West Bond Whack

I was wondering if anyone here has bushwhacked down from West Bond to Franconia Brook Tr. If so how was it and do you have any tips? It looks quite "scrubby" leaving W Bond summit and the footing seems like it would be rough to start. I may attempt this at the end of the summer to make a not-so-ordinary Bonds hike. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

I believe Neil has messed around in this area on some slide,he might know.

I believe the standard route to whack off of West Bond is to follow the ridge out to the end then continue more or less straight down to Hellgate Brook and follow that downstream to the Franconia Brook Trail. I've never done this myself though.

If you're planning a loop over the Bonds with this whack, I recommend whacking up West Bond then taking the Bondcliff Trail out rather then vice versa for two reasons.
It's gets the the whacking done in the early part of the day rather then risking it after dark and whacking up a mountain is easier navigation wise and safer then whacking down a mountain...imo.

A couple alternate routes to West Bond.
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?11131-The-Bonds-A-HELLgate-of-a-hike-1-28-06
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?14843-West-to-East-Pemi-traverse-to-be-continued

IQuest said:

I was wondering if anyone here has bushwhacked down from West Bond to Franconia Brook Tr. If so how was it and do you have any tips? It looks quite "scrubby" leaving W Bond summit and the footing seems like it would be rough to start.

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I've done it from the bottom up. You might consider going on to the outer WB peak before descending. Even so I swam through lots of scrub between there and the exposed rocky knobs (a great spot though). A little below there the terrain opens up nicely for awhile above a wide, dry stream bed which you'd descend to and follow down to the remnants of an old rail bed. That eventually approaches the trail and almost parallels it for awhile. You can either follow it until it virtually intersects, or break through downhill to the trail.

I have done various versions of this several times

There is a sort-of herd path to the next bump, then thicker stuff for awhile, eventually you get down into the birches

If you go back to the col and head S along the brook, you miss most of the thick stuff and may eventually pick up an overgrown woods road but it's a longer walk

For an even longer more scenic tour, go N from the col and make a side trip to Redrock Pond, you may find a herd path/old RR on the way out from there

Mohamed did a bushwhack like the one you describe one winter with an AMC group (he was the leader). I think he wrote that it took either 18 or 24 hours. The only thing I remember for sure is that he was able to call a friend and have hot chocolate brought to the trail head to warm up the hikers.

I met a fellow at Guyot who did it the other way. From the highway to the ridge, down the other side, up and over Owl's Head, then up West Bond. I forget his name but according to the guy I was hanging out with that day who knew him, he does stuff like that all the time.

It may have changed in 10 years, but, mid/late summer we bushwhacked due west off the west hump of West Bond. My first time on West Bond. "It's more direct to get out and must save some time," is what I said to my hiking partner..... left West Bond at around 3pm. Hit the river at 7:15-ish. Turned his white shirt permanently grey, lost a water bottle, shared dead silence for probably an hour. Hit some crazy thick stuff and kissed the river when we finally hit it. Actually, we saw 2 people in the river filtering water and I thought, "Wow, that's weird - people on this bushwhack!" And then it dawned on me we had hit the trail.

oh Yeah

NH_Mtn_Hiker said:

I believe the standard route to whack off of West Bond is to follow the ridge out to the end then continue more or less straight down to Hellgate Brook and follow that downstream to the Franconia Brook Trail. I've never done this myself though.

If you're planning a loop over the Bonds with this whack, I recommend whacking up West Bond then taking the Bondcliff Trail out rather then vice versa for two reasons.
It's gets the the whacking done in the early part of the day rather then risking it after dark and whacking up a mountain is easier navigation wise and safer then whacking down a mountain...imo.

A couple alternate routes to West Bond.
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?11131-The-Bonds-A-HELLgate-of-a-hike-1-28-06
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?14843-West-to-East-Pemi-traverse-to-be-continued

Click to expand...

Those were some good times, I think 20 hours is still my PR.

Raymond said:

Mohamed did a bushwhack like the one you describe one winter with an AMC group (he was the leader). I think he wrote that it took either 18 or 24 hours. The only thing I remember for sure is that he was able to call a friend and have hot chocolate brought to the trail head to warm up the hikers.

Click to expand...

I recall reading that TR, I think they were closer to 26 hours. It's more often done in winter to avoid the exposed trip back on Bond & Bondcliff. I think some of that group did end up giving up the whack & going back over the peaks. I had hiked with one of the other partipicants in the group.

