BIGEarl
Well-known member
February 4, 2012: Zealand – Bonds Traverse
Trails: Zealand Road, Zealand Trail, Twinway, Bondcliff Trail (End-to-End), West Bond Spur, Wilderness Trail
Summits: Zealand, West Bond, Bond, Bondcliff
Hikers: Marty Emmick, Jason Berard, LarryD (Larry Donoghue), Kevin Talbot, Paradox (John Messinger), Karen Robi, Ken Robi, Dave Chase, Brian Tausendfreund, Bikehikeskifish (Tim Lucia), Trail Trotter (Sue) and me
Guess what time Sue needs to wake up in order to meet me at 2:30am at the Park & Ride. I really enjoy morning people.
It’s a new month and a new list to go with it. The toughest target we have for February is a Zealand – Bonds Traverse; it was our priority hike. We decided it would be best to hike it as early as possible. We posted it for others to join and what a group we enjoyed. I knew there were a couple that wanted to get these peaks for their W48 but never expected to have such a group of strong hikers. I know, we were a couple over the limit – call the Forest Service. The only times we were together were on the occasional stops to re-group, and the summits. Otherwise, we spent most of the day in two or three smaller clusters of hikers spread over roughly a hundred yards. What a great day we had; a big group of peak baggers, each chasing his/her own list, and for the day at least everything lined up perfectly.
We started with roughly half meeting at Lincoln Woods (4:30am) to spot vehicles and drive to the trailhead lot on Rte 302 where we met the others. We had an on-trail target of 6:00am and we nailed it. My expectation for reaching Lincoln Woods was roughly 9:00pm, but we weren’t even close – I’m getting ahead of myself. We had cool temperature (the truck showed 9 degrees), overcast, blowing snow, and an interesting forecast for the day that seemed to indicate we should expect generally clear conditions, but lots of wind.
The start of this hike in winter is a ~3.5 mile road walk on the closed-for-the-season Zealand Road. A couple long-legged hikers (you know how you are) got out front and flew to the summer trailhead. I did my best to keep up but could only generally stay within sight (on the long straight sections of road). Our first re-group happened 3.5 miles and 1hr 15min into the day at the summer trailhead. I believe we were all warmed up at this point. We hung around long enough for those of us that bare-booted the road to pull out MicroSpikes, or Hillsounds. Soon we were on the trail; our next stop would be Zealand Falls Hut.
The trail is very well tracked out and solid. We had a light dusting of snow but that was only around a half inch; just enough to dress everything up a little. All of the high water we experienced on our hike of a few weeks back was gone and the crossings frozen. Soon, we were at the hut taking a brief break and preparing for the real hike which was about to start. We all took on some fuel, some picked up water, and we all changed from the light traction to our snowshoes; one set of Atlas and the rest were MSR’s. The trail was a solid snowshoe track leaving the hut. A short distance after crossing the falls above the hut we were making the climb to Zeacliff. Traction wasn’t a problem all day long. There was very little ice, just a good snowshoe track with great traction. The only problem we ran into on the climb to Zeacliff was the climb itself; it’s steep! Eventually we re-grouped at the viewpoint spur, had quick refreshment, and set off across Zealand Ridge to Zealand Mountain. The day was not clearing out as predicted and there were no views at all. Along the way to Zealand Mountain we met MadRiver and DaveBear near the Zealand summit spur. We stopped for a brief visit but were soon on our way to the summit, a couple pictures, and u-turn back out.
Another re-group on Twinway at the Zealand spur and we continued heading to the north end of Bondcliff Trail. Along the way we met Ryan doing what he does well – burnin’ up the trails. Sorry but I didn’t recognize his hiking partner or take the opportunity to introduce myself (poor social skills). Every time I bump into him it’s a treat and I really enjoyed seeing Ryan yesterday. He and his partner weren’t able to complete their “Plan A” for the day and landed on a S-N Bonds-Zealand-Hale traverse as their salvage plan. Impressive.
