending had taken place too, it was a fairly steep and slow trip down, beginning with the thick spruce closing in around the trail. After about 90 minutes of descending, the sounds of running water became apparent. After crossing a brook twice we realized it could not possibly be the Little River and so down we continued. Eventually the third crossing appeared and we made it over without difficulty by going to the island of rocks, walking upstream a few dozen paces, and then crossing (above the collection of trees) the rest of the way.
The official trail is now on the east side of the river, and we encountered one step-over blowdown. Skipping the second crossing and continuing on the old trail, there were at least a dozen blowdowns, most easily stepped over. We made it back to the car at 6:40 pm (11 hours, 30 minutes), cleaned up, and beelined it for the Common Man in Lincoln for cheddar burgers, sweet potato fries (no maple syrup this time...hmmm) and Common Man Pale Ales. Got home about 10pm, making for a 17-hour day.
All photos here:
Tim
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