BIGEarl
Well-known member
May 1, 2010: May Day Bonds Traverse
Trails: Zealand Road, Zealand Trail, Twinway, Zealand Summit Spur, Bondcliff Trail, West Bond Spur, Wilderness Trail
Summits: Zealand, West Bond, Bond, Bondcliff
Hikers: Trail Trotter (Sue) and me
Sue and I decided to hike one of our favorites for May Day. We were up against a couple details that make this a little more involved than usual. Zealand Road is still under a winter closure which means we will hike from the hiker lot on Route 302 and enjoy a 3.5 mile road walk as our warm-up for the day. The other main concern was the snow that came mid-week and left ~18 inches in the area we planned to hike. Except for the trail to Zealand Falls Hut, none of the trails had been broken. The original plan also included Mount Hale but the concern for unbroken trails made us pass on Hale to save our energy for Twinway, and beyond.
A little ahead of plan we arrived at the hiker lot on Route 302 after having left Sue’s car at Lincoln Woods. We grabbed our things and started the hike. The conditions were great. We generally hiked a steady pace on our end-to-end walk of Zealand Road. We had a brief break and quickly started working on Zealand Trail. The trail is in good shape with no blowdowns that I recall, and little mud. The snow and ice cover is spotty and we were able to bare boot our hike to the Zealand Falls Hut. There we stopped for a quick break. While at the hut we visited with the Caretaker and learned the trails above had not been broken since the mid-week storms. A couple others left the hut a short time before us headed for Zeacliff. They did a great job of trail breaking all the way to the ridge. We continued bare booting the hike when we left the hut but after roughly a third of the way to the ridge we were in snowshoe conditions and pulled them from our packs. By the time we approached the ridge the two that left ahead of us were on their way back to the hut. There was also another person that left the hut behind us that passed us along the way. He ended up continuing to Zealand handling the trail breaking job to that point.
We made a brief visit to the Zeacliff viewpoint and soon were on our way to Zealand. A single set of snowshoes was all it took to open the trail up and make the hike to Zealand much easier. The prior hiker also did a good job on the Zealand Spur to the summit. The recent warm conditions left the snow fairly well consolidated and the snowshoes worked well without the extension tails. A short distance before reaching Zealand Sue heard some noise behind us. We stopped and out stepped Terra and a couple close friends (Una Dogger and Lriz – Sabrina and Larisa). We saw Sabrina last week on Franconia Ridge hiking the Lincoln – Lafayette loop with Tim & Val. We haven’t seen Larisa for some time. It was nice to see all three of them. They don’t hike our (my) speed and after a brief visit they set off ahead of us on the same planned route.
Sue and I continued to Zealand arriving generally on schedule. After a visit to the summit we returned to the trail and had a quick lunch. The hiking conditions were pretty warm and we started to delayer. I reminded Sue about sun block and she loaded up. That is the best sun block I’ve ever seen! Within a few minutes of putting on the sun block the sky was completely overcast. It must be really expensive. The weather forecast included a slug of high – thin clouds passing through midday (the key words here are “passing through”). The clouds arrived as expected but never left. They were very high and we had generally great views all day.
We left the Zealand Spur to continue our hike. Soon after leaving Zealand we came upon Terra and company low on the descent from the summit. Twinway isn’t marked very well and in the area of the col it is very confusing. The trail was lost and we were all in trail finding mode. After a period of working our way in the general direction of the ridge near Guyot, Una Dogger found the trail and we were all back to the chore of hiking to Lincoln Woods. Again, the others hike at a different speed and were soon out of sight. Sue and I continued to the open area a short distance before the junction with Bondcliff Trail. The trail had large sections of clear rocks and we decided to retire the snowshoes, at least for a while. We reached Bondcliff Trail, made the turn, and continued south. After we passed over the summit of Guyot we were back into deep snow and pulled out the snowshoes.
Next stop, West Bond. With the snowshoes back in the game we made good progress past the Guyot campsite and on to the West Bond Spur. The West Bond Spur was tracked out but Bondcliff to Mount Bond was unbroken – we knew we would see Sabrina and Larisa and Terra again soon. A short distance from the trail junction we passed the others on their way back out from their visit to West Bond. The full distance of the West Bond Spur had fairly well consolidated snow that was generally easy hiking. There were a few places where it wouldn’t take much of an error to find a spruce trap. We arrived at West Bond and found the summit area completely clear so we left our snowshoes below and bare booted the final approach. While we were on West Bond we could see people on Bond. I assume it was Sabrina, Larisa, and Terra. We got the summit pictures and a few additional view shots and were soon headed back out to Bondcliff Trail and the final couple summits for the hike.
