Mats Roing
New member
Hope to add some photos to this report soon, but here's what happened on that beautiful Saturday:
Will (Greene) and I got 7 minutes late to the TH where mountaingirl (Lei) and Jen (Gross) were waiting. A bit earlier I had spilled half a cup of coffee on the passenger seat in Will's new jeep with 300 miles on it. So we know how the interior will smell for a while....sorry for removing the new car smell Will....
Anyway.....at 7:45am we were off and hiking. the girls took off ahead while Will and I took off jackets and changed to shorts.....we caught up with them after they decided to make a bonus creek crossing. Will and I hopped over also and we all figured out it was the wrong spot......back to to the left side again. Nice and dry trail mostly and we soon came to the final crossing. Perfect weather and no mosquitos! mountaingirl (who summited Denali in June by the way) took off up North Twin Trail in a blistering pace and passed all hikers who left the TH before us. At 4,000 feet a request for a break was made and we took 5 minutes enjoying the cool breeze and some snacks.
We took off again and Jen showed good balance by walking up the first 4-foot obstacle (the rock slightly before the viewpoint 1/4 mile before real summit) without using hands. Her 5.10 approach shoes gets an "A" for good grip. Once at the viewpoint we took some photos before Jen and Will walked down below the cliff and started working on some bouldering lines. They were both successful at their respective lines
On towards the real summit and we went to the viewpoint facing west.....fabolous views of Galehead, Garfield, Franconia Ridge etc etc
mountaingirl placed a couple of extra rocks on my back for the pushups.
Off to South Twin.....sun still shining and half hour later we were at South Twin debating which rock is higher. Anyone knows? Jen and Will tried a couple of different variations on the steep side of the smaller rock and made it up again although Will took a little slider on his first attempt. Will is now looking to get a pair of 5.10 shoes for his next hike
Down the Twinway and weather holding up nicely......Jen took the lead and dissapeared in the woods. hamtero told me about this slide which comes to within 50 feet or so off the Twinway trail. I made three attempts whacking out where it looked like a possible place. Finally when Will took over the search we found it
It looked like a slide you want to go very lightfooted on.....plenty of possibilities to slide down for a while if you start slidin'.....
nhmountainhiker and hamtero did a cool trip from below earlier this year.
We decided to stick to our itinerary though.....off to Zealand cut-off where went up 100 feet and found an apple among lingonberries and blueberries. They also had another Swedish berry we call tranbär back in Sweden. So three types of edible berries plus a fresh apple someone dropped. Back in Sweden these berries grow deep down below in the forest but in New Hampshire you find them in the alpine zone. So after a fruit and berry picknick we went off to Zealand.
We met quite a few hikers along this section of the trail. On Zealand Jen and Will were sad since there were no bouldering spots at the summit
The sun had dissapeared now and we looked toward the western sky occasionally for signs of bad weather. Down the stairs and passing Zeacliff Pond down on the right. Over the exposed rock and the sharp left down towards Lend-a-Hand trail and Zealand Hut. We didn't go down to Zealand Hut but turned left up Lend-a-Hand trail....it was now 3:15pm....clouds were getting darker in the western sky.....but still no rain. Slooowly gained elevation until we hit the steep uphill towards the 3,800-footer 1/2 mile before the real summit. No hikers since shorlty after we turned left towards Hale down below. At 4:18pm we tried to figure out how to do pushups on the summit cairn. Settled for doing them on the side of the cairn.
Then the excitement started.....how to find the fire warden trail.....Jen and I did some excursions west and northwest of the summit cairn and found a solid trail. There are several false trails but a couple of trails are leading towards the firewarden trail. Jen had been skiing a portion of the trail before but not from the summit itself. Thanks J&J for giving beta
We started to get worried after the trail went up a subsummit and down the east side of the ridge....we needed to go west.......about 300 feet lower thetrail moved over to the west side of the ridge and we were relieved. It was a beautiful trail in great condition mostly. Big portions of the trail felt like you could go barefoot on it. It had a handfull of switchbacks before we were down at North Twin Trail about 1,800 vertical feet below the summit of Hale. We started to talk about food now for some reason.....and by the time we reached the parking lot after 10hrs13min on the trail, we decided to go to Lincoln for carb replenishment. We met up with Tony, a local Lincoln hiker and climber, at Woodstock Station, where we had a couple of pitchers of beer and lots of good food before driving home the last couple of hours to Boston. Looks like it was 17.66 miles and 5,276 feet of elevation gain according to bikeskihikefish......thanks for that info by the way!
This is a beautiful loop and a shorter alternative to the Pemi loop for those who doesn't want a super early alpine start or the aches from doing a 33 miler (+/- a couple of miles depending on sidepeak bagging).
