North Twin and Hale

May 25, 2024

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to get to the mountains. I had a stress fracture in my tibia in October 2023. It gave me issues for a long time, and I still need to be careful with it. The kids schedules have been crazy all spring. But I finally got a free weekend Memorial Day Weekend and decided to make it worth it. I found a route online that would allow me to get 17 miles in while summiting 4-4000 footers (3 of which I haven’t done yet). The plan was to do North Twin, South Twin, Zealand and Hale. I’ve already been to South Twin during my Pemi trek, but it’s along the way, so I’ll check it out again. I remember it being a great view, so I’m not upset to head back there. As I’ll explain, I did not summit Zealand, which was so frustrating. The loop I did does not seem to be a popular loop, but it was fantastic. 17 miles might be a bit much for many people, but I highly recommend people do this if they have it in them.

On the morning of May 25, I woke up at 3:30 to get going so I could get an early start on the hike. I planned on running when I could and hike when necessary. I was not trying to set any records. I was just going to try to enjoy myself. I could have knocked off 17 miles in August/September 2023 without much issue because my conditioning was the best it had ever been at that point. But, the injury really set me back and I knew it would be extremely difficult now. I only planned on this one day, because I assumed I would be extremely sore after. All that proved to be true.

I left the house a little after 4 and after a stop at a gas station, I was at the North Twin trailhead at 6:30. This trailhead is off Haystack Road, which is in Bethlehem off of Rt. 3. I was on North Twin trail by 6:45. I just followed this trail all the way up to the North Twin Spur trail right near the summit of North Twin. There were some areas in the beginning that were runnable. I hadn’t really warmed up, so I thought this relatively level terrain would be good place to warmup the body. I decided to take turns jogging and walking for the first 2 miles. I came across a water crossing that didn’t have a clear way across. There were 2 guys in the other side that had just crossed and told me they took their shoes off and just walked across in the water. After looking around, I figured that would be the best option for me as well. I have gore-tex Nike trail runners, but if my entire leg was in the water, the sneakers would be soaked on the inside, and I didn’t really want that for the remaining 15 miles. So, for the first time, I had to cross water barefoot. The water was cold and felt great. It went up to right below my knee, so I think I made the right call in taking the sneakers and socks off. When I got to the other side, I took my long sleeve shirt off as it was starting to warm up, especially since I had been getting the heart rate up for a couple miles. That was good timing because I was able to use the shirt as a towel for my feet. Once I got my socks and sneakers back on, it was time to get going again.

The next part was the climb to get to North Twin. It didn’t feel quite as bad as the climb to South Twin from Galhead Hut up the Twinway that I did when I did the Pemi Loop, but it was definitely steep. I was feeling good during the climb and doing my best power hiking. I got to the top of North Twin, which was a little over 4 miles in, by 8:30. With my conditioning and the incline the last 2 miles, I was pretty happy with how well I did. I got some food and pictures and then got on my way to get over to South Twin. This was about another mile and I got there around 9. I dropped my stuff here for a bit because it’s a nice open place to take a little break. Got some more food to try and stay on top of calories, took some pictures, and just hung out and enjoyed the view for a few minutes.

This next section along the Twinway was familiar to me from the Pemi, but not for long. When I got down to where the Twinway heads to the left and going straight means going to the Bonds, I continued on the Twinway, which was new to me since I went to Bondcliff the only other time I had been up there. And I didn’t do a good job of looking at my map and comparing to the GPX file I was following on my watch. I knew the next one was Zealand, but didn’t pay attention to how far it was. This area had some runnable areas, so I was taking turns between running and hiking again. I kept thinking that it was a long way and I was surprised I wasn’t at Zealand yet. Then I came across this overlook that I almost bypassed, but decided to go check it out. It was Zeacliff Outlook and there was a bunch of people there hanging out. I figured I had been going for long enough where I should stop and get a lot more food in. I was starting to get pretty tired from these past few miles. That’s when I realized on my phone that it seemed like Zeacliff was further along than Zealand. But how could that be? How could I have gotten here along the Twinway without recognizing I had been at Zealand? I was very confused. As I kept looking, I realized Zealand is not right on the Twinway, but just off it at the end of the Mt. Zealand Herd Path. It was starting to dawn on me that I had gone all this way past it and didn’t actually get to the summit. My mood was starting to sour, which was not what I needed since my legs were starting to tire. I thought about backtracking to be able to get to the Zealand summit. I believe it would have been about 2 miles roundtrip to make it happen. And I was aware of the terrain, which wasn’t all that difficult. But I knew that would have turned 17 miles into 19 and I was already a little nervous on the 17. 2 more miles at that time didn’t really seem like a good idea. I decided not go to back and to just keep heading towards Mt. Hale instead. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had made a different decision and went back to get to the summit of Zealand. I was struggling at the time, but I ended up doing ok and finishing at a decent hour and could have finished an hour later without issue. Oh well, it just means I need to go back up and do Zealand by itself. There could be worse things to have to do than spend some time in the mountains.

