Arrived at Zealand Rd. parking lot at 8:00 am. Three cars had been broken into and one stolen, there was shattered glass everywhere.
Started hiking down Zealand Rd. with a nice couple from Conn., her first winter hike, they were headed to Zealand Falls hut. Temps were
in the high 50's and the sun was shining, not bad for a day with rain in the forecast. This made walking in the melting snow and slush
awkward. After 2.5 miles we arrived at the trailhead of Hale Brook Trail at 10:00.
This trail had not been used for a while and we would have to break it to the summit. This was very exhausting to do in 4' to 6' of snow.
We all took turns leading, but not in equal sections, go figure! There was one part of the trail that was cut into the side of a slope and
probably very easy in the summer. However with the snow, walking sideways with a 100' dropoff for about 1/4 mile was very difficult.
The other problem was that the trail blazes on the trees wer buried in snow. We saw 3 all the way up, and one was at snow level sticking
out by an inch or so. Oh well the weather was perfect. After 3 hours we stopped for a discussion about when we should turn back. It was
decided we would go until 1:30, it was taking a long time to cover 2.3 miles to the summit. I got up to lead again, after a short steep section,
the trail leveled off to the right,then as I started another steep section, I looked up ahead and saw blue sky. We had reached the summit. The
summit marker was poking up out of the snow by a couple of inches. There were 2 gray jays on a cairn on the summit to greet us.
The summit was almost bare of snow, very sunny and muddy. The views were limited because of the approaching storm. Looking around it
seemed like the summit of Mt. Hale (bopp) was the only sunny spot. A perfect landing area for a UFO that has been hiding behind a comet.
We headed back down out of the wind after a couple of mandatory summit pictures. As soon as we stopped for lunch, the clouds rolled
over us. We still enjoyed our lunch of pasta primavera, chili, hot chocolate and coffee. The trip down, which had taken us 3+ hours up,
was covered in just over an hour to Zealand Rd. Then we still had the 2.5 mile walk out to Rt. 302. We reached the truck and were changing,
and "Then The Rain Came." Sorry George.
DMP