8 more down, 3 to go: 09/02 - 09/03

[Gator]

This TR is a bit overdue and REALLY long:

Originally my plans were to hike Friday and Monday. I wanted to do the Hale, Zealand, Twins loop via the fire trail one day and then do the bonds on another. As gas prices skyrocketed, I realized 2 trips to the whites wasn’t a cost-effective idea. On Thursday it appeared that the two best consecutive days would be Friday and Saturday. Two very long hikes, two days in a row seemed a bit much. Possibilities ran through my head. Somewhere in there I got the idea to do the loop and add the bonds if I could find a spot at the guyot shelter (I don’t have a tent). My typically, non-commital self ran with this idea at about 5 PM Thursday night after asking my fellow vftt’ers about reserving spots at the shelter. I packed up as quickly as possible and made a run to the Kittery Trading Post to get some iodine and possibly get a new sleeping pad. I didn’t get a new pad, but I did get a jetboil. What an awesome product. At home, I finished packing and went straight to bed. I was in bed by 10, but I wasn’t asleep till 11.

2:45 AM the alarm goes off. I wanted to dawn patrol it so I could get a spot at the shelter. I managed to get up easier than I would have expected. I was on the road by 3:20. I drove most of the way in a conservative fashion, so as to save gas, but at some point on I-93 I decided to abandon that idea and try and make better time. I had a hard time finding haystack road since it’s not marked, but I figured it out easily enough using my map and landmarks.

At 6:10 AM, I hit the trail. At this point it was just light enough to hike without a headlamp. I made my way up the North Twin trail, listening to the water of the Little River rushing down the mountain. Little did I know what challenges that would later present. I hit a small stream crossing, wondering if this was where I was to find the fire warden’s trail. Not seeing any semblance of a herd path and knowing that there was a more significant river to my west, I continued on. At the first Little River crossing I found the herd path without much trouble. This path would prove to be useful on my return trip. After about 7 to 8 minutes of following the path, with only a couple very short periods of uncertainty, I noticed a trail ascending to the east. I decided to see if it would continue up the slope. It did and I decided it must be the fire warden’s trail.

This was a nice trail. Only complaint was the plant growth was thick and thus I got kinda wet from the morning dew. This is a pretty small price to pay for an otherwise beautiful trail that allowed me to bag so many 4k’s in a loop hike. I reached the birch glade that everyone raves about. It was quite stunning and provided some nice views of the valley through the trees. Right about where the glade opens up there was what appeared to be another trail and it looked more worn then the actual trail. Not sure if it was another path or not, but in this case, the less worn path was the right one. From here, the trail switchbacked up to the top of Hale. It was moderate but constant. Perfect way to start a hike. As I reached the ridgeline the sun was shining brightly from the east. It was gorgeous and it motivated me to reach the summit. When I got there I took a picture of my poles, which I placed in an X to signify only having ten 4k’s left.

 

[Gator]

As I made my way down Hale towards Zealand Falls Hut I realized I had a blister from my thick extra-cushion smartwool socks. I feared that this could be a long trip. I continued on down the lend-a-hand trail. I was able to make good time in some spots. I got to the hut and had some lemonade and some carrot cake which was excellent. I also got some moleskin (ran out and realized this after I went to the trading post the previous night). After a quick viewing of the falls, I continued on toward Zealand Mt. Now, with an extra two liters of water in my pack and the sun heating things up, I wasn’t climbing as quickly. Sweat kept getting in my eyes. I keep meaning to hike with a bandana and never remember.

I skipped the acclaimed zeacliff, not knowing how far it was and having a time-constraint. There was a decent view though at the false summit. After enjoying those views, I continued on to the summit spur. I dropped my pack, tagged the viewless summit and went back to my pack and took a short break. I hadn’t seen too many people yet, but here I saw a few parties, at least one of which was an AT thru hiker.

