One Day Extended Pemi Loop 8-18-12

On Saturday, August 18th, I completed a one-day extended Pemi Loop, including twelve of the 4000 footers. The morning started out great, with moving clouds over the Franconia Ridge, at times revealing a beautiful undercast. I started this endeavor leaving the Lincoln Woods lot at 2:30am. My goal was about 20 hours, and to make a nice push on my July peak-bagging. Every peak was new X on my grid.

From near Little Haystack...


Near Lafayette, the views were even better before they were gone for a while as I went to Garfield, Galehead and the Twins....


Up and over I went, over Garfield, Galehead, South Twin, out to N. Twin, then back and then out to Zealand, and then I arrived at the Bonds some hours later for an incredible afternoon. (Photo from West Bond summit)


I finished my 12-peak pursuit on Bondcliff, pretty satisfied and lucky to experience the best that Franconia Ridge and the Bonds has to offer in one day on this extended Pemi Loop.

The hike was 38.6 miles, 10,800 feet of elevation gain, and completed in 20 hours and 10 minutes. For many more photos and the hike in detail, you can read my full report on my blog.

Outstanding, Dan! Looking forward to your winter attempt.

Dan, that was an amazing hike. I take it this was your longest hike. What did you eat to keep your energy level up?
I can only imagine how your legs hurt afterwards
Donna

Jimmy Legs and Little D said:

Dan, that was an amazing hike. I take it this was your longest hike. What did you eat to keep your energy level up?
I can only imagine how your legs hurt afterwards
Donna

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Hi Donna,

It was indeed my longest day-hike ever. I had some English muffins and juice as I left the house in the morning, followed by 24oz of water for the ride up.

In my pack for yummies, I had the following:
3 Snickers bars
3 Nature Valley Recharge bars
2 Clif Power Gels
1 Vanilla Protein Plus Power Bar
1 pack of nutter butters
1 full Gatorade for when I needed a good quench, or to supplement water, or in case I ran out of water I had this as last resort inside my pack
Two water bottles 32 oz and 24oz; total - 56 oz (I drank to completion as made Galehead Hut from the top of Galehead, then refilled for the rest of the way, and had a little left as I ended. I probably could of drank much more water towards the middle-end of the hike)

Extra food just in case:
Mountain House Freeze Dried Granola Milk and Strawberries, and a few other bars. My entire food bag was 29.4 oz or 1lb 14.3 oz. my food was came out as the heaviest item in my bag.

It was AMAZING how eating a snack and a few sips of water makes such a noticeable difference in the muscles late in the hike.

Out and back to Zealand, now that's commitment! Nice one.

Outstanding!! I can still do little more than shake my head when I read about extreme hikes like this. You made it sound easy. Really enjoying watching you add the X's to your grid...

Egads, what a monster hike. Awesome achievement, and an incredible experience, I bet. Obviously the nutter butters were the difference--I've made a mental note to pack those on my next long hike! Killer undercast, too. Nothing gives that "top of the world" feeling like looking down over a sea of clouds.

marnof said:

Egads, what a monster hike. Awesome achievement, and an incredible experience, I bet. Obviously the nutter butters were the difference--I've made a mental note to pack those on my next long hike! Killer undercast, too. Nothing gives that "top of the world" feeling like looking down over a sea of clouds.

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Thanks!! Sure was a good one with a lot of different conditions.

mtruman said:

Outstanding!! I can still do little more than shake my head when I read about extreme hikes like this. You made it sound easy. Really enjoying watching you add the X's to your grid....

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Thanks Mark. I don't think I could do anything much longer than this in one day, so this is likely the most extreme distance in a day for me! I wish I could say it was easy, but at the end of the day when you feel the pain, you know its not. I wish I had more than just weekends to hike....I hope to make a lot of X's this winter

TDawg said:

Out and back to Zealand, now that's commitment! Nice one.

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Thanks TDawg. The fact that I was doing well on time already coming from the Twins made it real easy to continue to Zealand without hesitation. On the way back after summiting Zealand, a fairly large group on the Twinway allowed me to pass, the last one of the line alerted the others to let me pass, as I was "moving at a pretty good clip", he said.


BTW, still feeling it in the legs from this one...I couldn't walk for a few days. My patellafemoral issue, I think, flared up.