Owl's Head-Galehead-South Twin-North Twin-Zealand-West Bond-Bond-Bondcliff
This was a Boston AMC trip. We met at the commuter lot on Exit 47 at 5:30am on Saturday and drove up to Lincoln Woods. We had two people for whom this was their first backpack, and boy did they pick a doozie! It was about 35 miles in length.
I had planned on us doing the loop counter-clockwise, but the forecast for Saturday afternoon had lightning bolt icons, and if nothing else, if one is going to go through the work of getting up to the Bonds, one should do it on a clear day! So we did the trip clockwise instead.
We went over to Black Pond and followed the bushwhack route, which is blazed, and with which I am less and less happy every time I take it, as it is a drunkard's walk. In the future I'm just going to take a compass bearing due north and shoot it. In any event, the trail was very muddy in places, and was not always the easiest to follow.
The Lincoln Brook trail was in good condition, although I still wouldn't suggest anyone try to follow it the first time without going with someone who already knew the route. We passed two people coming out, and then did not see anyone else until we started descending from Owl's Head. The trail has a few blow downs above the slide, and the trail along the summit has quite a number more. Frankly, the whole thing has become a mess and is very meandering and hard to get through. I certainly hope that at some point a brave crew of yeomen will make a new trail (I know, I know) from farther along the Lincoln Brook that shoots more directly at the new summit. Bugs were helacious on the slide! Oh my god! The only upshot is that we were all so distracted by the black flies that we forgot how bad the slide was. Saw about five folks coming up as we were going down, along with three more planning to sleep on the summit ridge that evening.
This was the first time I had taken the Lincoln Brook trail beyond Owl's Head, and it too was mess. Very hard to follow, tons of blow downs, swampy in a number of parts. All of which is a shame because it's a beautiful trail and if maintained would be very pleasant.
The caretaker had not yet taken residence at Thirteen Falls--only twelve of which were working (hah!), and the tentsite was full. One gang had themselves a nice fire going, despite numerous signs saying that fires were banned. We parked ourselves nearby and did our best to leave no trace. Soon our tents were up, water bottles were full, and we were happily eating dinner, very grateful it didn't rain. It did rain lightly during dinner, but not enough to merit my putting my jacket on. After much tossing of rocks with a line attached and an even greater amount of tugging and pushing, our bearbags were finally hung and we retreated to our tents for the night. It started out quite warm and I slept better once it chilled a bit.
On Sunday we departed around 7:30am and headed up to Galehead. The Franconia Brook trail up to the cabin is also in serious need of trail maintenance, and there are multiple blow downs that are still alive and sprouting leaves. The day started sunny, and we were all in good spirits. The trail up to Galehead is in very fine condition, and everything is stowed at the hut, which was still self-service last weekend.
Our slog up to South Twin was uneventful, and despite a boom of thunder off in the distance, the weather for the rest of the day was windy and yet mostly sunny and warm. There is still a far amount of snow in places between the Twins, and in one spot so deep and seemingly so dense it could easily be there for a good long while to come.
Back at South Twin we picked up our packs and headed over to Guyot. The trail is in good condition, snow in just a spot or two, and we ran into a ton of people coming from either Guyot tentsite or up from Zealand. Everyone was in good spirits and friendly.
Some who stayed at Guyot said the site was packed the night before, and I came to be very relieved to see that we made the right decision going to Thirteen Fall instead, as it seems even the overflow sites would have been jammed.
The Twinway Trail over to Zealand is also in good condition. Surprisingly little snow--virtually none, and the trail to Zealand was surprising dry as well.
We landed the final spots at Guyot tentsite, with four of us on platforms and four in the shelter. The caretaker, Garrett (I hope I spelled that correctly), was very competent and I think will do a bang-up in the job this summer. The site tends to fill on the weekends and they need someone good there, and I think they found the right person.
I'm always fascinated by campsite dynamics. I tend to be gushingly friendly on the trail and am always interested to see that some neighbors are so friendly and talkative in return and others turn their backs and don't say a word. We were lucky enough to have a very cordial father-son team in the other tent on our platform, and the eight of us and the two of them sat around and cooked and ate together as the day grew mellow. Our chef for the evening made a great dinner and then whipped out individual pudding containers, torte shells, and berries with almond slices for dessert! The moon was so full that night that when I got out in the middle of the night, the whole campsite was lit with a lovely yellow glow.
The next morning we also departed at 7:30, went over to West Bond, which was new to six of the eight of us, and we were lucky enough to have the summit to ourselves. No bugs, light but steady wind. I suspect the two were connected.
On Bond, my friend asked me if I smelled smoke. There was a hint of smoke in the air, and it was quite hazy, but we couldn't make any sense of it. Only on Bondcliff when we ran into Hiker Ed did we learn about the forest fires in Quebec. One could really feel them on Monday. A very dark cloud seemed to sit over Vermont.
The Bondcliff trail is in quite good shape. We counted the steps. One of counted 145, I counted 161, another 165. Obviously it's hard to discern whether a given stone was already there or placed there by a trail crew, but either way I am extremely grateful to those who went through the backbreaking efforts to create that wonderful staircase. The trail work there is impressive and built to last.
At the intersection with the Wilderness trail we took a break and noticed all sorts of rusting ironwork of one sort or another. A friend found a rather impressive piece of pipe. It would have been interesting to see what was there back in the day.
After the long and tedious hike out, we headed over to Woodstock Station, sat on the patio and watched the high school's bacheloriate ceremony across the street in the park, with the girls in white and the boys in black.
The next few weeks are going to be transformative for much of the Pemi and the caretakers move in and start doing trail maintenance. There's going to be a lot of sawing and clearing, that is for certain!