We’ve had a fairly full week of hiking and I was starting to feel this one. The Bonds Traverse is the longest hike we’ve done in several months. I had a couple feet that were starting to get a little grumpy. From the trail junction we continued on snowshoes to Mount Bond. Again, we arrived to a clear summit area and removed our snowshoes before proceeding onto the rocks. A few more summit pictures and we were on our way to Bondcliff.
On the exit descent from Bond we started with snowshoes. The dense scrub was loaded with deep snow and it was soft. We needed the flotation of the snowshoes to stay on top. We broke out of the scrub and the snow became spotty. Off came the snowshoes. As we were preparing to continue, Sue made a move to put her pack on and her GPS flew off the strap and went down a hole in the rock bed of the trail. I saw where it went and thought it would be a simple process of reaching down to pull it out. Not so fast – there is a labyrinth underneath and the GPS was nowhere to be found. After investigating the situation it was clear the possibility existed for the GPS to be several layers of rocks down. These are pretty big rocks. We managed to move a couple of the smaller ones but still could not locate the fallen GPS. I went to my pack and pulled out my headlamp, which also has a spot light. With the spotlight I was able to visually search and finally located the unit. My arm was too big to fit into the only access hole. Sue came over and was able to retrieve her GPS.
Within a short time we were on the summit of Bondcliff getting ’cliff shots. We still had plenty of daylight and our 9.1 mile exit hike was about to begin. First, after leaving the summit area of Bondcliff we pulled out the snowshoes, again. We needed the flotation and traction to hike the monorail on the upper Bondcliff Trail. On the way down we also stopped for some water – I was all out. We reached the lower Bondcliff Trail already having packed the snowshoes away and enjoyed the endless mud pits that are located there. Finally, we found the Winderness Trail. It’s been a while since we hiked a significant distance on The Wilderness Trail but it is still an unpleasant way to finish a long day. As an additional slap in the face, rain started toward the end of Bondcliff Trail and we enjoyed ~5 miles of walking in the rain. After passing the new Franconia Falls bridge the rain stopped, the sky cleared, and we had nothing but stars overhead. Ten minutes later it was raining harder than ever.
We made our way to Lincoln Woods, found Sue’s car which had some dry clothes and comfortable footwear waiting, made the changes and headed back to Twin Mountain to retrieve the truck. After this hike I can honestly say I’m looking forward to the snow being gone. Until then, we’ll make the best of the conditions.
Thanks Sue – sorry for the late finish. And, thanks for sharing your vacation – it’s always a treat.
Pictures will follow.
Trails: Zealand Road, Zealand Trail, Twinway, Zealand Summit Spur, Bondcliff Trail, West Bond Spur, Wilderness Trail
Summits: Zealand, West Bond, Bond, Bondcliff
Hikers: Trail Trotter (Sue) and me
Sue and I decided to hike one of our favorites for May Day. We were up against a couple details that make this a little more involved than usual. Zealand Road is still under a winter closure which means we will hike from the hiker lot on Route 302 and enjoy a 3.5 mile road walk as our warm-up for the day. The other main concern was the snow that came mid-week and left ~18 inches in the area we planned to hike. Except for the trail to Zealand Falls Hut, none of the trails had been broken. The original plan also included Mount Hale but the concern for unbroken trails made us pass on Hale to save our energy for Twinway, and beyond.
A little ahead of plan we arrived at the hiker lot on Route 302 after having left Sue’s car at Lincoln Woods. We grabbed our things and started the hike. The conditions were great. We generally hiked a steady pace on our end-to-end walk of Zealand Road. We had a brief break and quickly started working on Zealand Trail. The trail is in good shape with no blowdowns that I recall, and little mud. The snow and ice cover is spotty and we were able to bare boot our hike to the Zealand Falls Hut. There we stopped for a quick break. While at the hut we visited with the Caretaker and learned the trails above had not been broken since the mid-week storms. A couple others left the hut a short time before us headed for Zeacliff. They did a great job of trail breaking all the way to the ridge. We continued bare booting the hike when we left the hut but after roughly a third of the way to the ridge we were in snowshoe conditions and pulled them from our packs. By the time we approached the ridge the two that left ahead of us were on their way back to the hut. There was also another person that left the hut behind us that passed us along the way. He ended up continuing to Zealand handling the trail breaking job to that point.
We made a brief visit to the Zeacliff viewpoint and soon were on our way to Zealand. A single set of snowshoes was all it took to open the trail up and make the hike to Zealand much easier. The prior hiker also did a good job on the Zealand Spur to the summit. The recent warm conditions left the snow fairly well consolidated and the snowshoes worked well without the extension tails. A short distance before reaching Zealand Sue heard some noise behind us. We stopped and out stepped Terra and a couple close friends (Una Dogger and Lriz – Sabrina and Larisa). We saw Sabrina last week on Franconia Ridge hiking the Lincoln – Lafayette loop with Tim & Val. We haven’t seen Larisa for some time. It was nice to see all three of them. They don’t hike our (my) speed and after a brief visit they set off ahead of us on the same planned route.