The next few miles to get to Hale weren’t my finest moments. My legs were definitely tired. I was already at 10 miles, which is way more than I have done in quite a long time. The inclines and declines I’ve had to do so far were crushing my knees. Last year, my knees were able to handle it because my legs were strong enough. But that isn’t the case right now, and my quads and knees were not feeling good. Still strong enough to keep going, but it was slowing down and starting to become painful. I was going along the Twinway fairly slowly, but still trying to push when I could. I was headed towards Lend-a-Hand trail. A fellow hiker that I got talking to told me that she doesn’t like the Lend-a-Hand trail at all and never goes to Hale that way anymore. That didn’t make me feel great, but it was my only option from there. She did tell me she absolutely loves the Fire Warden’s trail, which is how I was going to end the hike from Mt. Hale back down to North Twin trail. That excited me as she was telling me it was less rocky, which I translated to more runnable.

I finally got to Lend-a-Hand-trail and continued to drag myself along the trail. It wasn’t steep from the beginning, but it obviously got steep as I got closer to Mt. Hale. It felt like I was really struggling, but as I look at the map on my Strava, I wasn’t moving as slowly as I thought. Mentally, I was struggling, but I was still power hiking the best I could. The peak of Mt. Hale had no views, but there was a nice big open area to hang out. There was a big group there eating, and asked me if I was ok. So, it wasn’t just in my head that I wasn’t doing well. They noticed that I was struggling getting there. I dropped my stuff and started grabbing food out of my pack. I needed to get lots of calories in because I’m sure that was a big part of why I was struggling. I had also been conserving water because I didn’t know how much I had left, so I had to reassess that situation. I was happy to see that I had more water than I thought and would be able to take down a good amount there and still have some left for the final couple miles descent. After breaking for a little bit and talking to the large group there, my spirits started getting better and I was feeling good about heading down.

Fire Warden’s trail led off the back of Hale. Although it’s not a maintained trail and not recognized by the AMC as an official trail, it’s heavily used and is very easy to follow the trail. As the other hiker told me, this was an enjoyable trail to be on. Extremely runnable as it wasn’t that steep in most places and not very rocky like most trails in the White Mountains. My legs were really hurting and the bottoms of my feet were starting to hurt as well, but I knew I could at least muster up a super slow jog. I made it off Hale and back to the truck in probably an hour, which I felt good about. I did miss the spot to turn on to the North Twin trail. Even though my watch was telling me I was off route, it took me a little while to figure out where I had gone wrong and how to correct myself. Then I jogged down the entire North Twin trail back to the truck. I had brought some beers in case I felt like celebrating after, but I didn’t feel like anything. My body was hurting and I was mentally spent. I didn’t even want the sandwiches I had in the cooler for after. I just got changed and got on my way.

Today showed me that I can get through difficult situations, but it also showed me that I have a long way to go in my conditioning. Not that 17 miles in the mountains has ever been easy for me, but it was a lot easier last year. I needed today. Even when physically and mentally struggling in the mountains, I’m still having a great time. I needed the struggle. I didn’t think about my leg once all day and never felt any pain there. All the pain was muscular, which was a great feeling. It’s time to get myself back to where I was 8 months ago in terms of conditioning and strength. And I’ll come back up to the mountains to test myself again when I have to do Zealand by itself.

I thought I would have single digits left after today’s hike, but because I missed Zealand, I still have 10 to go. North Twin and Hale made it 38-4000 footer summits I’ve been too. I originally didn’t have a goal for timing of the peaks, but awhile back I changed it to have a goal of getting these all in before I turn 40. That means I need to get 10 peaks before October. Let’s go.