For those heading out, I hope this report was useful.
All the best,
Brian
This was a Boston AMC trip. We met at the commuter lot on Exit 47 at 5:30am on Saturday and drove up to Lincoln Woods. We had two people for whom this was their first backpack, and boy did they pick a doozie! It was about 35 miles in length.
I had planned on us doing the loop counter-clockwise, but the forecast for Saturday afternoon had lightning bolt icons, and if nothing else, if one is going to go through the work of getting up to the Bonds, one should do it on a clear day! So we did the trip clockwise instead.
We went over to Black Pond and followed the bushwhack route, which is blazed, and with which I am less and less happy every time I take it, as it is a drunkard's walk. In the future I'm just going to take a compass bearing due north and shoot it. In any event, the trail was very muddy in places, and was not always the easiest to follow.
The Lincoln Brook trail was in good condition, although I still wouldn't suggest anyone try to follow it the first time without going with someone who already knew the route. We passed two people coming out, and then did not see anyone else until we started descending from Owl's Head. The trail has a few blow downs above the slide, and the trail along the summit has quite a number more. Frankly, the whole thing has become a mess and is very meandering and hard to get through. I certainly hope that at some point a brave crew of yeomen will make a new trail (I know, I know) from farther along the Lincoln Brook that shoots more directly at the new summit. Bugs were helacious on the slide! Oh my god! The only upshot is that we were all so distracted by the black flies that we forgot how bad the slide was. Saw about five folks coming up as we were going down, along with three more planning to sleep on the summit ridge that evening.
This was the first time I had taken the Lincoln Brook trail beyond Owl's Head, and it too was mess. Very hard to follow, tons of blow downs, swampy in a number of parts. All of which is a shame because it's a beautiful trail and if maintained would be very pleasant.
The caretaker had not yet taken residence at Thirteen Falls--only twelve of which were working (hah!), and the tentsite was full. One gang had themselves a nice fire going, despite numerous signs saying that fires were banned. We parked ourselves nearby and did our best to leave no trace. Soon our tents were up, water bottles were full, and we were happily eating dinner, very grateful it didn't rain. It did rain lightly during dinner, but not enough to merit my putting my jacket on. After much tossing of rocks with a line attached and an even greater amount of tugging and pushing, our bearbags were finally hung and we retreated to our tents for the night. It started out quite warm and I slept better once it chilled a bit.
On Sunday we departed around 7:30am and headed up to Galehead. The Franconia Brook trail up to the cabin is also in serious need of trail maintenance, and there are multiple blow downs that are still alive and sprouting leaves. The day started sunny, and we were all in good spirits. The trail up to Galehead is in very fine condition, and everything is stowed at the hut, which was still self-service last weekend.
Our slog up to South Twin was uneventful, and despite a boom of thunder off in the distance, the weather for the rest of the day was windy and yet mostly sunny and warm. There is still a far amount of snow in places between the Twins, and in one spot so deep and seemingly so dense it could easily be there for a good long while to come.
Back at South Twin we picked up our packs and headed over to Guyot. The trail is in good condition, snow in just a spot or two, and we ran into a ton of people coming from either Guyot tentsite or up from Zealand. Everyone was in good spirits and friendly.
Some who stayed at Guyot said the site was packed the night before, and I came to be very relieved to see that we made the right decision going to Thirteen Fall instead, as it seems even the overflow sites would have been jammed.
The Twinway Trail over to Zealand is also in good condition. Surprisingly little snow--virtually none, and the trail to Zealand was surprising dry as well.
We landed the final spots at Guyot tentsite, with four of us on platforms and four in the shelter. The caretaker, Garrett (I hope I spelled that correctly), was very competent and I think will do a bang-up in the job this summer. The site tends to fill on the weekends and they need someone good there, and I think they found the right person.
I'm always fascinated by campsite dynamics. I tend to be gushingly friendly on the trail and am always interested to see that some neighbors are so friendly and talkative in return and others turn their backs and don't say a word. We were lucky enough to have a very cordial father-son team in the other tent on our platform, and the eight of us and the two of them sat around and cooked and ate together as the day grew mellow. Our chef for the evening made a great dinner and then whipped out individual pudding containers, torte shells, and berries with almond slices for dessert! The moon was so full that night that when I got out in the middle of the night, the whole campsite was lit with a lovely yellow glow.
The next morning we also departed at 7:30, went over to West Bond, which was new to six of the eight of us, and we were lucky enough to have the summit to ourselves. No bugs, light but steady wind. I suspect the two were connected.
On Bond, my friend asked me if I smelled smoke. There was a hint of smoke in the air, and it was quite hazy, but we couldn't make any sense of it. Only on Bondcliff when we ran into Hiker Ed did we learn about the forest fires in Quebec. One could really feel them on Monday. A very dark cloud seemed to sit over Vermont.
The Bondcliff trail is in quite good shape. We counted the steps. One of counted 145, I counted 161, another 165. Obviously it's hard to discern whether a given stone was already there or placed there by a trail crew, but either way I am extremely grateful to those who went through the backbreaking efforts to create that wonderful staircase. The trail work there is impressive and built to last.
At the intersection with the Wilderness trail we took a break and noticed all sorts of rusting ironwork of one sort or another. A friend found a rather impressive piece of pipe. It would have been interesting to see what was there back in the day.
After the long and tedious hike out, we headed over to Woodstock Station, sat on the patio and watched the high school's bacheloriate ceremony across the street in the park, with the girls in white and the boys in black.
The next few weeks are going to be transformative for much of the Pemi and the caretakers move in and start doing trail maintenance. There's going to be a lot of sawing and clearing, that is for certain!
For those heading out, I hope this report was useful.
All the best,
Brian
