The Bonds and Owl's Head bushwacking?

I am looking into trying the Bonds, and then Owl's Head, as possible day hikes. The mileage seems pretty crazy. Are there any suggested bushwacks that are recommended to tackle these hidden "Jewels of the Whites"? I would rather do 1 mile of bushwacking versus 2 miles of trail.

From West Bond, if you head in a westerly direction you can bushwhack from the ridge to Owl's Head.

-Dr. Wu

The Yankees Guy said:

I am looking into trying the Bonds, and then Owl's Head, as possible day hikes. The mileage seems pretty crazy. Are there any suggested bushwacks that are recommended to tackle these hidden "Jewels of the Whites"? I would rather do 1 mile of bushwacking versus 2 miles of trail.

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Owl's Head has a good winter whack that saves a few miles (look for 'Black Pond' or 'Brutus').

As for the Bonds... they are just far away from everything. I'm not sure of any whacks that will save mileage for a day hike. I would suggest doing them as a Zealand-Lincoln Woods traverse. It's ~19 miles, but about half of it is flat walking. Most people can do it in 8-10 hours.

"Officially" Owl's Head is always a bushwack, since there isn't a designated, maintained trail to the summit, but the Owls Head Path is about as close to real as a non-real trail gets.

In the winter lots of people use routes referred to as "the Black Pond Bushwack" and "the Brutus Bushwack". Black Pond is rumored to sometimes be too wet when not frozen. When I did Owl's Head last summer, I "bushwacked" from Franconia Falls on the south/west side of the brook using a route referred to as the "Fisherman's Path". While not on any map, this is well-trodden enough that it is pretty hard to lose. It meets up with the Black Pond bushwack and the "official" trail at the stream crossing. This route saves about 2 miles (and 4 major stream crossings) over the usual documented route via trails.

The best source for these used to be the old "New Hampshire Hikes and Walks" website, which is no longer online, but can still be accessed through The Internet Archive (http://hikenh.netfirms.com/XOwlsHTr.htm). There was a great annotated topo on that site that showed the various routes. It appears no to be archived, but I just found a copy --

The line shown as "A" on that blurry topo is the "Black Pond Bushwack". "B" is the "Fishermans' Path". "C" is the eastern slope wack from Hellsgate Brook, and "OHS" is the Owls Head Slide.

Lot's of great bushwhacking in that area.

I've bushwhacked down W. Bond to the Franconia Brook Trail - very nice b'whack.
There's also some nice slides that dump into Redrock brook from Guyot/W. Bond - those would make some good bushwhacking (just ask the bear that travels on a weekly circuit between 13 Falls and Guyot).

You can bushwhack up the east side of OH, but you have to hit the line pretty dead on otherwise you're in pine/spruce or a gully

I've heard/read many good reports about bushwhacks from the North. There was a trail on that side, which is mentioned in the 1950 guidebook. It's also been done quite a few times by expeditious hikers and skiiers. It has the most forgiving grades, and (from what I've been told) the most open woods on the mountain.

The Black Pond bushwhack saves alot of time (people say it doesn't in the summer, but I spent 30 minutes extra trying not to drown in a river... so it totally saves time when the water is high). Contrary to popular belief, I don't think it would be that hard to bushwhack back to black pond if you're a good trekker. The spot where you go into the woods is obvious, the woods are open so a consistent bearing is doable, and the herd path is easy to pick up.

You can bushwhack the E side of Owls Head and up Hellgate Brook to the Bonds, whether it will save time depends on whether you are a trail runner or a bushwhacker

There are plenty of old threads on this if you search

Just do the Bonds out and back from Zealand -- it's like six 4000 footers in a day (Zealand and Bond 2x each, plus West Bond and Bondcliff)!