Sometimes, one just wants to amble in the woods over flat earth. So many of the hiking trails in the Whites involve steep ascents, rocky footing, slippery tree roots, and boulder scrambles that even the shortest of trails can still be tough on the legs and lungs. Hoping to ease our way into a two week-long visit to NH and Maine, K and I opted for a Sunday hike on what I think is the very best of the easy trails/warm up hikes -- Zealand Trail to the Zealand Falls Hut.
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| Beaver Ponds along Zealand Trail |
At a round trip distance of 5.5 miles and only 829 feet of elevation gain (almost all of it at the rock staircase up the falls to the hut), the Zealand Trail makes for a nice and easy walk past swamps, beaver ponds, waterfalls and multiple vista points. Our drive in to the parking area at the end of Zealand Road took us past the trail head for Mount Hale and we remembered our
icy climb to the summit two years before -- a day when one of the "easiest" 4,000 footers was rendered nasty tough. I also recalled that Zealand was the jumping off point for our
one-day traverse of the Bonds -- which now lives on in infamy as "The Longest Day" of all of 4,000 footer day hikes,
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| Easy grades on the Zealand Trail |
We took our time hiking along the easy grades through forest and over boardwalks, stopping often to admire the fall foliage and glass the bird species still hanging around before winter. At Zealand Pond, the trail loops around the southern shore to the base of the falls. Thus begins the only steep part of the hike -- a 1/8 mile of rough stone staircases leading to the AMC hut.
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| Zealand Falls in Autumn |
We used the hut as our lunch spot and then admired the view from the top of the falls, which you can hear cascading downward from the porch of the hut. Of all the huts, I think Zealand might be in the most picturesque. More importantly, it is a nice destination for a warm up hike and relaxing lunch before a couple weeks of North Country outdoors adventuring.
