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Mt Hale - 8/9/2008

Jonni

Member
Joined
May 23, 2006
Messages
299
Points
16
Location
Sunapee, NH & Burlington, VT
Date Hiked: 8/9/2008

Trail(s) Hiked: Hale Brook Trail

Hike Number: 9

Total Distance Traveled: 4.6 Miles

Difficulty: Moderate

Conditions: Wet

Special Equipment Required: None

Trip Report: Despite having a long list of stuff to do on Friday night and during the day on Saturday, I caught the weather and decided that I needed to get out and do some hiking at some point this weekend. Looking through my list of 4000'ers I figured that wouldn't find anything that would be short enough to get back home at a reasonable hour and still be able to knock another one off of the list. Luckily I stumbled upon Mt. Hale, and breezing through a few TRs on the internet I settled on this as my next destination.

Leaving the house around 7:30 or so I made it to the Trailhead on the right hand side of Zealand Rd. and was off on the trail around 9:45. Walking in and out of the rain I made very good time up the nice moderate grade that the trail maintains almost it's whole length. Picking what seems like the easiest way up the slope without ever getting overly steep also using a couple of switchbacks about 2/3s of the way up. I found the trail to be very scenic in the different evergreen forests and deciduous trees. Brook crossings were a little treacherous, but I was able to get across without getting too wet. Conditions were very wet with no view the whole way up as well as at the top.

Reaching the top in about 1 hour and 35 minutes I had beaten book time by almost 45 minutes. Chatting with the relatively large group of hikers up on the summit I ate a brief lunch and began to make my way back down the way that I came. I made the trip down even faster despite stopping at the first major brook crossing to get pictures of the cascades. Great little mountain at only 4054', and I do hope to get back up there when conditions are a little clearer in order to see the view a little better. Overall hike time was just under 3 hours with roughly 2300' of elevation gain.

I have to give the maintenance crew for this trail a LOT of credit. This is a very well maintained trail, and very well built to begin with. It appeared that great care had been exercised to keep much of the erosion under control on upper portions of the trail as well as to mark the trail with many blazes.

Pictures

Hale Brook Trailhead
hale1.jpg


Looking down the trail on one of the switchbacks
hale2.jpg


Summit shot, with cairn
hale3.jpg


View of the summit, Note: foundations of old Firetower
hale4.jpg


Cascades on Hale Brook
hale5.jpg
 
Last edited:

Mike P.

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Jul 1, 2001
Messages
1,545
Points
0
Location
CT
The woods are very green this year thanks to all the rain. For being a short trail, they do a nice job with switchbacks to minimize the steep stuff. (some sidehill walking that in winter can be tricky)
 
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