Zealand Falls Hut to Crawford Notch (7.70 Miles)

We did this hike on July 14, 2009.

Theme song for today is “Mony Mony” by Billy Idol

Total hike time: 5 hours 45 minutes

The Zealand Falls hut croo is simply awesome! Breakfast this morning was oatmeal (with chocolate chips), eggs, and fresh donuts! Yes, fresh cooked donuts!

The skit this morning had Nate (cook) dressed in a fireman’s coat and hat and he was talking like Marlon Brando in “The Godfather.” The dishwasher (sorry but we forgot his name) was the “enforcer” and George (assistant hut master) was playing the poor hapless victim. George first had to demonstrate how to properly fold his blanket. Then George was asked what he was suppose to do with his trash. Every time George responded with the wrong answer, the enforcer pushed his head into the bucket of water. Each time George’s head was dunked,the room erupted in laughter!

We talked to 2 SOBO thru-hikers after breakfast (they were doing work-for-stay). They told us that the trail north of the hut was very gentle and beautiful. They highly recommended stopping at both Thoreau Falls and Ethan Pond. Since Python wanted to reduce her pack weight, she offered them most of her remaining snacks which they gladly accepted.

The AT north of the hut is called the Ethan Pond Trail. We descended some slick boulders after leaving the hut and then went past a raised wooden platform that looked out of place. After that the trail leveled off and we were walking on nice soft ground.

We were really enjoying the trail and then we exited the woods to find ourselves looking up at the cliffs on our left with a boulder that looked like it was about to fall at any moment.

To the right of the trail there was a huge boulder field with a small lake.

We eagerly took the 0.1 mile side trail to Thoreau Falls. The falls were very beautiful! We wanted to get a better view of the falls but we were afraid of slipping on the smooth rocks.

After this point the trail became very muddy and we walked on a super highway of bog logs. We saw some moose prints but no goose eggs.

We met a large group of young men hiking up the AT. All the young men were dressed in khaki pants and perfectly clean white polo shirts. One of the boys told us that they were seminary students from all over the world. They asked us if they had enough time to hike to Thoreau Falls because they had to meet their bus at 5 PM. The guys were spread out in several small groups and each time a group passed us at least one of the young men said “bless you”.

We decided not to take the side trail to Ethan Pond because our feet were aching at this point. We continued to descend into Crawford Notch on a well maintained trail. It was steep in certain areas, especially the last mile. Soon we started to hear traffic and people talking so we knew we were close to a parking lot.

We crossed over the train tracks and walked through the upper parking lot off of route 302. We had to do some road walking for a couple of minutes before reaching the lower parking lot on route 302. We crossed route 302 and stuck out our thumbs. Within 2 minutes a nice guy named Joe stopped to pick us up! Joe was on his way to go rock climbing and he was kind enough to drop us off at the AMC Highland center.

We were both so happy to be finished with this section! We were dirty, tired, and hungry!

We checked into the AMC Highland center, took showers, and then ate lunch. During lunch we heard an AMC staff member giving 2 new foreign student/workers their orientation briefing. The AMC staff member said that $45 a week is taken out of their salary for board, $5 charge for a lost name tag, $25 charge for a lost key. Then the staff member said your salary is… (she whispered this part so we could not hear it).

We got picked up by The Shuttle Connection at 3 PM and they drove us back to the Profile Motel in Lincoln so we could get our car. Mandy (shuttle driver) told us that there was an EMS in North Conway. We got our car keys from Heidi (co-owner of the Profile Motel) and told her about our hike. Heidi told us that they will probably close the motel during the winter time.

We went to EMS in North Conway and Python bought a sleeping bag liner and a new pair of light weight shorts. We had dinner at Applebees. We also had to stop at Trail’s End for an ice cream.

Python’s hike stats: 2,448 calories burned. Min HR 82, max HR 141, avg HR 118. # Vitamin I = 6.

Dirigo’s hike stats: 3,694 calories burned. 28,602 steps.

Wednesday, July 15th – Zero day

We ate breakfast at the Highland center since the room package included both breakfast and dinner. We both agreed that the quality of the food at the huts was better than at the Highland Center.

Python did not feel very good this morning and her sinuses were aching. She needed to get some cold medicine.

The croos and volunteers at the AMC huts really impressed us with their knowledge of all the trails in the White Mountains. We expected the same degree of knowledge from the staff at the AMC Highland center but we were sorely disappointed. Most of the staff that we encountered were not familiar with local trail heads (especially the AT). We did talk to a nice lady with the AMC who was about to lead a hike but she did not know if it was safe to leave a car overnight at the parking lots on route 302. The AMC does run a shuttle through the White Mountains but their pick up times did not fit into our schedule. We did not think that the shuttle schedule was very convenient for AT section hikers or thru-hikers.

We still needed to figure out where to leave the car for the next section. We had looked at the ATC website and it said that there had been theft and vandalism in the 302 parking lot in 2006. Also several locals recommended against leaving a vehicle there over night since it was inside a state park (Crawford Notch State park); they told us it was safer to leave a vehicle inside a national park.

We went to the Dry River Campground to ask about a shuttle but there was nobody at the check-in building. We then drove in the opposite direction to the town of Twin Mountains to another campground to ask about a shuttle. Once we got to this campground, we decided it was too far out of the way to get a shuttle.

So, we turned around again and headed for the Crawford Notch General Store & Campground. We were just enjoying the beautiful scenary during the drive when all of a sudden a huge black bear walked across the road about 500 yards in front of us! Dirigo was driving and she screamed for Python to take a picture of the bear. Python was in complete shock and could only scream “Bear! Bear! Bear! Bear!” The bear was huge and he just sauntered across the road (he was in no hurry). We both couldn’t believe that we had just seen a bear in New Hampshire!

We were both still in shock from seeing the bear but within 5 minutes we saw a young bull moose on the right side of the road!

We initially passed the moose but then Dirigo backed the car up so we could try to get a picture. As we backed up, the moose started back into the woods. At least this time Python was able to get a picture!

The Crawford Notch General Store & Campground told us that they did not have any shuttle service. The staff told us that we should just try to hitch a ride from the Highland center – they told us that locals would probably pick us up between 6 AM – 7 AM on their way to work.

We did our laundry at an establishment that also had a hydro-massage bed, free wi-fi, and a tanning bed. Python’s sinuses were still bothering her so the next task was getting some cold medicine. Once Python took the cold meds all she wanted to do was sleep.

After lunch at the Muddy Moose we drove out to Pinkham Notch. On the way to Pinham Notch, we picked up a hiker named Patrick from Montreal who needed a ride back to his car. He had parked his car just past Pinkham Notch and had hiked for the last 3 days on the Great Gulf trail. He told us that it had rained every night and that he was tired of being wet.

After dropping Patrick off, we stopped at a visitor center right across from the Mt. Washington auto road. It use to be the old Glen House, back in the day it would serve as a gather point for people from the cities to see Mt Washington. You can purchase a ticket for a shuttle to the top of Mt. Washington or you can drive you own car (which also costs money because the road is private).

The Pinkham Notch visitor center is like grand central station! There is a visitor center, Joe Dodge lodge, 24 hour restrooms with coin operated showers, the food warehouse for the AMC huts, and lodging for AMC staff.

We had a family style dinner at the Highland center with Dick & Helen and their 2 grandsons. Dick & Helen were really fun grandparents and they were taking the kids zip lining tomorrow. They raft and bike and do all kinds of fun stuff.