My 10th (Mt. Hale) 4,000 footer!

A quick personal note: over the weekend, my 2009 Honda Civic GX (Compressed Natural Gas vehicle) rolled-over to 100,000 miles! I recently had to buy a new battery, and I will have to replace the original tires before winter sets in, but it has worked out GREAT!


Ryan, a friend from the Thursday Morning Mens Breakfast, asked if we could hike together - I said GREAT! The end-of-July hike (Mount Willey, Mount Field, and Mount Tom) are grouped together in Crawford Notch State Park in the "middle group" (in the green circle), August's Cannon Mountain hike is the left green circle, while today's hike (Mount Hale) is in the red square:


Mount Hale is up 93, then east on 3, then just a little south on 302. the parking area/trailhead is a couple of miles up Zealand Road (past the parking lots for the trail to North Sugarloaf and Middle Sugarloaf)


Instead of just going up-and-down Hale Brook Trail (4.4 miles round trip), we decided to do a nice loop: up Hale Brook Trail (2.2 miles), down Lend-A-Hand Trail (2.7 miles), then Zealand Trail (0.2 + 2.3 miles), then walk from the south parking area on the road back to our car (1.0 miles) - 8.4 miles altogether - maybe 4 1/2 to 5 hours.

My iPhone was low on power - using Map My Walk, I was able to get 7.5 miles in 3.5 hours. We covered about 4,380 feet in climbing elevation (2190 up, then back down):


Ryan picked me up at the Sears parking lot at 7:30, we went down 128, through Reading, then up 93, and were parked and hiking by 11


We saw some wildlife - Hi Mr. Frog!


Saw a beautiful stream:


We reached the top in a little over an hour



and my shots from the top of the cairn





and Ryan's photo of the Beaver Ponds:


We hiked to Zealand Falls Hut. Anyplace that has the word "Falls" in its name must be pretty cool! It is right next to Zealand Falls, which are a beautiful set of cascades with nice water, even at this time of year. Since the trail up from the Parking Area is practically flat, I look forward to bringing Wendy up here next May-or-June to see it in "full flow"!

and that's all for today! Thank you God for a GREAT DAY!

Monday, August 25, 2014
153 miles -- Sears parking lot up 93 North to trailhead parking lot (3 hours)
9.5(?) miles -- hiking (4.5 hours)
3 hours -- to get home

No playlist today - Ryan and I were too busy talking!