Hiking the Bonds July 13, 2013
The day started out leaving from Gorham NH. We woke up at 7 AM, loaded the 04 Focus and headed north. Peyton fell asleep almost immediately in the back seat for most of the drive up. We arrived at the Lincoln Woods Visitor Center at about 10AM. We conducted a quick scrub of equipment in the parking lot – getting rid of a lot of extra clothing and even our sleeping pads. We got our packs to what we thought was manageable (heavy) and headed out.
The first evolution was traveling the Lincoln Woods Trail to the Wilderness Trail (4.4 Miles total). These two trails were relatively flat with about 750-foot elevation gain over 6 miles – easy. The trail was dry and there were streams along the way to replenish water supplies. We used the Khataden Filter – highly recommend. This trail followed the Pemigewasset River on the north the whole way. Some of the trail was completely washed out due to damage from Hurricane Irene.
The trail turned north intersecting with Bondcliff Trail. This trail climbed steadily and was heavily wooded with no views until you neared the top. There were a few sections where you get a peek at the Bondcliff Ridgeline and the Pemigewasset Wilderness. The trail followed the Black Brook and crossed over the stream four times. Keep this in mind when planning your water rations. You need to get a water filtration system to make this trek. The trail was moderate for most of the way, steep and strenuous in some parts with some rock scrambling required near the summit of Mt. Bondcliff (El. 4265 – 8.8 miles total). We reached the summit at about 5 PM. The views at the top left you breathless – the weather cooperated with us 100%.
We then crossed over the ridgeline from Bondcliff to Mount Bond (El. 4698 – 10 miles total). There was a slight dip in elevation and about 433 feet in elevation gain between the two summits. Not a bad climb to reach the summit of Mount Bond which was all above tree line with great views. We watched the sun go down over Mount Garfield and got back on the trail at about 8:20 PM. We knew that by doing this we would be hiking in the dark to get to the Guyot Campsite, but when do you get a chance to see the sun set from the middle of the Pemi?
We had about .06 miles to go to get to the Guyot Campsite. We were now hiking in the dark and getting frustrated. We were concerned that we either passed the Campsite or it was further than we expected. We finally arrived at the campsite at about 9 PM – it was full so they put us up in an overflow area which was nice, but it was .02 miles back up the mountain. With headlamps on we made the trek, set the tent up in the dark and called it a day. We played some games in the tent, ate some food, hydrated and were happy to be off our feet.
We slept until 9 AM, left the shelter set up and summited West Bond with no packs. (El. 4540 – .05 Miles from tent) We enjoyed the views for a bit and turned back to break down our tent and head further north.
We made the summit of Mt. Guyot (El. 4580 10.8 miles) and almost passed it if it were not for another hiker we spoke with on the trail. There is a small cairn at the summit but there is plenty of brush and no views so it’s easy to pass by From Guyot we hit the Twinway Trail for 2.9 miles to the top of Zealand Mountain (El. 4260 12.1 miles total) There were no views at all and a small clearing in the pines with a sign that just says “Zealand” to let you know you made it. We ate some food and were somewhat relieved that most of the travel back to the trailhead was going to be downhill.
From Zealand Mountain we continued east on Twinway Trail (13.7 miles total trip) the trail was mostly easy going, steep in some sections with some areas where you could catch a view. Twinway intersected with Zeacliff Trail which was the toughest climbing on the entire trip. Zeacliff Trail was very steep and we were lucky that the trail was mostly dry. This section of Zeacliff was only 1.4 miles but was time consuming as we scrambled down steep rocks with heavy packs. Each one of us had at least one slip with no injuries. Peyton’s knees got scraped up pretty bad at one point but he toughed it out. You know you have come off of Zeacliff when you hit White Wall Brook. (15.1 miles total) The trail was thick brush but there was a small clearing where we took off our packs, boots and filled all of our water bottles in the brook. We stopped for about 30 minutes.
Crossing Whitewall was by far the most difficult stream crossing. The water was high with little areas for good footing, oh yeah, the rocks were slippery. I went out first and tried assisting Sky and Peyton across. Skylar made it no problem, but Peyton got halfway out and I told him to step forward and I would grab him and pull him over, that didn’t quite work out, we both went in. No issues other than my IPhone was waterlogged and thank god we have insurance!
We had a steep climb before we got to Thoreau Falls Trail. We were all cursing the trail at this point, we were tired and sore and 2/3 of the party were soaking wet. At the top of the rock stairs, the trail flattened out completely – sigh of relief. It must have been an old logging road because it was gravel and looked man-made. We continued .08 miles on this trail until it intersected with Thoreau Falls where we found a flat spot and set up camp. It was 8:30 and getting dark – we were 17 miles into the trip with five 4000 footers under our belt in two days. Camp was great, packs off, equipment on cloths-lines to dry, NO BUGS – and this time the ground was soft under the tent. We were near the bank of the Thoreau Falls and could hear the water crashing. We played some cards and went to sleep.
I would have preferred waking up earlier, but we slept until 9 AM and could overhear fellow hikers who got an early start walking near our tent. Tent down, gear a bit dryer, we headed down to Thoreau Falls to fill up our water sources. A somewhat difficult stream crossing, we got on the trail and started walking out. Thoreau Falls Trail follows the North Fork stream southward for 5.1 miles. The trail is fairly flat, wet, with several easy stream crossings. We were low on food and snacks and had some potato pancakes left to get us home.
We intersected with Wilderness Trail for about 6 miles. Trail was flat but wet. We finally made it out of the woods by 5PM, when we saw the trailhead visitor center we were thrilled.