I climbed over Guyot, not realizing it until I got to the bondcliff-twinway junction. I was pleasantly surprised to be close to the campsite. I pressed on descending to the campsite spur. When I reached the caretaker’s tent I was disappointed to find no one there. The campsite had a really neat layout. I made my way to the shelter and to my pleasant surprise there was no one there! I was also impressed with the size of it. I layed out my stuff and realized how tired I was so I attempted to take a nap. I had one of those semi-conscious dream states which was a little weird but interesting.

After my semi-nap and a snack, I headed out in pursuit of the bonds. Despite being a bit dazed from being so tired (I really could’ve used some caffeine) I was pretty excited to be hitting some highly-regarded peaks and to be progressing toward my goal of completing the 4k’s. One of the smart things I did was to bring my camelback, which I strapped to the outside of my backpack. This allowed me to take just the camelback on my sidetrip to the Bonds.

On the bondcliff trail, just north of the West Bond spur, I passed a couple and said hi. Unfortunately it didn’t register soon enough, but I realized that I recognized the girl. Not absolutely positive it was her but she looked an awful lot like someone I went to high school with (who also happened to be one of the finest looking ladies in our school!). This was rather surprising as I really wouldn’t expect to see people from my hometown out on the trail, particularly one as isolated as the bondcliff trail. Soon after, I saw another familiar face. I asked if his name was Dave, which it wasn’t, but he told me his trail name (Pilgrim-something?) and his real name Bob. I had met him during an AMC hike co-lead by Double Bow. We chatted for a bit and I found out he was staying at Guyot as well.

 

[Gator]

I had heard stories of the amazing sunsets viewed from West Bond, so I passed by West Bond and decided to save it for last. The climb up to Bond was pleasantly easy and uneventful. I got up there and took in the excellent views and then I lay on the rocks enjoying the warm sun. I really admired the ridgeline toward Bondcliff. It reminded me of even more prominent ridges.

The trip to Bondcliff seemed much shorter because there were excellent views to take in the whole time. The slides I could see off of West Bond had me thinking about ski season. I was picking out lines that looked like they’d be interesting if snow-covered. Thoughts of the slog required to get to those lines quickly diminished my interest in skiing them.

Soon enough, I arrived at Bondcliff. It’s a playground of rock formations. Everywhere you look there’s something neat to see. I sat out on a cool overhanging rock and enjoyed a salty snack. I attempted to take pictures of myself overlooking the ledges but that didn’t work too well. I need longer arms for that.

The trip back over Bond and down to the West Bond spur wasn’t too bad. I was a little disappointed with how far down the West Bond spur went though before it climbed back up. It was an extremely easy climb though. I didn’t want to stay till sunset but I could see how it would be great. The view of Bond and Bondcliff was excellent. Particularly notable was the expansive sea of rocks on the western slope off the ridge.

Back at Guyot I savored the fact that I was done for the day and that I had accomplished quite a bit. I met up with Bob and some others including the caretaker. I then got a chance to try out the jetboil. It worked great although it was difficult getting the measuring cup off the bottom. My dinner wasn’t gourmet by any means, but it was quite satisfying after a long, hard day. After dinner I went to see if the caretaker had scissors which I wanted to trim some moleskin. I chatted with him for a while. He was a really cool guy who had done the AT last year. His friend arrived just as it was getting dark. He had come from Albany, New York that morning.

 

[Gator]

I slept alright. I have no idea when I woke up, but I was definitely well-rested. This was most evident while on the trail. The morning was quite cool and foggy. I was expecting this to burn off as the forecast for all towns in the area had been mostly sunny skies. Much to my chagrin, the mountain forecast posted by the caretaker’s tent suggested otherwise. In addition to overcast skies, high winds were forecasted. I headed out, and with the forecast in mind I toyed with the idea of doing galehead. My thinking was that I could bag galehead and maybe when I got to South Twin the clouds would burn off.

Shortly after reaching the bondlcliff trail, sprinkles of rain fell on me. This wasn’t particularly thrilling, knowing I was going up in elevation. I reached the alpine zone of Guyot and got a taste of the high winds. On the twinway I saw some large sections of blue sky through the trees. This got me really excited. I started singing, and of course someone appeared around the corner. I made some good progress on the climb up South Twin and passed someone who told me I had a big descent ahead of me. I feared that I wasn’t close to the summit. Turns out I was and the descent was the one down to Galehead Hut. The summit offered some views, but not much. It was in and out of the clouds. When you could see it was only a 90 to 180 degree view.

