Ritzhikes

Where: Desolation Shelter via Zealand Notch When: 2/20/87 With: Chip Buoyed by the success of our last winter hike , we decided to have another go at it. Our plan...drive up to the Zealand Trail trailhead, 3.6 miles in from route 302, then ski through Zealand Notch, pick up the Shoal Pond trail, and follow that down to Stillwater and Desolation. The next day, ski back up and head over to the Ethan Pond shelter for the next night. As always, things didn't quite go the way we planned. To start, the road to the trailhead is closed in the winter. What should've been a 5-10 minute drive wound up being several hours of hard, uphill skiing. By the time we finally reached the trailhead, we were ready to stop right there, but we kept on. As expected, the route from the trailhead in was pretty easy going, and soon we were at the Zealand Falls hut. Or rather, we were at the base of a steep climb up to the hut. We ditched the skis and climbed up. We were greeted by the caretaker an...

Where: Wachusett Mountain When: 1 February, 1987 With: Chip I have no idea how/why we decided to go here. We must have had a map or some indication of trails in the area. We drove out from Boston, probably along Route 2, and found our way to the backside of Wachusett Mountain, along Westminster Road. We may have parked at the Stage Coach Road trailhead (obvious parking area), or where the Harrington and Dickens trails meet at the road. The latter location is less obvious, especially in the winter, but our photos show us visiting spots along those two trails. Details are very sketchy, but our first route took us uphill and eventually to the wind turbine farm. I remember being on an open slope under the turbines, and it being very windy. From there, we made our way back to and across Westminster Road, and presumably followed the Dickens Trail, because we wound up at a telecommunications facility next to that trail. We scaled the fence and climbed the tower as high as we dared. I remember...