Date: 2008-07-29
From: Zealand Trail

To: down to Ethan Pond trail to Rt. 302
Miles today: 7.4
Weather: fog

This morning we slept in til 7, a great luxury. My goals were to get the room cleaned up, the car packed, and a daypack readied for a 10 mile hike from Zealand Trail over to Ethan Pond Trail. It was also important to me to get back on the trail without scaring myself to death. I had cereal with Nido and a cup of yesterday's coffee for breakfast, while sorting out my tote bag and backpack things. We rolled out of the motel around 9:30, and took Jan's car to the 302 Ethan Pd trailhead, then drove to the Zealand Trail parking area. These were widely spaced start and end points, which involved lots of driving in order to cut down on our approach trail time.The Zealand Trail was a joy, especially in contrast to the rocky climbs of yesterday. Skies were clear in the morning, clouding up after lunch, but staying in the low 70's all day. The light seemed slightly lower, heralding the August days ahead. I saw a few red leaves here and there, scattered in the mud, which brought up a tugging feeling of how brief the summer is.Tall grasses lined the gravelly trail as it wound along side beaver ponds. I loved the opportunity to stride along, which soon would be interrupted by board walks and boulders. We hit the last 2/10 of a mile of steep incline that lead to the hut, and emerged at the stairway to the decks. Time for our lunch.Off to the side of the hut we found the rocky expanse that lined the falls, and Certain, V8 and I all chose spots on which to eat and enjoy the view. Powerful eddies of water shot down the sloping rocks, swirled anxiously within the curved surfaces, and fell swiftly to the tiers below. Short, thick spruce and balsams hovered near the edges, adding their pervsive scent, a counterpoint, to the energetic release of the falls. This was a great lunch, because I had gotten some pepperoni and made an English muffin sandwich with mayo and cheese and the little sausage rounds. I loved it, as it made a savory contrast to the sweet bars I had been having the last few days. When the going gets tough, the tough pack more interesting sandwiches! We left the hut area after 12:30, and headed out for the Ethan Pond trail, which had enumerable log and board puncheons upon which we had to step. This is a great help in swampy areas, but slows one down considerably. Because we had time, we took an afternoon break at Thoreau falls, where Certain and I got quite involved with photographing the deeply eroded holes in the granite riverbed. One of them was over a foot across, two feet deep, formed right down into the rock. Water coursed above it, almost as if it weren't there. Iron deposits in the rock gave the water an amber cast. The formation looked like a kettle with a handful of pebbles that lived in the bottom. Howie the miniature moose cavorted and played all over the rocks there, which just might be documented in Certain's trail journal.I am sitting on a bunk at the Highland center, an AMC lodge in Crawford notch. Initially V8 and I planned a one night hut stay at Galehead for tonight, but weather reports convinced us to change the reservations for the valley lodge.This morning, a neighbor in No. Woodstock who knew that we had been up on Franconia Ridge yesterday, told us that serch and rescue took 8 people down off that same ridge yesterday, in various states of distress. I feel badly for the victims, but glad that my caution about wind, weather and changing conditions at elevation was validated. We are taking a few days to give Certain some family time, after which we will be back with more episodes of the Speedy Sisters do NH!Auntie Mame