dr_wu002
Well-known member
Four of us: Wu, Jess, and two (non-VFTT) friends Doug and Lara were going to hike Owl's Head. Jess is finishing her list and Owl's Head is on it. We all drove up together on Sunday and while they were all sleeping in the car my over-active imagination crafted a more appropriate (and practical) hike for such a beautiful day: A Bond-Zealand Traverse. Jess also needed Mt. Bond, West Bond and Zea-Land. The problem of having only one car had an overly obvious solution: I would accompany them to West Bond, then run out to Lincoln Woods and drive to Zealand Parking Lot. At some point later on it turned into a bet -- whoever gets to Zealand Parking Area first, the other person has to buy beer. To make things even more interesting I wore the (big mistake) stupid toe shoes
Bondcliff - started a little after 9am. I don't mind the Wilderness Trail walking in (out is another story) as it's nice in the morning. The trail up Bondcliff is easy -- surprised to see a healthy flow of water in the streams despite the warm, dry weather. Bondcliff is awesome as always -- this is Doug and Lara's first time on Bondcliff and they're loving it. We met Bob&Geri accompanying a few people finishing the NH48 on Bondcliff (wearing grass skirts) and the festivities were nice. Lots of people on Bondcliff; you almost had to wait on line to get the famous picture.
Mt. Bond - #37 for Jess. Great walk from Bondcliff to Mt. Bond with the great views along the ridge and 1st part of the climb and then strangely heading back into the woods as you go up. Views are spectacular as always. From Mt. Bond, great views everywhere.
West Bond - #38 for Jess. Walk over to West Bond is cool. Last time I was there the snow was high enough that the secondary peak on Mt. Bond was essentially completely above treeline. It does, however, seem that more views are opening up looking North from that area. West Bond is spectacular as well -- great view to a new Slide going up the ridge between Bond and Bondcliff. Lots of downed trees in the slide and all the soil is there -- my guess is it'll erode away and there will be a potentially interesting remainder of the rock slide left. Back at the junction I say farewell and take off trying to win my part of the bet. Jess, Doug and Lara continue on to Guyot, Zea-land (#39 for Jess) and Zeacliff.
Run Out -- I somewhat foolishly gave my water filter and some of my remaining water away. I had a handheld water bottle left and a few drops in my pack < 1 L of water. I ran quickly to Bond, about 10 minutes. Then the trip to Bondcliff was much slower and more difficult in the toe shoes. Reached Bondcliff in 20 minutes and, after a slight refill of water, started my 9 mile run out. The toe shoes were nearly useless on the first part going down the Bondcliff trail. Normally I can bomb down this trail. But for the Vibram Five Fingers, the terrain was terrible: lots of golf ball sized pebbles and mixed rock and other crap. The golf ball rocks are runnable on -- but painful -- but you can't push off these things in order to jump over larger objects so I ended up smashing my foot a lot and just having to walk which was frustrating. Eventually I was able to do a little more running but very slow and very painful this time (last weekend running/hiking 3 days everything went fine).
The best part was mud -- everytime I got to mud it was a wonderful, soft reprieve from the nasty rocky trail. See, I had a bet to take care of and I needed to get back to Lincoln Woods and drive all the way to Zealand TH before the others could simply hike the 8 miles to get there. Pretty quickly I realized I had lost the bet. The run out on the Lincoln Woods trail was more soul-crushing horror. My feet were pretty well throbbing at this point and I was exhausted and while normally the Wildnerness Trail is easy to run on, it's very hard packed with lots more golf ball pebbles to step on and not to mention, rail road ties. Somehow I managed to run about 8 minute miles for the last 5 miles. I figured I had lost the bet but I had moved so slowly down Bondcliff Trail and I didn't want the others to be waiting forever for my sad ass to make it out. So, after making great time from the bridge over Franconia Brook to the Flume-Osseo Junction, out of water and dehydrated, nauseous, I managed to turn on whatever I had left and run hard back to the parking lot.
Once there, Bob&Geri & co. were in the parking lot and presented me with a beer (thank you -- completely dehydrated) and we chatted. They laughed at me for making such a horrible bet and I bid farewell as I figured Jess & Co were now waiting for ~ 1 hour at Zealand. Drove over to Zealand, about 40 minutes drive, uneventful. Arrive at Zealand... nobody there(?). I park the car, wait 2 mintutes and Jess, Doug and Lara come walking out of the woods -- I had won the freaking bet! They gotta buy my sorry ass beer!! Still, I wasn't all that psyched because I had a terrible run out and felt miserable but we did get over and have a great dinner, as usual, at the Common Man.
Mt feet hurt but are in surprisingly good shape after hiking/running 23 miles yesterday in VFF's... no blisters, no red spots, no cuts, no black toe nails.... they just feel a bit tenderized on the bottom. After last weekend I was all gung ho about the VFF's but now I feel like I have to rethink things. If I attempt to run a Pemi Loop for time in a few weeks (seems more likely) I'm not wearing those things. If I hike a Pemi Loop where running would be a minimum or slow I'd try them out. I still like them. But for high performance they just can't cut it on certain types of terrain. Maybe I need to tenderize my feet a little more to get them stronger but for now, I'll be wearing my Inov-8 Roclite 295's again.
