Bonds advice

[The Sikes]

I can't carry alot of weight either and when we did the Bonds we wanted to atleast get to enjoy them for more than 5 minutes so we opted for an overnight hike even with the weight issue. My kids were 7 and 9 then if I remember correctly and they couldn't carry the weight either. We managed to do the overnighter checking the weather for a decent weather trip so I could illiminate some stuff and I was glad we did because we got to watch the sun set from ontop of Bond. Then the next day we went over to Bondcliff and West Bond (don't want to go into the story of why we didn't watch from West Bond). The only thing that I wish we had done differently is to spot a car because we had to hike back over Bond from Bondcliff and Zealand.....It was a long day out but well worth being able to enjoy the summits longer than if we did it as a day hike.

 

[Mike P.]

It's been a few years since I planned the wonderful Zealand/Lincoln Woods trip so elequontly written in a TR on our Chicken man Moderators website (How does that start again, there was no good reason to do this hike... it rained) but I believe you gain somewhere between 500 - 800 feet less starting from Zealand & ending at Lincoln Woods. (So if you have bad knees descending 800 feet may be worth avoiding, especially if fit otherwise)

That said, if I remember right, it's about 50 minutes driving from one trailhead to the other, so I would recommend spotting your car the day/night before if possible.

I'm heading back 09/30 myself (hopefully).