sapblatt
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2004
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Pictures (same as below)
Sometime last week during the Owl’s Head trip it dawned on me that with all of the hiking I have been doing over the past 3-4 months I am in the best shape I will be in of this year right now. With that idea I began thinking this would be the ideal time for to attempt the three Bonds in a day. I mentioned last weekend and Julie (cantdog) was interested and this week’s e-mails bought Paul (Rols) aboard. By Monday things were looking great weather wise and the trip was on! The initial discussions of how to do this route quickly led us to the Zealand – Lincoln traverse. We wanted to make a long day as easy and enjoyable as possible!
You can really gauge the dedication (or insanity of your fellow VFTT hikers) when you set up ridiculously early meeting times and everyone is even earlier. I was supposed to pick up Julie off of the Kanc at 3:45 – I arrived at 3:15 and Julie was waiting. Onward to Lincoln Woods…we were supposed to meet Rols at 4am – we were there thirty minutes early – guess who was ready and waiting!? Soon we were off and at Zealand. We were loaded up and on our way under headlamp by 4:45AM.
Zealand is one of the best trails in the Whites to loosen up on, particularly on a 50-degree morning. It is wide, well blazed and the rocks and roots were not too tough to deal with. The early start was a morale booster with so many miles ahead of us. The lamps were not needed for long, and by about 5:15 they were off. The big deal of the day was about to happen!
Cantdog was hiking about fifty yards in front of us, and yelled back that she heard something crash to her right and that it was a moose. It quickly managed to escape her sight. As we moved up towards Zealand another couple of hundred yards up the trail Julie looked to the pond and saw the moose standing in the water about 100 yards away. We had a great view of the male moose as he stood in the water and occasionally took a drink. After a few minutes he turned and seemed to look at us and then he started walking through the water and occasionally nibbled at some plants. After about ten minutes of quality viewing we moved on.
We made the stay at Zealand Hut very short. The last time I attempted this I spent over a half an hour at the hut, which led to eliminating the benefits of an early start. Quick bathroom stop, sip of water and a snack and we were off in about five minutes. When I did this route in May the portion of the Twinway up to the Zeacliff kicked my butt bad. I was huffing and puffing and really struggling. This time was much different. The lighter pack and the lack of snow cover made it a lot easier. We were snacking with a view a little after 7am. Rols, in a rare nod towards summer actually zipped off the bottoms of his convertibles and wore shorts the rest of the day! There were a few chickadees sharing the spectacular views over to Carrigain Notch as well as another type of small, boisterous bird that had a small tail and a distinctive black stripe running from its beak to the back of its head (I think it also masked the eye of the bird.) Anyone know what kind of bird this is? Cantdog shared her incredible knowledge of the mountains with us as she could quite ably name any peak we asked about!
Someday I may spend a day at Zeacliff but today there were bigger plans in store for us. We headed out back to the Twinway and towards Zealand. The main reason for stopping here was that Rols was finishing up his second round of 48 and needed it and I am trying to do seasons too and I could add this to my list for summer. As many have said, this is an uneventful peak, however I do agree with SherpaKrotos’s comment that it is very peaceful there amongst the trees. Onward to Guyot and the Bondcliff Trail.
The gentle descent from Zealand and gentler rise to Guyot is very enjoyable. I love how you suddenly creep into the alpine zone, round the/a top and start coming down to the junction – it is all so subtle. This junction really blew me away. In May this took me 6:30 to arrive here, today it only too 3:30. Love the daypack weight and the lack of snow (yes, I said it again!) I probably should not discount the fact that I am in a lot better shape now too!
The great “which peak of Guyot is highest” took on another challenge today. Rols GPS showed the peak on the Twinway to be about 25 feet higher than the one on the Bondcliff trail. Lucky for everyone this is not an official 4000 footer or we would have another debate on our hands! The wind was really picking up now and we were happy to get back into the woods. We guessed that the speed was around 20-25 mph at this point. West Bond was reached quickly and the views are incredible. Everyone has been telling me about this one and I was not disappointed. Great views to Bond, Bondcliff, Franconia Ridge…everywhere! We spent about 15-20 minutes there to soak in the views and for some strange reason, the wind was not so bad. On to Bond.
