DISCLAIMER: COULD GET REALLY CORNY...
It’s dark out and lightly snowing. Even without the sun or moon, I don’t need my headlamp to walk the road. I’m headed up the closed-for-winter Zealand Road to the Hale Brook Trail about 2.5 miles in.
Forecast today is for sunny skies, mild temps, and 7-8mph winds, which is perfect, for it’s going to be a long day. The winds from the night have not yet died down and even though it’s still for a moment, I can hear them approaching over the treetops. Suddenly the snow is getting kicked up in my face and I’m pulling my hat down and hunching up my shoulders.
The trip up over Hale was an easy and pleasant walk and I arrive at the summit within 2.5 hours after leaving the Zealand parking lot. The sky is full of dark clouds and the wind is still blowing pretty hard. I am looking forward to it tapering off for when I will be above treeline on the Bonds.
I proceed down the Lend A Hand trail, which with the warm weather, has simply turned into a running river and is often quite deep. Only very experienced rock-hoppers need try this trail. Right before the junction of the Twinway, you have to cross the brook. Normally, this would be no problem, but the runoff had the water gushing down over the rocks which all had an invisible sheet of ice on top. Even with my tentative checking of the tops of the rocks with my boots and poking with the ends of my poles, I ended up in the brook twice. Both times up to just below the knee, but above the top of my gaiter, much to my dismay. As I walked down to the hut, I could feel the cold water seeping down my socks into my boots.
I was not looking forward to a long day with wet feet, but thankfully, they weren’t totally soaked and so didn’t end up bothering me too much.
After a visit to the hut, the sun begins breaking through the clouds. It lifts my spirits and I get new energy to get over to Zealand. The Twinway Trail is just a series of ups and downs and it really tries ones patience. Sometimes, when the sun was hidden, the wind would pick up and give my wet feet a good chill, and I would become discouraged. With no partner to talk to, no one to cheer you on or tell you a story to get your mind off of things, you have to rely on yourself to keep going. When I finish the day, it’s these small trials that make the hike so much more satisfying than if it had been a piece of cake the entire time.
I reach the Zealand summit 3 hours after leaving Hale. It takes me several tries with the camera to get a shot of me with the sign. A friend once showed me a cool trick with the wrist strap where you use it to hang the camera from a branch. It’s really a neat way to take a picture and would have worked great if I had had a wrist strap on my camera. I don’t have much luck with cameras and by the end of the day, this one will have been tossed down the rocks by the wind, dropped into a snow drift, and stuck open when the condensation on it froze.
By the time I reach the junction of Bondcliff, the sun is finally fully out. The strong winds have carried all the clouds away, and I am looking at spending a wonderful afternoon on the Bonds in the sunshine.
I enjoy crossing over the summit of Guyot, which is one of my favorites. Not necessarily the exact peak itself, but the whole area right there is so beautiful. I don’t get to spend as much time as I want since the wind has not subsided, and I find myself being tossed around and staggering like a drunk, until getting down into the trees near the Guyot campsite, where I sit in the sun and eat lunch.
The wind does not sweep across much of the spur to W. Bond which is in the trees anyway. I enjoy a pleasant walk thru the woods with the sun streaming in through the trees and shining on the snow. Once I reach the top, of course, it was quite the opposite. A few pictures, and I carefully climb back down the ledge.
A short distance up the Bondcliff Trail, I can hear the engines of two fighter planes practicing their maneuvers above me. I pick up my pace hoping to get to the summit so I can get a shot of them which would totally thrill my son. Too late, they were long gone before I could get to the open rocks of Bond.
I get a glorious view of Mt. Washington and the surrounding Pemi from Bond and Bondcliff. The afternoon sun is so bright that heading up Bondcliff, I can’t look up the trail as I end up looking directly into the sun and I can’t see a thing.
Having not met a soul on the trail all day, I am surprised to see a team of nine coming down off the summit of Bondcliff as I make my way up. It’s now 2:30 in the afternoon, and I’m wondering where they are heading? They weren’t very talkative and didn’t pause when we passed each other so I was not able to ask them.
I hang out on Bondcliff for a bit, but with no one to take that famous shot on the rock, and knowing that I’ve still got a long 9 miles left before getting to the car, I reluctantly head down.
Oh, the joys of the Wilderness Trail!! I arrive at the bridge at Franconia Falls right at dusk. Out of just plain laziness, I am determined not to stop to put on my headlamp, so I push through those last 3.2 miles as quickly as possible. That was quite a feat since the road, where it wasn’t mud, was sheer ice, having been melted and refrozen to a smooth finish.
