Zealand Mtn 4/29/2012

[RoySwkr]

Yes, I actually paid the $3 to park instead of walking in from Rte.302, the site does have all 6 amenities although since I only used parking the Circuit Court says I needn't pay. It was the first fee paid in several years and I can afford it.

The beavers have raised the water level again and the N approach to the zigzag bridge is under water with some floating timbers to walk on. One was starting to drift off and I retrieved it with my ski pole - I'm surprised the hut caretaker hasn't nailed them together as it's him that with have to deal with irate people arriving with wet feet. Hopefully the bridge will be extended this summer. The water is starting to rise over the S approach too.

I thought that with a few days of sun and rain the little ice found higher up by B&E would be gone, but apparently it snowed up high instead and all the ice was now hidden by snow. Previously dry trail was now bare, but in wet sections the snow had frozen on leaving hard-to-see thin ice. Yes, the ladder shown in the photo was still bare, but to get the bottom there was an ice cascade that I chose to bushwhack around. I tried to scuff some waterbars but the debris was frozen solid.

I had expected to meet half a zillion grid hikers (the other half-zillion having been up on Saturday) but actually met only a couple groups on the ridge, maybe everybody walked through to Lincoln Woods.

 

[Becca M]

my how conditions change in just a few days!!!! all the gridiots must already have it or gotten it on a traverse

 

[Summerset]

We were there Saturday and spoke to the caretaker. He said part of his job this week was to work on some of those flooding issues on Zealand Trail, so maybe it will be a bit better soon?

 

[carla]

thoughts on Zeacliff trail?

Roy and Becca: what's your sense of the Zeacliff trail going down off the cliff and into the valley there? Icy, snowy still? Also, is the top of Zeacliff still boggy, or dried out by now? This week is a tough one--has it stayed cold enough up in NH (dismal and grey here in Cambridge) to melt those last remaining pockets of ice on the steeps?

Roy--I assume you meant you parked up at the top of the now-open Zealand access road, correct?

--Carla

 

[Becca M]

Roy and Becca: what's your sense of the Zeacliff trail going down off the cliff and into the valley there? Icy, snowy still? Also, is the top of Zeacliff still boggy, or dried out by now? This week is a tough one--has it stayed cold enough up in NH (dismal and grey here in Cambridge) to melt those last remaining pockets of ice on the steeps?

Roy--I assume you meant you parked up at the top of the now-open Zealand access road, correct?

--Carla

Hi Carla, I haven't been to the lower portions in a LONG time, but, I would guess it's pretty icy in the steeps - I remember some pretty scrambly sections and those might be filled with ice!!!!

 

[RoySwkr]

what's your sense of the Zeacliff trail going down off the cliff and into the valley there? Icy, snowy still?

Also, is the top of Zeacliff still boggy, or dried out by now? This week is a tough one--has it stayed cold enough up in NH (dismal and grey here in Cambridge) to melt those last remaining pockets of ice on the steeps?

I assume you meant you parked up at the top of the now-open Zealand access road, correct?

A guy who hiked Zealand et al both Thur and Sun confirmed more ice on Sun - yes, who else

Yes, I parked at end of Zealand Rd

My impression of the Twinway as far as Zeacliff was that the ice mostly wasn't that thick and would melt more quickly than the monorail along the ridge - Zeacliff Trail faces closer to S and with less traffic is less packed should melt off sooner

If Monday was rain up there the recent snow will be gone, if more snow then who knows when

 

[TEO]

the site does have all 6 amenities

I don't believe that it does. One of the amenities is "picnic tables," and last I knew, there was only one picnic table.