The trip out to West Bond caused Rols and me to whine a bit; it seemed odd that we were descending so much when we were supposed to be going up! Somehow, the trip back to the Bondcliff Trail seemed a lot faster to both of us. The trip up to Bond is quite easy when traveling southbound. We were up to the scrub and the summit quickly. We met a rather large group of hikers, one of who was an old friend of Julie’s. On hiker from Gorham seemed to have hiked every list and trail there is, including the AT. He was bringing his young dog Teddy through the Bonds. The views from Bond were great and the view over to Bond made me want to get over there. We left after a short break and began the rocky scramble down Bond. The wind was picking up again.
The descent is not too tough, but you have to be careful, particularly now that we were over our tenth mile and we still had nine to go. Cantdog was off ahead and Rols and me were being quite deliberate in our steps. Nine miles would be a long way to hike injured. We eventually hit the col where the wind was really whipping. We guessed this time that the gusts were over 40 mph. The climb up was pretty easy and we noticed a lot of low blueberry bushes that had some ripe fruit on them. Somehow or another the desire to have the traditional Bondcliff shot of myself overrode my fears and the wind (which fortunately was blowing towards me and the mountain!) and I climbed out onto the big cliff and Rols took a bunch of pictures. We spent a good 20-plus minutes on the summit and Julie and me toyed with the idea of a nap, but we knew there were still a few miles in front of us. We packed up after watching some ravens put on a great show in the updrafts and began the descent.
I was impressed with the sharp drop off a little while into the descent. I just took my time and used the steps that nature provided into the rock. The trail after this is quite moderate all of the way down. The long east heading switchback section was very easy to traverse and it seemed to never end. Every time I asked Paul if were almost there he assured me that we were not! We finally made it to the Wilderness Trail for the last almost five miles. Somehow we managed to push a good clip on this final slog. We ended up meeting Julie at the first bridge and we moved on. It took us about 75-90 minutes to get to the car from the Bondcliff junction…not too bad.
Everything just fell together today…long trip, early start, great weather, and great company. I feel that this is the best and probably easiest way to do the Bonds and I look forward to doing it again!
Totals for the day – 19.7 miles – 12 ½ hours total time – Estimated walking time < than 10 hours – this was really fast for me – the early start on Zealand and the easy end on the Bondcliff and Wilderness Trails really helped.
41-43 of 48 - five to go!
Pictures (Same as above)
Sometime last week during the Owl’s Head trip it dawned on me that with all of the hiking I have been doing over the past 3-4 months I am in the best shape I will be in of this year right now. With that idea I began thinking this would be the ideal time for to attempt the three Bonds in a day. I mentioned last weekend and Julie (cantdog) was interested and this week’s e-mails bought Paul (Rols) aboard. By Monday things were looking great weather wise and the trip was on! The initial discussions of how to do this route quickly led us to the Zealand – Lincoln traverse. We wanted to make a long day as easy and enjoyable as possible!
You can really gauge the dedication (or insanity of your fellow VFTT hikers) when you set up ridiculously early meeting times and everyone is even earlier. I was supposed to pick up Julie off of the Kanc at 3:45 – I arrived at 3:15 and Julie was waiting. Onward to Lincoln Woods…we were supposed to meet Rols at 4am – we were there thirty minutes early – guess who was ready and waiting!? Soon we were off and at Zealand. We were loaded up and on our way under headlamp by 4:45AM.
Zealand is one of the best trails in the Whites to loosen up on, particularly on a 50-degree morning. It is wide, well blazed and the rocks and roots were not too tough to deal with. The early start was a morale booster with so many miles ahead of us. The lamps were not needed for long, and by about 5:15 they were off. The big deal of the day was about to happen!
Cantdog was hiking about fifty yards in front of us, and yelled back that she heard something crash to her right and that it was a moose. It quickly managed to escape her sight. As we moved up towards Zealand another couple of hundred yards up the trail Julie looked to the pond and saw the moose standing in the water about 100 yards away. We had a great view of the male moose as he stood in the water and occasionally took a drink. After a few minutes he turned and seemed to look at us and then he started walking through the water and occasionally nibbled at some plants. After about ten minutes of quality viewing we moved on.
