Zealand Trail - Wet??

[Stash]

Heading into Guyot on Friday for a few days via Zealand Trail. Never been on it and book indicates it can get pretty wet. After last weekend just how wet should I expect and is it a better option to do the miles and go in Avalon/A-Z?

Thanks....

 

[Tom Rankin]

Heading into Guyot on Friday for a few days via Zealand Trail. Never been on it and book indicates it can get pretty wet. After last weekend just how wet should I expect and is it a better option to do the miles and go in Avalon/A-Z?

Thanks....

It's very flat in places, and runs along right next to a large swampy area, with many low bridges. I'd expect WET!

 

[dug]

There are some side streams that come in from your right, I believe right around where you first get to the ponds, that can flood badly. One in particular is wide, and you can usually just walk across it as it's only about 1" deep. One November we had to wade across it coming up...it was up to our thighs.... This particular storm was pretty bad, and the entire area was saturated (i.e. Ethan Pond Campsites were under water and we had no way to get to them).

 

[Barkingcat]

I think that you should be fine. Although a lot of water fell in the area on Saturday, it appears to have drained away fairly well from some of the hiking I've done in the past few days (and some of it in areas that can get pretty wet).

Taking the Avalon and A-Z trails adds, what, about three miles one way over taking the Zealand Trail?

And the potentially wet portion of Zealand is what, maybe a total of a mile (near the Zealand River/beaver ponds)?

I'd endure a limited bit of wet trail to shave the three miles. Just get that Nikwax on the ol' boots in advance for peace of mind.

(But that's me.)

 

[MichaelJ]

Also, Avalon-AZ has the potential to be far more wet in spots, as well as somewhere in there there's a more difficult crossing than any of the unbridged spots on Zealand.

The only place you might have a real issue is at the northern end of the S-bridge, where a new beaver dam has put the trail there underwater as seen in this photo. I don't know if that situation has been corrected in the past month or not.

 

[nartreb]

I was up there a couple of weeks ago. There are some spots where the trail is both flat and deeply-worn, so you'll find some laces-deep water on the trail (or be tempted to walk on the trail edge). All the "real" water is thoroughly bridged, and in places the trail has been built up with gravel to avoid mud and roots.

The S-bridge looked about the same as in Michael's photo, but didn't slow me down at all: water was well below boot-tops and only lasted for a couple of strides.

Avalon/A-Z adds not just mileage, but significant elevation passing over the Willey Range. There are also a couple of stream crossings, notably the gully southeast of Mt Tom.

 

[Barkingcat]

Avalon/A-Z adds not just mileage, but significant elevation passing over the Willey Range. There are also a couple of stream crossings, notably the gully southeast of Mt Tom.

Good point about that gully -- I forgot about that. Last time I did that trail, a couple of winters ago, it was a fine, fine luge run.

 

[Mike P.]

It's flat & more rain coming. If taking the twinway, as you get near the outlook, it's pretty wet there too.

Of course if it gets cold, you'll have snow or ice to deal with..........

 

[bikehikeskifish]

It's flat & more rain coming. If taking the twinway, as you get near the outlook, it's pretty wet there too.

And on Columbus Day the bog bridges were under water in spots...

Tim

 

[Stash]

Of course if it gets cold, you'll have snow or ice to deal with..........

I like snow and ice! It's the wet variety that's annoying...