Sue and I continued to Zealand arriving generally on schedule. After a visit to the summit we returned to the trail and had a quick lunch. The hiking conditions were pretty warm and we started to delayer. I reminded Sue about sun block and she loaded up. That is the best sun block I’ve ever seen! Within a few minutes of putting on the sun block the sky was completely overcast. It must be really expensive. The weather forecast included a slug of high – thin clouds passing through midday (the key words here are “passing through”). The clouds arrived as expected but never left. They were very high and we had generally great views all day.
We left the Zealand Spur to continue our hike. Soon after leaving Zealand we came upon Terra and company low on the descent from the summit. Twinway isn’t marked very well and in the area of the col it is very confusing. The trail was lost and we were all in trail finding mode. After a period of working our way in the general direction of the ridge near Guyot, Una Dogger found the trail and we were all back to the chore of hiking to Lincoln Woods. Again, the others hike at a different speed and were soon out of sight. Sue and I continued to the open area a short distance before the junction with Bondcliff Trail. The trail had large sections of clear rocks and we decided to retire the snowshoes, at least for a while. We reached Bondcliff Trail, made the turn, and continued south. After we passed over the summit of Guyot we were back into deep snow and pulled out the snowshoes.
Next stop, West Bond. With the snowshoes back in the game we made good progress past the Guyot campsite and on to the West Bond Spur. The West Bond Spur was tracked out but Bondcliff to Mount Bond was unbroken – we knew we would see Sabrina and Larisa and Terra again soon. A short distance from the trail junction we passed the others on their way back out from their visit to West Bond. The full distance of the West Bond Spur had fairly well consolidated snow that was generally easy hiking. There were a few places where it wouldn’t take much of an error to find a spruce trap. We arrived at West Bond and found the summit area completely clear so we left our snowshoes below and bare booted the final approach. While we were on West Bond we could see people on Bond. I assume it was Sabrina, Larisa, and Terra. We got the summit pictures and a few additional view shots and were soon headed back out to Bondcliff Trail and the final couple summits for the hike.
We’ve had a fairly full week of hiking and I was starting to feel this one. The Bonds Traverse is the longest hike we’ve done in several months. I had a couple feet that were starting to get a little grumpy. From the trail junction we continued on snowshoes to Mount Bond. Again, we arrived to a clear summit area and removed our snowshoes before proceeding onto the rocks. A few more summit pictures and we were on our way to Bondcliff.
On the exit descent from Bond we started with snowshoes. The dense scrub was loaded with deep snow and it was soft. We needed the flotation of the snowshoes to stay on top. We broke out of the scrub and the snow became spotty. Off came the snowshoes. As we were preparing to continue, Sue made a move to put her pack on and her GPS flew off the strap and went down a hole in the rock bed of the trail. I saw where it went and thought it would be a simple process of reaching down to pull it out. Not so fast – there is a labyrinth underneath and the GPS was nowhere to be found. After investigating the situation it was clear the possibility existed for the GPS to be several layers of rocks down. These are pretty big rocks. We managed to move a couple of the smaller ones but still could not locate the fallen GPS. I went to my pack and pulled out my headlamp, which also has a spot light. With the spotlight I was able to visually search and finally located the unit. My arm was too big to fit into the only access hole. Sue came over and was able to retrieve her GPS.
Within a short time we were on the summit of Bondcliff getting ’cliff shots. We still had plenty of daylight and our 9.1 mile exit hike was about to begin. First, after leaving the summit area of Bondcliff we pulled out the snowshoes, again. We needed the flotation and traction to hike the monorail on the upper Bondcliff Trail. On the way down we also stopped for some water – I was all out. We reached the lower Bondcliff Trail already having packed the snowshoes away and enjoyed the endless mud pits that are located there. Finally, we found the Winderness Trail. It’s been a while since we hiked a significant distance on The Wilderness Trail but it is still an unpleasant way to finish a long day. As an additional slap in the face, rain started toward the end of Bondcliff Trail and we enjoyed ~5 miles of walking in the rain. After passing the new Franconia Falls bridge the rain stopped, the sky cleared, and we had nothing but stars overhead. Ten minutes later it was raining harder than ever.
We made our way to Lincoln Woods, found Sue’s car which had some dry clothes and comfortable footwear waiting, made the changes and headed back to Twin Mountain to retrieve the truck. After this hike I can honestly say I’m looking forward to the snow being gone. Until then, we’ll make the best of the conditions.
Thanks Sue – sorry for the late finish. And, thanks for sharing your vacation – it’s always a treat.
Pictures will follow.
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