The Bonds, Guyot, Zealand south to north 7/27

[Silverfox]

Trail Conditions: A few mud pits on Limcoln Woods and Wilderness Trails..water crossings no problem..the railroad ties get more and more annoying..Bondcliff Trail in good shape with winter brushing evident..water crossings low but flowing..Many blueberries on the ascent to Bond..Much trailwork evident on West Bond Spur. Twin Way rocks dry which make it better..crew is hard at work on new bog bridges all along Zealand Ridge..Z bridge on Zealand trail partially flooded from eager beavers

Equipment: nothing special..went through some water and snacks but aside from sunglasses and a hat nothing came out of the bag

Comments: certainly a Bonds worthy day out in what turned out to be a solo adventure..Beautiful temps and humidity levels made for quick going thoughout the day..Many folks struggling hut to hut along the Twinway.. Trail crews are hard at work fencing in Mount Bond..which looks crazy..despite the good intentions..and putting in many bog bridges along the Twinway..Zealand Hut full for the night with lots of activity going on..quick descent to the road ...9:20 trail time...3 quick rides got me back to lincoln woods in 45 minutes..life is good

pics maybe at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/silverfox777/sets/72157624597806288/

 

[mahony]

I noticed someone was fencing up Guyot (both knobs) too. The whole concept seems a little silly given the concept of bushwhacking, but I guess if it keeps a few people off the rocks and plants that isn't too bad. It really mucks up the look though....

 

[Raven]

Trail crews are hard at work fencing in Mount Bond..which looks crazy..despite the good intentions..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/silverfox777/sets/72157624597806288/

What???? Hey Silverfox! - sounds like a great day for the Bonds other than the fence part; mind filling me in on the fencing? What are they doing up there? What kind of fence?

Does anyone have the details on this? I missed this one...

Thanks!

 

[MichaelJ]

No permission to view the pics.

Raven, I'm thinking "scree wall" might be the more descriptive term?

 

[mahony]

There's a boulder on top of Bond...it's the one you can see from Bondcliff...that sits alone on the South facing side of the summit.

http://picasaweb.google.com/billmahony/Bond?feat=directlink

If you stand on it you get a great view down to Bondcliff. The whole area where this boulder is located is "fenced" off.


I didn't take a "fence" picture this time. The "fence" is a one deep rock wall that is about 4 feet high. It looks fairly precarious and it spans probably 15 feet with one of those trail working crowbars at one end. The wall is fairly tight on both ends right up to rock and scrub to make it perfectly clear that someone does not want you to go past. The wall is tall and would not last the winter intact. It also violates the "no-man-made structures" rule for the Wilderness (if you can't even put a cairn on Owl's Head Mountain, then this is the felony of wilderness structures).

The "fences" on Guyot were much smaller and used more branches (and they aren't technically in the Pemi)

I also noticed that the AMC (not NFS) has closed the Guyot overflow camp sites with (AMC) signs saying no camping.

 

[Raven]

It also violates the "no-man-made structures" rule for the Wilderness (if you can't even put a cairn on Owl's Head Mountain, then this is the felony of wilderness structures).

Thanks for the clarification Mahoney and Michael. My first concern involved the wilderness rules and what kind of barricade/fence this was. I was up there a couple weeks back and didn't see anything going on.

Interesting that they have justified this type of structure somehow - understand the need to keep people out of sensitive areas but would rather see it accomplished in other ways than this (more hiker education?)

 

[una_dogger]

Nice one! You are really getting up there in the 3's.

 

[Silverfox]

sorry guys about the pics..I did not know that flickr had changed their settings

 

[MichaelJ]

I think it's just that one set, Mark. I can see all your other sets.

 

[Cymbidium]

343 is a very good number. Excellent!

 

[Silverfox]

i think the pictures will show now...the "fence" took quite a bit of time and thought to create..also many large piles of brush / dead trees hemming in the trail..I noticed also that the guyot overflow sites were closed by amc and thought that a bit odd...

 

[--M.]

Was just there and saw all of this. The bright young lad manning the Guyot Campsite was eager to explain how the overflow sites were obviously illegal and sat directly above the spring and therefore constitute "a bad example." He went on to say that they were also very soggy in the wet and would subject a tent to almost full-force exposure, "ripping it to shreds" in bad weather.

I, too, did not like the rock wall, but took the bad with the unbelievably good and kept on movin'. We'll see what the future holds!

Congrats on your hiking!