The first leg of the tour started with a 6 mile ski into Zealand. Crossing 302 to start.
Our group of 8 had a lot of awesome sauce. Some folks I've known and toured with for a long time. Some I had never been out with before. They're all great people. A pleasure to hang out with.
Thursday, as you might recall, was a beautiful day. Even boring old Zealand Rd. was a treat.
The weather and terrain shifted as we approached the hut.
Trailside pagan totems.
The final climb to the hut.
The Pemi stretches out before us! One heck of a front porch.
First things first after arriving at Zealand - check out the neighborhood!
The last time I was out here the falls had just blown out to rock. Not this time.
I deliberately skied in on T2s/Vectors due to the possibility that the falls were in.
And they were - plenty of snow.
The hut was packed that evening. A group of 15 kids arrived from the AMC's Youth Opportunities Program. They had undertaken an epic 8-hour slog from the Highland Center via the A-Z trail.
The AMC winter self-service huts provide propane, stove, spices, water, cookware, and table settings.
You bring the food, they've got the rest covered.
Meanwhile outside it had begun snowing,
It was warm inside though. We ate dinner and played Banangrams with a bunch of people we had just met and had a great evening.
The next morning I rolled out of bed just after 6 and quietly got my gear together and skied down to the Ethan Pond trail while everyone was still asleep. I wanted to check out the conditions and make sure we could easily break trail.
It was warm out. The snow had changed to sleet. I stopped and stripped down to a base layer and had a breakfast snack and some water. I contemplated what was about to be a really big day skiing out to Lincoln Woods - something like 14 miles. I checked my internal dashboard. All systems were go. The weather, even if it deteriorated to rain as forecast, was workable. The trail was easily broken out rolling on the little balls of sleet. I felt good. I knew that if I wanted to do this on my own that I could, but this wasn't a solo tour. Whether I could convince the group to go for it was another matter.
I returned to the hut and reported my findings. Crap! Folks were not happy about the weather. The contrast of the toasty warm hut and the sleet outside was not helping my cause. The rest of the group voted to return the way we came in.
And so we did.
The journey out was fast. We went on the "Spruce Goose" trail which parallels Zealand Rd.
It was a lovely tour, but I'll be back. There's so much amazing terrain out there!