-Dr. Wu
Bondcliff - started a little after 9am. I don't mind the Wilderness Trail walking in (out is another story) as it's nice in the morning. The trail up Bondcliff is easy -- surprised to see a healthy flow of water in the streams despite the warm, dry weather. Bondcliff is awesome as always -- this is Doug and Lara's first time on Bondcliff and they're loving it. We met Bob&Geri accompanying a few people finishing the NH48 on Bondcliff (wearing grass skirts) and the festivities were nice. Lots of people on Bondcliff; you almost had to wait on line to get the famous picture.
Mt. Bond - #37 for Jess. Great walk from Bondcliff to Mt. Bond with the great views along the ridge and 1st part of the climb and then strangely heading back into the woods as you go up. Views are spectacular as always. From Mt. Bond, great views everywhere.
West Bond - #38 for Jess. Walk over to West Bond is cool. Last time I was there the snow was high enough that the secondary peak on Mt. Bond was essentially completely above treeline. It does, however, seem that more views are opening up looking North from that area. West Bond is spectacular as well -- great view to a new Slide going up the ridge between Bond and Bondcliff. Lots of downed trees in the slide and all the soil is there -- my guess is it'll erode away and there will be a potentially interesting remainder of the rock slide left. Back at the junction I say farewell and take off trying to win my part of the bet. Jess, Doug and Lara continue on to Guyot, Zea-land (#39 for Jess) and Zeacliff.
Run Out -- I somewhat foolishly gave my water filter and some of my remaining water away. I had a handheld water bottle left and a few drops in my pack < 1 L of water. I ran quickly to Bond, about 10 minutes. Then the trip to Bondcliff was much slower and more difficult in the toe shoes. Reached Bondcliff in 20 minutes and, after a slight refill of water, started my 9 mile run out. The toe shoes were nearly useless on the first part going down the Bondcliff trail. Normally I can bomb down this trail. But for the Vibram Five Fingers, the terrain was terrible: lots of golf ball sized pebbles and mixed rock and other crap. The golf ball rocks are runnable on -- but painful -- but you can't push off these things in order to jump over larger objects so I ended up smashing my foot a lot and just having to walk which was frustrating. Eventually I was able to do a little more running but very slow and very painful this time (last weekend running/hiking 3 days everything went fine).
The best part was mud -- everytime I got to mud it was a wonderful, soft reprieve from the nasty rocky trail. See, I had a bet to take care of and I needed to get back to Lincoln Woods and drive all the way to Zealand TH before the others could simply hike the 8 miles to get there. Pretty quickly I realized I had lost the bet. The run out on the Lincoln Woods trail was more soul-crushing horror. My feet were pretty well throbbing at this point and I was exhausted and while normally the Wildnerness Trail is easy to run on, it's very hard packed with lots more golf ball pebbles to step on and not to mention, rail road ties. Somehow I managed to run about 8 minute miles for the last 5 miles. I figured I had lost the bet but I had moved so slowly down Bondcliff Trail and I didn't want the others to be waiting forever for my sad ass to make it out. So, after making great time from the bridge over Franconia Brook to the Flume-Osseo Junction, out of water and dehydrated, nauseous, I managed to turn on whatever I had left and run hard back to the parking lot.
Once there, Bob&Geri & co. were in the parking lot and presented me with a beer (thank you -- completely dehydrated) and we chatted. They laughed at me for making such a horrible bet and I bid farewell as I figured Jess & Co were now waiting for ~ 1 hour at Zealand. Drove over to Zealand, about 40 minutes drive, uneventful. Arrive at Zealand... nobody there(?). I park the car, wait 2 mintutes and Jess, Doug and Lara come walking out of the woods -- I had won the freaking bet! They gotta buy my sorry ass beer!! Still, I wasn't all that psyched because I had a terrible run out and felt miserable but we did get over and have a great dinner, as usual, at the Common Man.
Mt feet hurt but are in surprisingly good shape after hiking/running 23 miles yesterday in VFF's... no blisters, no red spots, no cuts, no black toe nails.... they just feel a bit tenderized on the bottom. After last weekend I was all gung ho about the VFF's but now I feel like I have to rethink things. If I attempt to run a Pemi Loop for time in a few weeks (seems more likely) I'm not wearing those things. If I hike a Pemi Loop where running would be a minimum or slow I'd try them out. I still like them. But for high performance they just can't cut it on certain types of terrain. Maybe I need to tenderize my feet a little more to get them stronger but for now, I'll be wearing my Inov-8 Roclite 295's again.
-Dr. Wu
Last edited:
maybe next time you should try to finish the loop and still beat them to zealand rd
