For our 2018 vacation at Squam I planned a two-day hike that would have us overnight at the AMC Zealand Falls Hut for one night. I wanted to play it safe so I booked the hut for two nights just in case there was a delay for weather. In the 5 years we have been doing summer hikes, we haven’t had a day with bad weather, which has made it all the more enjoyable. This two-day hike would allow us to “peak bag” five of our remaining 24 4000-footers.

We were still thinking about being able to finish all 48 of the 4000-footers before he starts college, but that time frame for doing that is closing. We discussed this during our hike and realized we would have needed to do another hike on this summer visit to NH (which we didn’t do) and be more aggressive next year and possibly come up for a fall hike.

With the completion of #25 thru #29 that leaves us with the following 10 hikes (19 peaks) grouped by what we say as being able to complete in one day:
Owl’s Head – Sophomore Year
Mt. Moosilaukee – Jr. Year
Mt. Isolation – Sr. Year
Mt. Carrigan – Sophomore Year
North Hancock and South Hancock – Sophomore year
Mt Waumbek and Mt Cabot (aggressive for single day) – Jr. Year
North Kinsman and South Kinsman – Jr. Year
Mt. Liberty and Mt. Flume – Fall or winter trip
Mt. Pierce, Eisenhower, Monroe (overnight Lake in Clouds) – Sr. Year
Mt. Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison (possible overnight Madison Hut) – Sr. Year

Its not possible to finish in the next two summers in N.H. so we would have to plan on finishing after he graduates High School and before Freshman year college…if he is still interested in hiking with me at that time:)

This year I had to buy a new pair of shoes for both Jacob and I even though I had bought him a new pair last year. He has grown so much in a single year. I got his cheap on Amazon size 10. I bought myself a pair of Salomon Ultra 3 Trail Runners. They seemed to work pretty well though they aren’t waterproof and thankfully we didn’t get rain though I did slip into the water once and my foot was soaked. The only issue I had with the shoes was that the soles were a little slippery on slick rocks. We both wore the same wool socks we have been wearing every year and they work great. We kept the same packs as last year with Jacob using my Kelty. Next year he will need a real pack that can sit on his hips and hold more weight. I thought I had forgot my pocket knife only to discover after hiking that it was in the front pouch of my pack.

Looking back on last year’s hike I am in wonder at how much Jacob has grown. Pictures are worth a thousand words! For this two day hike we totaled 20.5 miles in two days which was substantially less than the 30 miles we did last year in 3 days. 10-12 miles a day seems to be a reasonable amount to do, but our bodies will really feel three days in a row whereas this year’s two day hike seemed much easier on us.

This year’s hike began with us setting up our packs the night before and buying our liquids and snacks/lunch for the two days. We brought plastic containers (Gatorade and water) with 7 quarts of liquid. A couple of quarts were empty for the beginning of the hike because we would have the hut for filling the next day. It seems that 7 to 8 quarts of water is a proper amount for a 12 mile hike with variability for temperature and strenuousness of hike. Of our remaining hikes, Owl’s Head would appear to be the only hike we would need to consider bringing more than two gallons of water (that’s assuming we are completely hydrated at the start of the hike). For lunch, I packed bread separately to make sandwiches. Salami, ham, and cheese were packed with a cold pack. I also had mayo and mustard. The sandwiches were great! Everything else was snacks. We had beef jerky, pepperoni, hard cheese, tree nuts for me, chocolate/raisin/peanut for Jacob, dried pineapple and candy (raisinets, milk duds, etc).

Once again I brought sheets for our bunks and a couple hand towels. This added weight to packs but was welcome for overnight stay. Jacob refused to bring a sweatshirt (I did bring one and needed it), thank goodness it wasn’t cold except at night and we didn’t experience any rain.