Those of us in the back continued our climb to the treeline near Guyot. The forecast predicted a lot of wind from the northwest and I asked Sue more than once if she hears wind. I was concerned that we layered-up before stepping out into the exposed area. Sue told me she could hear wind but nothing scary. We hit the treeline and found wind but not as severe as predicted, and the conditions were still socked in – we had no views to enjoy on one of the best view hikes in the Whites. We stopped for headgear and were soon on our way to Bondcliff Trail. As we approached the junction we could see the others up ahead in a small section of scrub. We decided to cut the corner and headed straight to another re-group. The area is covered with a nice Styrofoam crust and we had no problem with the small shortcut.
Back together, the group set off headed south on Bondcliff Trail over Guyot and on to the W. Bond Spur. We had the wind generally on our backs. It wasn’t severe but enough to keep us moving back into the cover south of Guyot. We passed the Guyot Tentsite and in a short .2 miles were at the W. Bond Spur making the turn for our next check mark. Along the way the wind seemed to be doing a pretty good job of clearing things out for us. In a short half mile through the col and to the summit we found outstanding 360 degree views were opening up. There were still clouds blowing through but they just made for interesting pictures. We’re having fun now! We all put the cameras to work on W. Bond to record some terrific images from the day and were soon headed back out to Bondcliff Trail.
Re-grouped on Bondcliff Trail I did a quick time check. To my surprise we were running over an hour and a half ahead of book time, which includes an extended stop at Zealand Falls Hut. We’re having a great day!
We all slowly set off for Mount Bond. First a couple left, then a couple more, and eventually everybody was on the way to the next summit. Once we broke into the summit clearing we were treated to more outstanding views. Even Mount Washington was visible with its summit poking through some clouds. We briefly enjoyed the scenery, got our summit pictures, viewed the terrain to the south leading to our next target, and took off for Bondcliff. Initially we enjoyed a sheltered descent from Bond and then we broke onto the open ridge and got blown around a little on the walk to Bondcliff. The area still had some ice that we found on our earlier visit of a few weeks ago but there was much more crusty snow that made for great traction. The hiking to Bondcliff was easy. We were enjoying great Bonds conditions; sunny, lots of blue sky, terrific 360 degree views, and no mosquitoes. We were all spread out over a couple hundred yards but that happens when such a group is enjoying the conditions we had. People were stopping at all times to get more pictures. Eventually we were all together on the summit of Bondcliff.
Some visited the cliff for their “Cliff Shots” (the wind was blowing in a safe direction), others just enjoyed the time we had on Bondcliff (one of the real special places in The Whites). The pictures were all taken, we had hit all of our targets, and all that was left was a nine-mile walk back to the vehicles we stationed at Lincoln Woods earlier in the day. Oh yeah – one more thing before we leave – Happy Birthday Dear Kevin, Happy Birthday To You! We all sang the birthday song – Kevin got one of those check marks for the day too.
Usually, when Sue and I have done this hike when the days are short we try to be off Bondcliff before dark. It hasn’t always worked out and we have hiked out from as far back as Mount Bond with headlights. That didn’t happen on this hike. We not only got off Bondcliff before dark, we got off Bondcliff Trail and were well into Wilderness Trail before the headlights came out. The final ~3.5 miles were under the lights. Again, we got a little spread out on the home stretch as we quietly made our way back to civilization.
Roughly 2.5 hours earlier than expected we were all in the parking lot; packing, deciding on the vehicles needed for the return run to retrieve the cars from our start, saying our goodbyes, and enjoying the thoughts of a great Bonds Traverse. And, it was a great one! The weather cooperated perfectly. I’m pretty sure Kevin couldn’t have come up with a better way to spend his birthday. I think we all wish Judy and Emma could have also been there but Emma’s safety needs to be considered – you guys do a great job with her.
Thanks everybody for a terrific day in the mountains. I know everybody with the possible exception of Brian filled in their NH48 and W48 lists a little. Sue and I ended the day with a full set of Bonds Traverses; we’ve hiked one in each month – together.
I’ve posted some pictures from the day.