Having seen the weather on the summit I was discouraged that the skies weren’t going to clear up but I was feeling fresh enough to hit Galehead. The descent was long and constant, but not as steep as I expected. Some sections near the bottom were quite steep though. I wouldn’t rank it up there with carter dome or wildcat ridge.

After passing the hut, I made my way up toward Galehead Mountain. The viewpoint near the top was better than expected. The summit wasn’t anything exciting, but it felt great to be on it and one peak closer to finishing the 4000 footers. I don’t think I stopped at all I just tapped it and turned right around and headed down.

I arrived at the hut and was ready for some food. There weren’t any baked goods but I asked for some soup and the croo member heated some up for me. It was excellent. I noticed my leg shaking and I thought the building was vibrating but as I placed my foot more securely on the floor I realized my leg was just shaking on its own from being tired.

I leisurely made my way back up South Twin. I passed a group I saw on my way down and asked if they saw any sun. I knew there answer though. When I got up to the top it had cleared up a bit more. Still, no 360 degree views and not much blue sky.

I could see the formation of North Twin and wondered how far I’d have to go to reach its summit. It taunted me with its shape and false summit. I had no idea how long it was going to take. There was a better view a hundred feet below the summit of South Twin. It was just a bit lower to be out of the clouds and provided some nice views toward Hale and the valley.

The descent to the col was long, but it was an interesting climb up to North Twin. The views from the west side were excellent. I really took to the symphony of shapes and colors provided. I bet it’s great during foliage too. The east side view was great too, but not unlike the one from the lookout just below South Twin.

 

[Gator]

The descent was going smoothly and I was making pretty good time. At some point though I hit a wall. Not the type where you can’t go any further but the type where you’re feeling good and not long after everything is much tougher. I stopped for a sandwich and some snack mix. It didn’t help me a lot physically (other than satisfying my appetite) but it tasted great and gave me a bit of a mental boost. I was hoping to reach the first of three river crossings my map indicated. Soon enough I could hear running water. Excellent! All along my trip I had heard from others of high water though. I assumed the first one wouldn’t be too bad. It wasn’t bad at all. I crossed over some small streams and then eventually back over the main one. I made my last crossing which was definitely a challenge. I had to go halfway across and then quite a ways upstream. I’ve had seen tougher crossings though. I was excited to be on the final leg, but the ensuing trip was long and I was really hoping to be finished. …and then I got to another river crossing. I realized the first two easy crossings weren’t on the map. Doh! Instead of crossing over I decided to take the herd path on the east bank of the river. There were a couple thick sections and blowdowns to climb over but I think it was a good decision. Who knows how long the river crossings might’ve taken. Just before I reached the actual trail I slipped on a steep uphill slope and slammed my feet against it. This took even more out of me and had my toes in some pain. Once I reached the main trail I knew I didn’t have to far to go. This section was gradual and smooth and before I knew it I was back at the parking lot. I was never so happy to see my unreliable car. I feared jinxing myself with that thought, but luckily enough it started up and got me on my way home. Despite all the calories I burned I easily replaced them with a couple slices of excellent pizza from Elvio’s in North Conway and then a sundae and a beer a little later.

In addition to this being an incredibly enjoyable hike regardless of lists, it was also the most successful one I’ve done in terms of peakbagging. In two days I got 8 peaks. Not quite 48 in 3 ½ days pace, but pretty good I must say.

 

[coldmountain]

Thats a loop Ive been meaning to do for awhile (ever since I heard of the Fire Wardens Trail) Too bad about South Twin being clouded in. Its one of my favorite summits.
P.S. Zeacliff side path is real short (about 50 yards ) and its spectacular
Congrats on a big couple-a-days!

 

[Double Bow]

Congradulations on a job very well done! I was thinking of you that weekend. I only wish I could have been with you for this adventure, not that I regret doing what I did though!