On the morning of our hike we got a later start because we were meeting a shuttle at 8:45 which was the end of our hike where we were dropping our car. Didn’t need to leave the house til a little before 8am so we got up around 7:15 and had a hearty breakfast. We got to the pickup location around 8:30. This was the beginning of the Webster Cliff Tr which is part of the AT though we would never actually go on the Webster Cliff Tr for our hike. The above pictures are before we got picked up by the shuttle. When the shuttle arrived it was dropping off some AT thru-hikers who were continuing north. Two of the guys were section hikers and were starting their continuation after lengthy time off…frankly they didn’t look like they were in shape for what was to come. The third guy was a thru-hiker who had been on the trail and had just gone to town for supplies. You could tell the difference between the two groups.

The shuttle drove up Zealand Rd. and dropped us at the beginning of the Hale Brook Tr. We began the 2.2 mile hike to Mt. Hale at 9:30 am.

 

The first mile of the hike was modest but we worked up a sweat quickly. We crossed Hale Brook the first time at the 0.8 mile mark at 9:52 am, recrossed Hale Brook at the 1.3 mile mark at 10:09 am and at the 1.7 mile mark at 10:25 am we crossed a small brook.

At the 2.2 mile mark we reached the summit of Mt. Hale arriving at 10:45 am. It took us 1:15 against a book time of 2:15.

The summit of Mt. Hale had the foundation of an old fire tower and the largest summit cairn we had seen yet. Soon after arriving a man and his son arrived behind us and took the above pictures. They were also trying to climb all 48 of the 4000-footers.

After water a snack and a short talk with the other hikers we were off at 11:07 am for the Zealand Hut.

It was a modest hike of 2.9 miles to Zealand Falls hut and we arrived at 12:30 for 1:25 minute hike.

We checked into the hut, filled our water bottles, and grabbed a couple of bunks in the back corner. In this section there was two bunks that were just doubles instead of triples. We grabbed one of them, so no one would be climbing over us at night. Also, it was the end of the cabin so no one would be walking past us to get to their bunk and there was a window here. We unloaded our gear and made up our beds. These bunks are nice in that they have a shelf for placing things you would need at night (ear plugs, mask, water bottle, flashlight), and they have a built in reading light. There is also a bench and places to hang things along with a pillow and fresh case and a couple of heavy wool blankets. The mattress is thin with a plastic cover but it was fine for me because I like it firm when sleeping on my back.

We grabbed our lunch and headed over to check out Zealand Falls. It was a sunny day and there were quite a few people hanging out at the falls enjoying the warmth of the sun, the beauty of the falls, and the spectacular view to the South of Zealand Notch and the Pemigewasset Wilderness.

After lunch we would leave for the 3.1 mile hike to Zealand Mtn at 1:35 pm.

After 1.5 miles and 45 minutes we reached the Zeacliff Tr. Just before the trail there was a beautiful lookout to the South where we could see the entire Pemigewasset Wildnerness containing Mt. Hancock (one we hadn’t done yet).  To the East we could see the mountains we would climb the next day (Tom, Field, and Willey) and behind that Mt. Washington was towering. There were a couple of groups of people enjoying the views here.

 

I was wearing the smaller pack and we were just carrying water for our trip to  Zealand mountain. We left the viewing area at 2:25 heading for Zealand. We passed a group of 3 cute teen girls going the opposite direction. Jacob took notice and I reminded him that hiking wasn’t so bad after all and how it was surprising that we seemed to see more girls hiking than guys. In fact the hut had at least half girls because there was a girls camp group of 12 and their two female counselors staying overnight.

We were on the Appalachian Trail again and would pass thru hikers. The trail got pretty steep on the way to Zealand Mtn and I suddenly felt something that I had not felt yet with any of my hikes. My quads cramped up. I wasn’t sure what it was at first and was worried. For a moment it seemed like I wouldn’t be able to continue. I took a rest and Jacob offered to take the pack with the water in it. After a minute or two the pain subsided and I was able to keep moving.

