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| Summit cairn, Mount Hale |
One of our four went missing. Don't worry. Not on the trail.
Over the past few years, my brother and I have been doing an annual trip to the White Mountains in order to get the next generation started on the 4,000 footers a lot earlier than we did. This time, however, one of my two nephews unfortunately caught an illness a few days before the trip. Since we were planning a Zealand Hut stay, conventional wisdom dictated that he should stay home. Probably the right call. But it just wasn't the same having only the three of us instead of the usual four.
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| Ascending the Hale Brook Trail |
Our plan called for a hike to Zealand Hut for an overnight and the climbing of two peaks - Mt. Hale on the way in and Mt. Tom on the way out. The hut and peak hike would be bookended by two nights in the Highland Center in Crawford Notch, one of our common bases of operations for WMNF hikes. Having only one car, we needed to make use of the Trail Angels in order to make our plan work. This way, we could leave our car at the Highland Center and hike back to it after doing Hale, the Hut and Tom. The plan worked out great. The angels showed up right on time, the driver was friendly and we made it to the trail head on time. But 90 bucks for a 20 minute shuttle ride? No wonder we'd NEVER used the service before.
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| Trail break, Mt. Hale summit |
We made quick work up the switchbacks of the Hale Brook Trail and had our first break of the day spread out near the giant cairn, keeping a careful eye on the opportunistic Canada Jays that one always finds looking for a hiker snack on this extremely popular summit. We then zipped down to Zealand Hut and were pleasantly surprised to learn that there were only a handful of reservations for the night, despite the fact that the night before was a full house. Phew!
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| Canada Jays ever present on Hale |
Since we got in early, we passed the afternoon climbing around the bunks, napping, hanging out with other hikers and enjoying the lake and waterfalls. Since it was the last weekend of caretaker season, we (per usual) dazzled our fellow overnighters with a top notch dinner menu -- three cheese mac and cheese, blueberry cobbler, and Pennsylvania smoked sausage for the meat eaters. Since we were a man down on the trip, there was plenty to share with the crew and other overnighters... and no leftovers.
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| Zealand Special |
The next morning, we hit the A-Z Trail for the long stretch back to the Highland Center. For many years, I have been wanting to hike this trail and it proved to be interesting enough. It climbs steadily upwards to the shoulder of Mt. Tom, after which it is all downhill to Crawford Notch. It's not heavily used, so the going was slow through overgrowth and blow downs... not to mention some lingering snow. Wanting to bag a second peak, we did the short up and back to Mt. Tom summit but didn't dally at the summit for long due to the arrival of a noisy party of shirtless Canadians enjoying the pleasant, sunny weather. For some reason, it seems that male hikers from Quebec appear to really enjoy removing their tops on sunny days... even in black fly season.
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| The wonderful view from Tom summit |
After the notoriously unspectacular Tom summit, we endured a particularly long, slow descent to the Highland Center since the youngest member of our party was experiencing some discomfort in his pack and boots. Always the trooper, he still managed to bang it out and the reward was adding a couple more peaks to his resume... A fact that he will surely remind his older brother about day in and day out until our next trip.
Peaks: Mount Hale and Mount Tom
Elevation: 4,054 feet and 4,051 feet
Distance: 11 miles point to point
Route: Hale Brook Trail to Lend-a-Hand Trail to Zealand Hut overnight to A-Z Trail to Avalon Trail
Conditions: Partly sunny, 60 degrees F
