Jan. 2: Goodbye, Boulder Motor
Court. (We had stayed here for part of our September
bike trip, too.) A tip of the hat to Stacey and
Tom for the hospitality.
.
We reached Zealand
Falls Hut at 1 p.m., parking our skis to hoof it up
the last steep bit. Of the eight Appalachian Mountain Club
huts in the White Mountains, Zealand
is one of three that are open
in winter. We saw three pairs of people on their
way down from the hut after overnights there: a couple on
cross-country skis with backpacks, another couple on
telemark skis, and two men on snowshoes with their gear on a
sled.
|
We started at 9:30 at the same place
on Route 302 we had started Dec.
30. We skied all the way up the unplowed Zealand Road,
then started up the
Zealand Trail, not sure if we'd get all the way to Zealand
Falls Hut.
|
.
2.7 miles to
go
at 11 a.m. |
It snowed all day and the powder was perfect. We lost a bit
of time on the way up searching in vain for an alternate
path where the hiking trail left the railroad bed and got
steep and twisty. We saw ski tracks but they petered out or
were covered by fresh snow, and the deep, unpacked snow was
difficult to navigate. We ended up walking a short stretch
before the hiking trail smoothed out again. |