sapblatt
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- Oct 22, 2004
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“Oooo, I hiked Bondcliff in the rain…” Neil Sedaka
Adding to the never-ending list of peaks I have hiked in a monsoon today we hit Bondcliff. Way back in my “having a baby/never gonna hike again” depression I talked with Rols about June 3 being a target date to get out again. Luckily for me I have been out three times since Zach was born and today we had set aside for another Bonds traverse – this time with Tuco joining us. There were others who were thinking about doing this too but as the weekends weather forecast over the past ten days went from little chance of rain to 90 % chance of rain, others plans, as well as ours were altered. We decided that being on the trail from Guyot to Bondcliff in a cold rainy, windy day was not a great idea and we decided that we would meet at Lincoln Woods at 5am (Tuco and I met at 3:30am in Derry – we are truly the early risers hiking club) to decide what we would do. All we really decided was to start hiking the Wilderness Trail and see what the weather brought our way. We would decide at the Bondcliff junction.
We started under clouds in the sky and no rain at 5:30am. The Wilderness Trail was the Wilderness Trail…you love it or you hate it…our group seems to like it, at least for miles 0-5 – not quite as much fun from miles 14-19. We got to the junction very quickly (I am a real speed hiker when there is no elevation gain!) five miles in 1:50. While we discussed the options (Bondcliff or the Thoreau Falls/Shoal Pond loop) it began to pour on us.
The three of us decided that we would head for Bondcliff and give it a shot…if it was unbearably wet, or the wind was too severe above tree line we would pack it in. We also made good time progressing up this beautifully graded trail. At one of the minor brook crossing we came across a group of campers getting geared up for the day. I know I am overly cautious, but I cringed when I saw a teenager filling a Nalgene directly from the stream. I have talked with a few people who have had Giardia and I know I have no interest and ever experiencing that myself. We continued winding our way along the sometimes muddy, wet trail we made great time as we got across all of the crossings of the Black Brook. They all required some thought, but none of them posed many problems. Water is not very deep and there were enough rocks to hop. The final crossing, you know, the dry one was far from dry on this wet day. The footing remained decent the entire way up, even on the well-crafted rock stairs. I found these conditions a lot easier to deal with than the wet ledges last weekend on the Moat Mountain Trail. With wet rocks you can at least pick where you want to step – on wet ledges you have to walk on the ledge.
As we were going up the long switchback section Eric mentioned that we should eat and Rols did seem a bit off and was getting a little cold. We stopped under some trees and we all ate a sandwich as quickly as we could. Rols added a layer and we continued up. The rain was very steady and very heavy at times and the wind was really starting to kick up. The Alpine Zone sign was a very welcome site, as we knew we were almost there. The one tough rock ledge area is only about 100 feet beyond this sign and we scurried up that quite easily even though it was wet. The cuts are all in the right place and the rock is wet enough that you do not slip even when it is wet. Eric (Tuco) and I needed to keep moving and Rols opted for another layer. I was thinking that I wanted another layer, but I was really OK if I was moving. It was about 50 degrees out and the winds were probably in the 40s. I was the only one wearing shorts, and I only had a coolmax T-shirt and a Marmot Precip jacket on but I felt OK. I was also thinking I wanted to have a dry, warm layers available to me if I needed it later.
The last bit to the true summit was truly an adventure. You could only navigate by the cairns and it was real tough to see much further. Tuco and I went ahead while Rols relayered himself. We got within ten feet of the cliffs on the west side of the mountain and with a very strong wind (the rain was blowing into our faces sideways!) from the east it seemed wise to get the hell away from the cliffs. We made it to the summit area in about three minutes, touched it, and turned tail and ran! We ran into Rols on his way up a couple of minutes shy of the summit. Eric and I hunkered down behinds some boulders and waited for Rols. We all agreed that it was not a day to spend a lot of time on the summit but that it was a great experience to see this peak in the fury of a windy rainstorm. Not traversing was a great idea.
We headed down and got over the ledge pretty quickly. I jettisoned my pack which helped me to climb down the steps quickly and we proceeded down the trail The brook crossings were not really any worse than they were on the way up and we ran into a few people on the way up – some very late in the day by our standards and some with little or no gear. We made it back to the Wilderness Trail by about 2:00 and we complained and moaned every step of the way back to Lincoln Woods. Sore hamstrings, sore calves, sore quads, I am soaked, I got up early, etc. It was truly a lot of fun, as it always is hiking with Rols and Tuco! For all of our complaining we covered the Wilderness Trail faster in the afternoon than we did in the morning (I think we were all afraid that if we stopped we may never move again!)
Back at the parking lot we changed into dry clothes, marveled at how much the wet clothes weighed, I counted blisters and we did the “LarryD thing” – cold beer after a hike, no matter what temperature you hiked in is a great thing.
By the way…I do not often write about times and paces, but somehow or another we covered these 19 miles in 10:10 – way faster than normal. A well graded route, the Wilderness Trail’s levelness and the cold rain making it difficult to stop made this a quicker than normal hike for us.