Thanks Jen, mountaingirl (Lei) and Will for great company!
Mats
Will (Greene) and I got 7 minutes late to the TH where mountaingirl (Lei) and Jen (Gross) were waiting. A bit earlier I had spilled half a cup of coffee on the passenger seat in Will's new jeep with 300 miles on it. So we know how the interior will smell for a while....sorry for removing the new car smell Will....
Anyway.....at 7:45am we were off and hiking. the girls took off ahead while Will and I took off jackets and changed to shorts.....we caught up with them after they decided to make a bonus creek crossing. Will and I hopped over also and we all figured out it was the wrong spot......back to to the left side again. Nice and dry trail mostly and we soon came to the final crossing. Perfect weather and no mosquitos! mountaingirl (who summited Denali in June by the way) took off up North Twin Trail in a blistering pace and passed all hikers who left the TH before us. At 4,000 feet a request for a break was made and we took 5 minutes enjoying the cool breeze and some snacks.
We took off again and Jen showed good balance by walking up the first 4-foot obstacle (the rock slightly before the viewpoint 1/4 mile before real summit) without using hands. Her 5.10 approach shoes gets an "A" for good grip. Once at the viewpoint we took some photos before Jen and Will walked down below the cliff and started working on some bouldering lines. They were both successful at their respective lines
On towards the real summit and we went to the viewpoint facing west.....fabolous views of Galehead, Garfield, Franconia Ridge etc etc
mountaingirl placed a couple of extra rocks on my back for the pushups.
Off to South Twin.....sun still shining and half hour later we were at South Twin debating which rock is higher. Anyone knows? Jen and Will tried a couple of different variations on the steep side of the smaller rock and made it up again although Will took a little slider on his first attempt. Will is now looking to get a pair of 5.10 shoes for his next hike
Down the Twinway and weather holding up nicely......Jen took the lead and dissapeared in the woods. hamtero told me about this slide which comes to within 50 feet or so off the Twinway trail. I made three attempts whacking out where it looked like a possible place. Finally when Will took over the search we found it
It looked like a slide you want to go very lightfooted on.....plenty of possibilities to slide down for a while if you start slidin'.....
nhmountainhiker and hamtero did a cool trip from below earlier this year.
We decided to stick to our itinerary though.....off to Zealand cut-off where went up 100 feet and found an apple among lingonberries and blueberries. They also had another Swedish berry we call tranbär back in Sweden. So three types of edible berries plus a fresh apple someone dropped. Back in Sweden these berries grow deep down below in the forest but in New Hampshire you find them in the alpine zone. So after a fruit and berry picknick we went off to Zealand.
We met quite a few hikers along this section of the trail. On Zealand Jen and Will were sad since there were no bouldering spots at the summit
The sun had dissapeared now and we looked toward the western sky occasionally for signs of bad weather. Down the stairs and passing Zeacliff Pond down on the right. Over the exposed rock and the sharp left down towards Lend-a-Hand trail and Zealand Hut. We didn't go down to Zealand Hut but turned left up Lend-a-Hand trail....it was now 3:15pm....clouds were getting darker in the western sky.....but still no rain. Slooowly gained elevation until we hit the steep uphill towards the 3,800-footer 1/2 mile before the real summit. No hikers since shorlty after we turned left towards Hale down below. At 4:18pm we tried to figure out how to do pushups on the summit cairn. Settled for doing them on the side of the cairn.
Then the excitement started.....how to find the fire warden trail.....Jen and I did some excursions west and northwest of the summit cairn and found a solid trail. There are several false trails but a couple of trails are leading towards the firewarden trail. Jen had been skiing a portion of the trail before but not from the summit itself. Thanks J&J for giving beta
We started to get worried after the trail went up a subsummit and down the east side of the ridge....we needed to go west.......about 300 feet lower thetrail moved over to the west side of the ridge and we were relieved. It was a beautiful trail in great condition mostly. Big portions of the trail felt like you could go barefoot on it. It had a handfull of switchbacks before we were down at North Twin Trail about 1,800 vertical feet below the summit of Hale. We started to talk about food now for some reason.....and by the time we reached the parking lot after 10hrs13min on the trail, we decided to go to Lincoln for carb replenishment. We met up with Tony, a local Lincoln hiker and climber, at Woodstock Station, where we had a couple of pitchers of beer and lots of good food before driving home the last couple of hours to Boston. Looks like it was 17.66 miles and 5,276 feet of elevation gain according to bikeskihikefish......thanks for that info by the way!
This is a beautiful loop and a shorter alternative to the Pemi loop for those who doesn't want a super early alpine start or the aches from doing a 33 miler (+/- a couple of miles depending on sidepeak bagging).
Thanks Jen, mountaingirl (Lei) and Will for great company!
Mats
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