We would reach Zealand Mtn (4160′) at 3:15. We laughed that we had come all that way and the summit was a small clearing off of the main trail with nothing but a few rocks and a small sign. Didn’t look like a mountain top at all. We would end up calling this two day hike the “Most hike for the  worst view” hike. The mountains the next day were not much better in terms of view, but this was by far the worst and I think probably will be for all of the 48 4000-footers.

We didn’t stay long except to take a selfie and headed back at 3:15 pm. We met two thru-hikers. One from Germany named “Tinker”. I kidded with him and asked if he was a fan of Disney but as soon as he started walking he had bells tied to his boots and they rang…so we knew why he was called “Tinker”.  He had been on the AT for 5 months and 1 week.

We made it back to where the Zeacliff Tr intersects Twinway and went back out to the Zeacliff Overlook. We met a father and son doing the hiking and he told us that Mt. Willey (pronounced willie not wiley) was named after a Willy family that had been killed in an avalanche in the 1800’s. They had heard an approaching avalanche and left their house to seek protection. They ended up dying in the avalanche but their house was spared. Our car was actually parked next to the site of their deaths. Supposedly this story somehow coined the phrase “gives me the willeys”. I would later look into this and it all sounds like a bunch of hogwash!.

We would make it back to the Zealand Falls Hut at 5:00  pm just in time to hear a talk from two thru-hikers about their adventures. They were talking to the people staying at the hut as their way of doing work for food and a roof over their head (they would be able to sleep on floor of dining hall). One was a northbound hiker (NoBo) named Pancake and the other southbound (SoBo) named Tomato. The NoBo was a woman who was obviously on trail much longer that the guy who was SoBo. It showed in their weight and general look of wear and tear. Tomato got his name from getting extremely sunburned on his first couple days on trail in Maine and Pancake got her name from continued hunger for pancakes. The sense of community on the trail was a theme they talked about and the constant struggle to get enough food. I again heard how N.H. was the toughest part physically but that the real struggle was the mental toughness to keep going every day. It seemed like there was a lot of boredom that might make it easy to give up.

After the talk, Jacob and I got a chance to go over to the falls with a towel and clean shirt and clean ourselves off in the crystal clear pools of the falls. It was heaven.

One of the hut caretakers (college students) came out and gave a talk on environmentally friendly things that the hut does and showed us how they carry all the supplies to and from the hut. They get 5-10 amps of hydro power from the falls that charge 12v batteries. There is a big tube being fed by a stream that is reduced to a smaller tube with long length to it. This tube runs downhill where it seems it picks alot of power to spin a turbine that produces electricity. This sounds very similar to the large scale “pumped-hydro” storage facilities that use solar to pump water to a higher level and then release it to generate hydro power at night. The hut also had solar panels and a wind turbine to charge batteries. Their backup was propane to run a generator.

Dinner was at 6 pm sharp and is served family style. Jacob was in his bunk reading and I had to drag him to the dinner table. He was a little tired and would probably skipped dinner if I hadn’t dragged him out to table. We sat with a family of 8 who had brought their teen girls up for a weekend hike. They had come across the trail that day that we would be taking the next day and essentially told us it was long, boring, and not very trafficked. Not something we wanted to hear.

Dinner was lentil soup, salad, bread, pasta with pesto, corn and veggie salad, beef tips, and chocolate cake. I had two servings of the soup and three pieces of the cake. Tasted like a gourmet meal to me:) Jacob ate well also. He couldn’t eat the cake for dessert so they prepared him fresh strawberries and whipped cream!

I went to bed at 9:30 (lights out was 10 pm). Jacob was already sleeping. I put my mask on and earplugs in and I was soon sleeping well. I got up once in middle of night (3 am) for the bathroom and the small flashlight was much needed. The people in the bunk beside us had opened the window wide and it was very chilly out. I was going to close it but decided to leave it open. I threw another blanket on Jacob and had to put my sweatshirt on myself. I woke at 6:15 am and the Croo sang a wakeup song at 6:30 am.