albee
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I just wanted to share a unique and enjoyable route with anyone that is interested.
Charlie, Scott, and I took a day off on Thursday (3/18/10) to do a rather long traverse - Little River Road in Twin Mountain to Lincoln Woods. It was billed as 23.4 miles on trail, but we executed a nifty bushwhack that cut 2.3 miles and 400' elevation off of the route.
We started at the end of Little River Road, and followed the old North Twin trail to Haystack Road. From there, we took the North Twin trail, the river-crossing bypass, and the abandoned Firewarden's trail to the summit of Hale. Along the way, there were excellent views of the Presidentials and the back side of Bretton Woods from a viewpoint just before Hale's summit. This trail never disappoints - we all agreed it is hands down the best way up Mt. Hale, especially in winter.
It was a little hard to follow the Lend-a-Hand trail off the summit, as all of the signs are more or less buried in the summit clearing. We bashed though some trees and eventually found the blazes 4" off the ground in the woods. We took this trail downhill for about a mile. The previous party's snowshoe tracks almost led us off the wrong side of the mountain at one point, but we found the trail in time to get to the start of the South Hale bushwhack.
When we reached the point on the trail closest to South Hale's summit, we cut to the right and into the woods. There is a false summit that we bypassed through moderate woods, and once we reached the ridge it was smooth sailing through open woods all the way to the true summit. From there, we headed south and hugged the west side of South Hale without losing too much elevation. We found the col fairly easily, and steeply made our way up towards the northern ridge of Zealand mountain.
From Hale's summit, we could see that there were some pretty nice looking woods on the north slope of Zealand, and we were not disappointed. There was a thick patch, some cliffs, and a false bump to bypass early in the ascent - staying to the east led us to nice, open woods and a smooth climb up to the ridge proper. From there, it was pure enjoyment finding open woods and unhindered progress the entire way, right up to the sign on the summit of Zealand. I strongly caution anyone that attempts this route in non-winter conditions, as it looked like some pretty scrappy woods were buried beneath the 5'+ of snow that is currently on the ridge. The views of the Twins and Presidentials were truly unique from that vantage point, and it was interesting to get such a close look at all of the slides on the eastern slopes of South Twin mountain. It took 3.3 miles and under 2.5 hours to go from Hale's summit to Zealand's summit, including the 2.3 mile bushwhack.
From Zealand, we briefly went the wrong way on the Twinway, but corrected ourselves and eventually found our way to Guyot. We were happy that someone had left a snowshoe trail, even if it wasn't always following the real trail. The summit of Guyot was extremely windy, and we hustled to the shelter of the woods on the Bondcliff trail. We dropped packs at the West Bond spur, and Charlie and I dashed down and up to West Bond's summit. Scott got a little turned around on the spur trail, since the snowshoe tracks divided and converged a couple times. He wisely turned back and we found him waiting for us back at the packs. It stinks that we all made it that far and he didn't get to claim a winter ascent of West Bond, but he made the decision to skip it due to time and energy constraints, and we had to abide.
We pressed on to the summit of Bond, and were treated to some nice views of the sun setting over Franconia Ridge. We made it to Bondcliff a little later, enjoying a mile or so without snowshoes on. After eating a short dinner on Bondcliff, we got out our headlamps for the long walk back to the cars. Thankfully, the Bondcliff trail is well-defined and we were able to easily follow it back to the Wilderness trail. The 4.7 mile march out to the parking lot seemed interminable at times, but was but a small price to pay for the beautiful weather, warm temperatures, and spectacular views we had enjoyed all afternoon. What a way to end the winter hiking season!
Charlie, Scott, and I took a day off on Thursday (3/18/10) to do a rather long traverse - Little River Road in Twin Mountain to Lincoln Woods. It was billed as 23.4 miles on trail, but we executed a nifty bushwhack that cut 2.3 miles and 400' elevation off of the route.
We started at the end of Little River Road, and followed the old North Twin trail to Haystack Road. From there, we took the North Twin trail, the river-crossing bypass, and the abandoned Firewarden's trail to the summit of Hale. Along the way, there were excellent views of the Presidentials and the back side of Bretton Woods from a viewpoint just before Hale's summit. This trail never disappoints - we all agreed it is hands down the best way up Mt. Hale, especially in winter.
It was a little hard to follow the Lend-a-Hand trail off the summit, as all of the signs are more or less buried in the summit clearing. We bashed though some trees and eventually found the blazes 4" off the ground in the woods. We took this trail downhill for about a mile. The previous party's snowshoe tracks almost led us off the wrong side of the mountain at one point, but we found the trail in time to get to the start of the South Hale bushwhack.
When we reached the point on the trail closest to South Hale's summit, we cut to the right and into the woods. There is a false summit that we bypassed through moderate woods, and once we reached the ridge it was smooth sailing through open woods all the way to the true summit. From there, we headed south and hugged the west side of South Hale without losing too much elevation. We found the col fairly easily, and steeply made our way up towards the northern ridge of Zealand mountain.
From Hale's summit, we could see that there were some pretty nice looking woods on the north slope of Zealand, and we were not disappointed. There was a thick patch, some cliffs, and a false bump to bypass early in the ascent - staying to the east led us to nice, open woods and a smooth climb up to the ridge proper. From there, it was pure enjoyment finding open woods and unhindered progress the entire way, right up to the sign on the summit of Zealand. I strongly caution anyone that attempts this route in non-winter conditions, as it looked like some pretty scrappy woods were buried beneath the 5'+ of snow that is currently on the ridge. The views of the Twins and Presidentials were truly unique from that vantage point, and it was interesting to get such a close look at all of the slides on the eastern slopes of South Twin mountain. It took 3.3 miles and under 2.5 hours to go from Hale's summit to Zealand's summit, including the 2.3 mile bushwhack.
From Zealand, we briefly went the wrong way on the Twinway, but corrected ourselves and eventually found our way to Guyot. We were happy that someone had left a snowshoe trail, even if it wasn't always following the real trail. The summit of Guyot was extremely windy, and we hustled to the shelter of the woods on the Bondcliff trail. We dropped packs at the West Bond spur, and Charlie and I dashed down and up to West Bond's summit. Scott got a little turned around on the spur trail, since the snowshoe tracks divided and converged a couple times. He wisely turned back and we found him waiting for us back at the packs. It stinks that we all made it that far and he didn't get to claim a winter ascent of West Bond, but he made the decision to skip it due to time and energy constraints, and we had to abide.
We pressed on to the summit of Bond, and were treated to some nice views of the sun setting over Franconia Ridge. We made it to Bondcliff a little later, enjoying a mile or so without snowshoes on. After eating a short dinner on Bondcliff, we got out our headlamps for the long walk back to the cars. Thankfully, the Bondcliff trail is well-defined and we were able to easily follow it back to the Wilderness trail. The 4.7 mile march out to the parking lot seemed interminable at times, but was but a small price to pay for the beautiful weather, warm temperatures, and spectacular views we had enjoyed all afternoon. What a way to end the winter hiking season!
