I ventured back to the White Mountains last weekend with the hope of hiking Zealand Mountain and checking off another 4,000 footer. I hadn’t hiked with Benji in a while so we made a last minute reservation at Zealand Falls Hut. Since we were staying at the hut that meant we could hike later in the day without the worry of hiking back to the car in the dark. Zealand Falls Hut is one of three huts open in the winter, staffed with a caretaker and run on a self-service basis (meaning you have full use of the kitchen and have to bring your own food). In the summer time all the huts are full service and from what I’ve heard are consistently packed with people.
We parked at the AMC Highland Center and hiked 5 miles over the Willey Range and down to the hut. We went inside and cooked up a quick bit to eat, grabbed a bunk and dropped of most off our stuff. It was pushing 1 o’clock and we had plans to hike to the summit of Zealand Mountain which was about 5 miles round trip. There was just enough time to make it back before dark. The climb up was tough on the legs. No one had hiked that day so we were breaking trail the whole way. Nearing Twinway trail I fell into a bog that was just barely iced over. Having never explored this area I didn’t know what the terrain was like, otherwise I would have been more cautious. Good thing for gators.
We pushed on for another 1.3 mi to the summit of Zealand. It seemed like it took for ever. The summit was a pile of rocks which seems typical of most 4,000 foot summits in the Whites. I have no idea if the views were any good, they might have been, the clouds cover was thick enough that we couldn’t see anything.
I started to feel discomfort in my knee as soon as we started to descend. I think it was the 2 feet of mud I sunk into at Twinway. We pushed on and made it back to the hut just after sunset. We dropped our packs and made some dinner. Having hiked around 10 miles we were both spent and opted to hit the hay early. There is nothing better then crawling into a sleeping bag when its 20 degrees. I love it!
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