Better Outside Than In: Zealand, Hale

Monday, July 6, 2020

Zealand, Hale

Zealand and Hale mountain. The long, slow, very hard way!
The plan for today was to go up North Twin, South Twin, and Galehead. The trail goes along a river for the first 2 miles. Somewhere toward the end of that stretch I was walking out on the river and when I came back to the trail I crossed over the trail onto another trail. The trail wasn't very traveled but I thought it would connect to the main trail. As far as I knew there was only one trail. It was going in the right general direction but after a mile I knew it wasn't going to connect to the correct trail and since it had no markers or signs I wasn't sure where it would go.
At this point I knew I could not back track and still do the planned route. That was a long day and probably not doable after spending time on the wrong path. After about 2 to 2.5 miles I came to the top of Hale mountain. This is a 4000 footer. It is pretty much on its own meaning it isn't on the same ridge as the Twins or Zealand. At this point I knew where I was.
I thought I could do a really big loop and go up Zealand and the Twins. After thinking about that I decided that was too much and after thinking further I realized I had a very long day in store to just get to Zealand and back.
You need to go pretty far down from Hale to get to Zealand Hut and Zealand Falls. This is a nice area and the falls are very good. It was a short hike down to the hut and falls from where I came out. After that it was up to Zeacliff which has the good mountain views for this trip. Zeacliff is pretty high up and after that you are mostly walking along a high ridge to the top of Zealand. Zealand mountain has no views but the hike is nice and goes by Zeacliff pond which is also worth checking out.
Then back down Zealand, up Hale again, and down.
Heading down Hale, near the top, I saw a baby ruffed growse. I am pretty sure that is what it was since the mother was on the other side of the trail. The baby was on a branch right next to the trail and was making noises. So was the mother. I took a few quick pictures and moved on to leave them alone.
This was a 19-20 mile day! Very long with lots of elevation gain/loss. It was in a nice area so multiple streams, waterfalls, and views made it one of the nicer hikes but also one of the hardest in the last few months.

The map below shows the more conventional Zealand hike. I started out at the Twin parking lot on the left side of the map and went on a trail (not shown) to Hale.