BIGEarl's Pictures
Straight to the slideshow
Trails: Zealand Road, Zealand Trail, Twinway, Bondcliff Trail (End-to-End), West Bond Spur, Wilderness Trail
Summits: Zealand, West Bond, Bond, Bondcliff
Hikers: Marty Emmick, Jason Berard, LarryD (Larry Donoghue), Kevin Talbot, Paradox (John Messinger), Karen Robi, Ken Robi, Dave Chase, Brian Tausendfreund, Bikehikeskifish (Tim Lucia), Trail Trotter (Sue) and me
Guess what time Sue needs to wake up in order to meet me at 2:30am at the Park & Ride. I really enjoy morning people.
It’s a new month and a new list to go with it. The toughest target we have for February is a Zealand – Bonds Traverse; it was our priority hike. We decided it would be best to hike it as early as possible. We posted it for others to join and what a group we enjoyed. I knew there were a couple that wanted to get these peaks for their W48 but never expected to have such a group of strong hikers. I know, we were a couple over the limit – call the Forest Service. The only times we were together were on the occasional stops to re-group, and the summits. Otherwise, we spent most of the day in two or three smaller clusters of hikers spread over roughly a hundred yards. What a great day we had; a big group of peak baggers, each chasing his/her own list, and for the day at least everything lined up perfectly.
We started with roughly half meeting at Lincoln Woods (4:30am) to spot vehicles and drive to the trailhead lot on Rte 302 where we met the others. We had an on-trail target of 6:00am and we nailed it. My expectation for reaching Lincoln Woods was roughly 9:00pm, but we weren’t even close – I’m getting ahead of myself. We had cool temperature (the truck showed 9 degrees), overcast, blowing snow, and an interesting forecast for the day that seemed to indicate we should expect generally clear conditions, but lots of wind.
The start of this hike in winter is a ~3.5 mile road walk on the closed-for-the-season Zealand Road. A couple long-legged hikers (you know how you are) got out front and flew to the summer trailhead. I did my best to keep up but could only generally stay within sight (on the long straight sections of road). Our first re-group happened 3.5 miles and 1hr 15min into the day at the summer trailhead. I believe we were all warmed up at this point. We hung around long enough for those of us that bare-booted the road to pull out MicroSpikes, or Hillsounds. Soon we were on the trail; our next stop would be Zealand Falls Hut.
The trail is very well tracked out and solid. We had a light dusting of snow but that was only around a half inch; just enough to dress everything up a little. All of the high water we experienced on our hike of a few weeks back was gone and the crossings frozen. Soon, we were at the hut taking a brief break and preparing for the real hike which was about to start. We all took on some fuel, some picked up water, and we all changed from the light traction to our snowshoes; one set of Atlas and the rest were MSR’s. The trail was a solid snowshoe track leaving the hut. A short distance after crossing the falls above the hut we were making the climb to Zeacliff. Traction wasn’t a problem all day long. There was very little ice, just a good snowshoe track with great traction. The only problem we ran into on the climb to Zeacliff was the climb itself; it’s steep! Eventually we re-grouped at the viewpoint spur, had quick refreshment, and set off across Zealand Ridge to Zealand Mountain. The day was not clearing out as predicted and there were no views at all. Along the way to Zealand Mountain we met MadRiver and DaveBear near the Zealand summit spur. We stopped for a brief visit but were soon on our way to the summit, a couple pictures, and u-turn back out.
Another re-group on Twinway at the Zealand spur and we continued heading to the north end of Bondcliff Trail. Along the way we met Ryan doing what he does well – burnin’ up the trails. Sorry but I didn’t recognize his hiking partner or take the opportunity to introduce myself (poor social skills). Every time I bump into him it’s a treat and I really enjoyed seeing Ryan yesterday. He and his partner weren’t able to complete their “Plan A” for the day and landed on a S-N Bonds-Zealand-Hale traverse as their salvage plan. Impressive.