‘Til the next time…
Adding to the never-ending list of peaks I have hiked in a monsoon today we hit Bondcliff. Way back in my “having a baby/never gonna hike again” depression I talked with Rols about June 3 being a target date to get out again. Luckily for me I have been out three times since Zach was born and today we had set aside for another Bonds traverse – this time with Tuco joining us. There were others who were thinking about doing this too but as the weekends weather forecast over the past ten days went from little chance of rain to 90 % chance of rain, others plans, as well as ours were altered. We decided that being on the trail from Guyot to Bondcliff in a cold rainy, windy day was not a great idea and we decided that we would meet at Lincoln Woods at 5am (Tuco and I met at 3:30am in Derry – we are truly the early risers hiking club) to decide what we would do. All we really decided was to start hiking the Wilderness Trail and see what the weather brought our way. We would decide at the Bondcliff junction.
We started under clouds in the sky and no rain at 5:30am. The Wilderness Trail was the Wilderness Trail…you love it or you hate it…our group seems to like it, at least for miles 0-5 – not quite as much fun from miles 14-19. We got to the junction very quickly (I am a real speed hiker when there is no elevation gain!) five miles in 1:50. While we discussed the options (Bondcliff or the Thoreau Falls/Shoal Pond loop) it began to pour on us.
The three of us decided that we would head for Bondcliff and give it a shot…if it was unbearably wet, or the wind was too severe above tree line we would pack it in. We also made good time progressing up this beautifully graded trail. At one of the minor brook crossing we came across a group of campers getting geared up for the day. I know I am overly cautious, but I cringed when I saw a teenager filling a Nalgene directly from the stream. I have talked with a few people who have had Giardia and I know I have no interest and ever experiencing that myself. We continued winding our way along the sometimes muddy, wet trail we made great time as we got across all of the crossings of the Black Brook. They all required some thought, but none of them posed many problems. Water is not very deep and there were enough rocks to hop. The final crossing, you know, the dry one was far from dry on this wet day. The footing remained decent the entire way up, even on the well-crafted rock stairs. I found these conditions a lot easier to deal with than the wet ledges last weekend on the Moat Mountain Trail. With wet rocks you can at least pick where you want to step – on wet ledges you have to walk on the ledge.
As we were going up the long switchback section Eric mentioned that we should eat and Rols did seem a bit off and was getting a little cold. We stopped under some trees and we all ate a sandwich as quickly as we could. Rols added a layer and we continued up. The rain was very steady and very heavy at times and the wind was really starting to kick up. The Alpine Zone sign was a very welcome site, as we knew we were almost there. The one tough rock ledge area is only about 100 feet beyond this sign and we scurried up that quite easily even though it was wet. The cuts are all in the right place and the rock is wet enough that you do not slip even when it is wet. Eric (Tuco) and I needed to keep moving and Rols opted for another layer. I was thinking that I wanted another layer, but I was really OK if I was moving. It was about 50 degrees out and the winds were probably in the 40s. I was the only one wearing shorts, and I only had a coolmax T-shirt and a Marmot Precip jacket on but I felt OK. I was also thinking I wanted to have a dry, warm layers available to me if I needed it later.
The last bit to the true summit was truly an adventure. You could only navigate by the cairns and it was real tough to see much further. Tuco and I went ahead while Rols relayered himself. We got within ten feet of the cliffs on the west side of the mountain and with a very strong wind (the rain was blowing into our faces sideways!) from the east it seemed wise to get the hell away from the cliffs. We made it to the summit area in about three minutes, touched it, and turned tail and ran! We ran into Rols on his way up a couple of minutes shy of the summit. Eric and I hunkered down behinds some boulders and waited for Rols. We all agreed that it was not a day to spend a lot of time on the summit but that it was a great experience to see this peak in the fury of a windy rainstorm. Not traversing was a great idea.
We headed down and got over the ledge pretty quickly. I jettisoned my pack which helped me to climb down the steps quickly and we proceeded down the trail The brook crossings were not really any worse than they were on the way up and we ran into a few people on the way up – some very late in the day by our standards and some with little or no gear. We made it back to the Wilderness Trail by about 2:00 and we complained and moaned every step of the way back to Lincoln Woods. Sore hamstrings, sore calves, sore quads, I am soaked, I got up early, etc. It was truly a lot of fun, as it always is hiking with Rols and Tuco! For all of our complaining we covered the Wilderness Trail faster in the afternoon than we did in the morning (I think we were all afraid that if we stopped we may never move again!)
Back at the parking lot we changed into dry clothes, marveled at how much the wet clothes weighed, I counted blisters and we did the “LarryD thing” – cold beer after a hike, no matter what temperature you hiked in is a great thing.
By the way…I do not often write about times and paces, but somehow or another we covered these 19 miles in 10:10 – way faster than normal. A well graded route, the Wilderness Trail’s levelness and the cold rain making it difficult to stop made this a quicker than normal hike for us.
‘Til the next time…
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