My only experience with bushwhacking West Bond involved traversing from Owl's Head. We went up Hellgate Brook (found a nice solid herd path on the left bank as we ascended) and hung a left at a certain elevation and went up the slide, which was a lot longer than the map indicates. There were stunningly beautiful views from the slide. Pictures 4-18 I didn't find the woods to be all that bad although those spruce trees do have long gnarly branches. No big deal traversing from the SW to the NE (main) summit.

Doing it in reverse would make finding the top of the slide a little bit of a challenge unless assisted by a handheld electronic device. If you do this whack you should really consider descending the slide (my humble opinion).

Thanks for the insight everyone. At least I didn't hear anyone say that they would NEVER do this again. A couple year ago I whacked down the east side of Owl's Head after reading 3 reports. 2 said it was horrible and the third was somewhere in the middle. I found it to be one of the easier whacks that I have done and will probably do it again. I will more than likely descend from W Bond. I can get to that peak in about 5+ hours so I should have plenty of time. I like the idea of descending the slide to the south for the views or a longer trip to Redrock Pond and down from there. I will more than likely be only with Marlie unless I can convince someone else to go, so I will probably lean towards the shorter whack. I also do not have a GPS so my original plan is to head just south of west from the western most peak and parallel Hellgate Brook. Is there anything that I should definately avoid? I had thought that descending the slide may be a bit sketchy. I won't be doing this until August or September so I still have some time to research. Thanks again.

FYI - Redrock Pond is about as far away from West Bond as you can get and still be in Redrock Ravine. You'd have to come off W Bond and go a considerable distance back into (and up) the other side of the ravine to get there.

MichaelJ said:

FYI - Redrock Pond is about as far away from West Bond as you can get and still be in Redrock Ravine. You'd have to come off W Bond and go a considerable distance back into (and up) the other side of the ravine to get there.

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I saw that on the map. There were a few smaller "ravines" along upper part of Redrock Ravne. Looks like alot of in and out up and down. It would probably be easier to head down from the Twinway if I was going there. I would still like to visit it one day though.

IQuest said:

I had thought that descending the slide may be a bit sketchy.

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I personally wouldn't hesitate to descend the south slide after having gone up it. I would even do it in the rain. As for the Owl's head east side whack Cory and I were actually running downhill on the upper half but had to slow down to a walk lower down due to all the birch branches littering the ground. If I were to re-do that whack I would proceed due north from the summit for about 100 yards before turning east in order to keep further away (further north) from the drainage.

As for Redrock, the easiest way might be to drop down this slide, which tops out very close to the Twinway. I went up that slide in spring conditions but I think it would be pretty easy to descend it summer because what rock was exposed seemed extremely grippy. Redrock brook from Franconia was an easy bushwhack (on 5 feet of snow).

If you're an animal you could go up the South Slide on West Bond (from Owl's head?), whip around on the trail and drop down the S. Twin slide, check out Redrock Pond and ravine and head on home to Lincoln Woods.

Looking forward to your trip report!

IQuest said:

I saw that on the map. There were a few smaller "ravines" along upper part of Redrock Ravne. Looks like alot of in and out up and down. It would probably be easier to head down from the Twinway if I was going there. I would still like to visit it one day though.

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I have hiked Lincoln Woods to Redrock Pond to Twinway to Bonds and return as a day hike, yes it's longer than Tecumseh but it's shorter than the hut walk. Someone who can get to W Bond in 5 hours and understands bushwhacking should find it doable.

Thanks for all of the insight. I will give a detailed report of the whack. I'm starting to think now that the slide to the south of W Bond may be my route. I will check back in August to ask for any tips on locating the upper end of the slide without a GPS.

IQuest said:

Thanks for all of the insight. I will give a detailed report of the whack. I'm starting to think now that the slide to the south of W Bond may be my route. I will check back in August to ask for any tips on locating the upper end of the slide without a GPS.

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I would determine the elevation of the top of the slide using Google Earth. Then I would descend from the top of WB to one side of the slide, using a good guess as to where it was (you can pull the coords off of GE too) until I was below the top of the slide. I would use Bond Cliff as an altimeter. Finally, a 90 degree turn towards the slide would hopefully bring me out to it.

Sounds awesome....I have always wanted to do this....brush it out, will ya?
(just kidding)