It was a beautiful day. I thought I would see many hikers out in the sunshine, but only saw that one group. That’s ok, sometimes it’s all about being alone with yourself and the mountains.
http://sports.webshots.com/album/556939017TpPXUj
It’s dark out and lightly snowing. Even without the sun or moon, I don’t need my headlamp to walk the road. I’m headed up the closed-for-winter Zealand Road to the Hale Brook Trail about 2.5 miles in.
Forecast today is for sunny skies, mild temps, and 7-8mph winds, which is perfect, for it’s going to be a long day. The winds from the night have not yet died down and even though it’s still for a moment, I can hear them approaching over the treetops. Suddenly the snow is getting kicked up in my face and I’m pulling my hat down and hunching up my shoulders.
The trip up over Hale was an easy and pleasant walk and I arrive at the summit within 2.5 hours after leaving the Zealand parking lot. The sky is full of dark clouds and the wind is still blowing pretty hard. I am looking forward to it tapering off for when I will be above treeline on the Bonds.
I proceed down the Lend A Hand trail, which with the warm weather, has simply turned into a running river and is often quite deep. Only very experienced rock-hoppers need try this trail. Right before the junction of the Twinway, you have to cross the brook. Normally, this would be no problem, but the runoff had the water gushing down over the rocks which all had an invisible sheet of ice on top. Even with my tentative checking of the tops of the rocks with my boots and poking with the ends of my poles, I ended up in the brook twice. Both times up to just below the knee, but above the top of my gaiter, much to my dismay. As I walked down to the hut, I could feel the cold water seeping down my socks into my boots.
I was not looking forward to a long day with wet feet, but thankfully, they weren’t totally soaked and so didn’t end up bothering me too much.
After a visit to the hut, the sun begins breaking through the clouds. It lifts my spirits and I get new energy to get over to Zealand. The Twinway Trail is just a series of ups and downs and it really tries ones patience. Sometimes, when the sun was hidden, the wind would pick up and give my wet feet a good chill, and I would become discouraged. With no partner to talk to, no one to cheer you on or tell you a story to get your mind off of things, you have to rely on yourself to keep going. When I finish the day, it’s these small trials that make the hike so much more satisfying than if it had been a piece of cake the entire time.
I reach the Zealand summit 3 hours after leaving Hale. It takes me several tries with the camera to get a shot of me with the sign. A friend once showed me a cool trick with the wrist strap where you use it to hang the camera from a branch. It’s really a neat way to take a picture and would have worked great if I had had a wrist strap on my camera. I don’t have much luck with cameras and by the end of the day, this one will have been tossed down the rocks by the wind, dropped into a snow drift, and stuck open when the condensation on it froze.
By the time I reach the junction of Bondcliff, the sun is finally fully out. The strong winds have carried all the clouds away, and I am looking at spending a wonderful afternoon on the Bonds in the sunshine.
I enjoy crossing over the summit of Guyot, which is one of my favorites. Not necessarily the exact peak itself, but the whole area right there is so beautiful. I don’t get to spend as much time as I want since the wind has not subsided, and I find myself being tossed around and staggering like a drunk, until getting down into the trees near the Guyot campsite, where I sit in the sun and eat lunch.
The wind does not sweep across much of the spur to W. Bond which is in the trees anyway. I enjoy a pleasant walk thru the woods with the sun streaming in through the trees and shining on the snow. Once I reach the top, of course, it was quite the opposite. A few pictures, and I carefully climb back down the ledge.
A short distance up the Bondcliff Trail, I can hear the engines of two fighter planes practicing their maneuvers above me. I pick up my pace hoping to get to the summit so I can get a shot of them which would totally thrill my son. Too late, they were long gone before I could get to the open rocks of Bond.
I get a glorious view of Mt. Washington and the surrounding Pemi from Bond and Bondcliff. The afternoon sun is so bright that heading up Bondcliff, I can’t look up the trail as I end up looking directly into the sun and I can’t see a thing.
Having not met a soul on the trail all day, I am surprised to see a team of nine coming down off the summit of Bondcliff as I make my way up. It’s now 2:30 in the afternoon, and I’m wondering where they are heading? They weren’t very talkative and didn’t pause when we passed each other so I was not able to ask them.
I hang out on Bondcliff for a bit, but with no one to take that famous shot on the rock, and knowing that I’ve still got a long 9 miles left before getting to the car, I reluctantly head down.
Oh, the joys of the Wilderness Trail!! I arrive at the bridge at Franconia Falls right at dusk. Out of just plain laziness, I am determined not to stop to put on my headlamp, so I push through those last 3.2 miles as quickly as possible. That was quite a feat since the road, where it wasn’t mud, was sheer ice, having been melted and refrozen to a smooth finish.
It was a beautiful day. I thought I would see many hikers out in the sunshine, but only saw that one group. That’s ok, sometimes it’s all about being alone with yourself and the mountains.
http://sports.webshots.com/album/556939017TpPXUj
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