Those of us in the back continued our climb to the treeline near Guyot. The forecast predicted a lot of wind from the northwest and I asked Sue more than once if she hears wind. I was concerned that we layered-up before stepping out into the exposed area. Sue told me she could hear wind but nothing scary. We hit the treeline and found wind but not as severe as predicted, and the conditions were still socked in – we had no views to enjoy on one of the best view hikes in the Whites. We stopped for headgear and were soon on our way to Bondcliff Trail. As we approached the junction we could see the others up ahead in a small section of scrub. We decided to cut the corner and headed straight to another re-group. The area is covered with a nice Styrofoam crust and we had no problem with the small shortcut.
Back together, the group set off headed south on Bondcliff Trail over Guyot and on to the W. Bond Spur. We had the wind generally on our backs. It wasn’t severe but enough to keep us moving back into the cover south of Guyot. We passed the Guyot Tentsite and in a short .2 miles were at the W. Bond Spur making the turn for our next check mark. Along the way the wind seemed to be doing a pretty good job of clearing things out for us. In a short half mile through the col and to the summit we found outstanding 360 degree views were opening up. There were still clouds blowing through but they just made for interesting pictures. We’re having fun now! We all put the cameras to work on W. Bond to record some terrific images from the day and were soon headed back out to Bondcliff Trail.
Re-grouped on Bondcliff Trail I did a quick time check. To my surprise we were running over an hour and a half ahead of book time, which includes an extended stop at Zealand Falls Hut. We’re having a great day!
We all slowly set off for Mount Bond. First a couple left, then a couple more, and eventually everybody was on the way to the next summit. Once we broke into the summit clearing we were treated to more outstanding views. Even Mount Washington was visible with its summit poking through some clouds. We briefly enjoyed the scenery, got our summit pictures, viewed the terrain to the south leading to our next target, and took off for Bondcliff. Initially we enjoyed a sheltered descent from Bond and then we broke onto the open ridge and got blown around a little on the walk to Bondcliff. The area still had some ice that we found on our earlier visit of a few weeks ago but there was much more crusty snow that made for great traction. The hiking to Bondcliff was easy. We were enjoying great Bonds conditions; sunny, lots of blue sky, terrific 360 degree views, and no mosquitoes. We were all spread out over a couple hundred yards but that happens when such a group is enjoying the conditions we had. People were stopping at all times to get more pictures. Eventually we were all together on the summit of Bondcliff.
Some visited the cliff for their “Cliff Shots” (the wind was blowing in a safe direction), others just enjoyed the time we had on Bondcliff (one of the real special places in The Whites). The pictures were all taken, we had hit all of our targets, and all that was left was a nine-mile walk back to the vehicles we stationed at Lincoln Woods earlier in the day. Oh yeah – one more thing before we leave – Happy Birthday Dear Kevin, Happy Birthday To You! We all sang the birthday song – Kevin got one of those check marks for the day too.
Usually, when Sue and I have done this hike when the days are short we try to be off Bondcliff before dark. It hasn’t always worked out and we have hiked out from as far back as Mount Bond with headlights. That didn’t happen on this hike. We not only got off Bondcliff before dark, we got off Bondcliff Trail and were well into Wilderness Trail before the headlights came out. The final ~3.5 miles were under the lights. Again, we got a little spread out on the home stretch as we quietly made our way back to civilization.
Roughly 2.5 hours earlier than expected we were all in the parking lot; packing, deciding on the vehicles needed for the return run to retrieve the cars from our start, saying our goodbyes, and enjoying the thoughts of a great Bonds Traverse. And, it was a great one! The weather cooperated perfectly. I’m pretty sure Kevin couldn’t have come up with a better way to spend his birthday. I think we all wish Judy and Emma could have also been there but Emma’s safety needs to be considered – you guys do a great job with her.
Thanks everybody for a terrific day in the mountains. I know everybody with the possible exception of Brian filled in their NH48 and W48 lists a little. Sue and I ended the day with a full set of Bonds Traverses; we’ve hiked one in each month – together.
I’ve posted some pictures from the day.
BIGEarl's Pictures
Straight to the slideshow
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