Hiked by: Tim and Valerie on March 15, 2009 - via Hale Brook Trail
We started from the winter parking lot on Rt 302 at around 8:10AM. It was a balmy 22 degrees F. There was a new warning sign on the way in on Zealand Road regarding a moose that had been encountered on the way to Zealand Hut. It was a beautiful day and the sun was just getting into the valley. We walked on the road (no cars allowed, only logging trucks although we didn't see any) for about 2.5 miles. This part of the hike is just to get to the trailhead.
From the road, we also got some beautiful views of the river and some nice ice formations.
More road. It's flat and long, but didn't seem as bad as three miles at Lincoln Woods. We caught a glimpse of Mt Hale.
From the summer trailhead, we made great time for about the first hour. The snow was so crusty that you couldn't even tell that we were walking on it. The uphills were interesting. Tim stayed in his bare boots. It's impossible that he even made it up like that. Valerie put on her Stabilicers after about a half-mile.
At about the 1.0-mile mark, we came across this stretch of trail on a steep slope. The snow was still so frozen that we couldn't make our own tracks. Even the Stabilicers couldn't get a grip on the icy slick surface. Snowshoes seemed like an even more dangerous prospect. We decided that we just needed to follow the frozen steps of the person who had traveled through here some days earlier. It was about a quarter-mile across this portion and took us about 45 minutes. Very slow going.
Once we passed that section, we had a quick snack and then continued on to the summit. The temperature was really warming up and it was very comfortable up there.
Some wonderful people took time away from their real lives to build this incredible snow tower on the summit. It even has walking ramps from each side to help you get up on top!
Usually, this summit is a nice clearing, but no views of surrounding mountains. Today, we had a 360-degree view.
Click here for Tim's Presidential Panorama!
We met two nice women on the summit (both solo hikers who came up via the Fire Warden's trail). We chatted with each of them for awhile, asked one to help us with a photo, then they were off. We ate, changed into some dry socks, put on our crampons for the walk down, and started out.
We came down in record time. The snow was perfect for the crampons. The sloping section from the pictures above had started to soften, so we slid a little coming through there, but neither of us ended up in the brook at the bottom!
The 2.5-mile walk out felt a little longer than it had in the morning, but we still made good time along that portion. Even with more than an hour at the summit, we were back at the car at 4:30PM. It was 51 degrees F at that point. It was a gorgeous day for a hike and a good way to finish the winter hiking season. Total round trip was about 9.6 miles.
15 down / 33 to go