We made the stay at Zealand Hut very short. The last time I attempted this I spent over a half an hour at the hut, which led to eliminating the benefits of an early start. Quick bathroom stop, sip of water and a snack and we were off in about five minutes. When I did this route in May the portion of the Twinway up to the Zeacliff kicked my butt bad. I was huffing and puffing and really struggling. This time was much different. The lighter pack and the lack of snow cover made it a lot easier. We were snacking with a view a little after 7am. Rols, in a rare nod towards summer actually zipped off the bottoms of his convertibles and wore shorts the rest of the day! There were a few chickadees sharing the spectacular views over to Carrigain Notch as well as another type of small, boisterous bird that had a small tail and a distinctive black stripe running from its beak to the back of its head (I think it also masked the eye of the bird.) Anyone know what kind of bird this is? Cantdog shared her incredible knowledge of the mountains with us as she could quite ably name any peak we asked about!
Someday I may spend a day at Zeacliff but today there were bigger plans in store for us. We headed out back to the Twinway and towards Zealand. The main reason for stopping here was that Rols was finishing up his second round of 48 and needed it and I am trying to do seasons too and I could add this to my list for summer. As many have said, this is an uneventful peak, however I do agree with SherpaKrotos’s comment that it is very peaceful there amongst the trees. Onward to Guyot and the Bondcliff Trail.
The gentle descent from Zealand and gentler rise to Guyot is very enjoyable. I love how you suddenly creep into the alpine zone, round the/a top and start coming down to the junction – it is all so subtle. This junction really blew me away. In May this took me 6:30 to arrive here, today it only too 3:30. Love the daypack weight and the lack of snow (yes, I said it again!) I probably should not discount the fact that I am in a lot better shape now too!
The great “which peak of Guyot is highest” took on another challenge today. Rols GPS showed the peak on the Twinway to be about 25 feet higher than the one on the Bondcliff trail. Lucky for everyone this is not an official 4000 footer or we would have another debate on our hands! The wind was really picking up now and we were happy to get back into the woods. We guessed that the speed was around 20-25 mph at this point. West Bond was reached quickly and the views are incredible. Everyone has been telling me about this one and I was not disappointed. Great views to Bond, Bondcliff, Franconia Ridge…everywhere! We spent about 15-20 minutes there to soak in the views and for some strange reason, the wind was not so bad. On to Bond.
The trip out to West Bond caused Rols and me to whine a bit; it seemed odd that we were descending so much when we were supposed to be going up! Somehow, the trip back to the Bondcliff Trail seemed a lot faster to both of us. The trip up to Bond is quite easy when traveling southbound. We were up to the scrub and the summit quickly. We met a rather large group of hikers, one of who was an old friend of Julie’s. On hiker from Gorham seemed to have hiked every list and trail there is, including the AT. He was bringing his young dog Teddy through the Bonds. The views from Bond were great and the view over to Bond made me want to get over there. We left after a short break and began the rocky scramble down Bond. The wind was picking up again.
The descent is not too tough, but you have to be careful, particularly now that we were over our tenth mile and we still had nine to go. Cantdog was off ahead and Rols and me were being quite deliberate in our steps. Nine miles would be a long way to hike injured. We eventually hit the col where the wind was really whipping. We guessed this time that the gusts were over 40 mph. The climb up was pretty easy and we noticed a lot of low blueberry bushes that had some ripe fruit on them. Somehow or another the desire to have the traditional Bondcliff shot of myself overrode my fears and the wind (which fortunately was blowing towards me and the mountain!) and I climbed out onto the big cliff and Rols took a bunch of pictures. We spent a good 20-plus minutes on the summit and Julie and me toyed with the idea of a nap, but we knew there were still a few miles in front of us. We packed up after watching some ravens put on a great show in the updrafts and began the descent.
I was impressed with the sharp drop off a little while into the descent. I just took my time and used the steps that nature provided into the rock. The trail after this is quite moderate all of the way down. The long east heading switchback section was very easy to traverse and it seemed to never end. Every time I asked Paul if were almost there he assured me that we were not! We finally made it to the Wilderness Trail for the last almost five miles. Somehow we managed to push a good clip on this final slog. We ended up meeting Julie at the first bridge and we moved on. It took us about 75-90 minutes to get to the car from the Bondcliff junction…not too bad.
Everything just fell together today…long trip, early start, great weather, and great company. I feel that this is the best and probably easiest way to do the Bonds and I look forward to doing it again!
Totals for the day – 19.7 miles – 12 ½ hours total time – Estimated walking time < than 10 hours – this was really fast for me – the early start on Zealand and the easy end on the Bondcliff and Wilderness Trails really helped.
41-43 of 48 - five to go!
Pictures (Same as above)
