sapblatt
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2004
- Messages
- 2,177
- Reaction score
- 286
After our trip last year to Crag Camp, Bobby and I thought it would be fun to do another backpack this October. A couple of months ago we started to think of ideas of where we could head. Traversing a big part of the Pemi (sort of) and getting Bobby Zealand and the Bonds (which he needs) became the agenda. We met at Lincoln Woods on Monday morning for the lengthy car spot over to the Willey House where we would start our hike on the Kedron Flume Trail. We got geared up and were on the trail by 8am up towards the Kedron Flume. This trail meanders up from the highway and reaches the Flume in about one mile – the dry summer and early fall made for a less than spectacular water display, but the views across the notch were impressive. After this, the trail continues steeply for a short ways until it meets the Ethan Pond Trail. As the Kedron Trail ends here, it is a no-brainer, but we both noticed that the Kedron Trail is not marked at the junction, so descending you would need to know what you were doing.
Ethan Pond Trail eased its way past the junction with the Willey Trail and heads towards the pond over a few hundred puncheons. On one of them, about ten feet in front of me Bobby told me there was a grouse – I was not paying attention. This is the first time I have seen one that did not try to scare me to death! I actually got some pictures as the bird walked away into the woods rather slowly. The pond is reached eventually and is quite beautiful – the shelter and tent platforms are a ways past the pond so it looks very natural. We took a quick break here and continued on towards the Shoal Pond Trail and that pond. We took the short and quick trip to the pond – this area is quite remote, and the pond looked like moose heaven – although we were there at midday and saw no activity. I did manage to post hole to my knee in some mud…on towards Thoreau Falls…
After my visit to Thoreau Falls a couple of weeks ago during heavy rain, where the falls were totally impassable it was nice to see them on a calmer day where a four year old could have safely crossed. I am so glad we did not even try on this day as the falls have a very large pot hole in them right where you cross – this was not visible under the six feet of water that was there last time. So I got to cross just for fun and we took a lot of pictures there – very beautiful falls and very popular side trip for folks that were staying at Zealand Hut.
I have been a top the Zeacliffs a couple of times and had admired Whitewall Mountain – well, it is just as spectacular up close when you pass right under it on the Ethan Pond Trail. The slides and cliffs are very impressive. We went across the scenic area and made our way to the Zeacliff Trail, which I will say is a very strenuous, difficult descent when carrying large overnight packs. Very slow going and a real knee crusher. Soon enough, although it seemed like an eternity we bottomed out and crossed Whitewall Brook and made it to the area we planned to camp in (thanks to the suggestions of folks on VFTT) and we were setting up camp around 4-5 pm. Eating and camping and the rustic art of listening to the Patriot’s game while walled in by the Zeacliffs and Whitewall Mountain was fun – we made it through the first half and had one very cool visitor – a fox passed within about 10-15 feet of our camp and was circling our camp and checking us out for a few minutes before taking off for good. A good night sleep, a quick break down and breakfast had us heading up the Zeacliff Trail before 8am.
Well, the guidebook says not to do this trail with a heavy pack, LarryD told us he came down it and it was tough, and SherpaKroto told us that when he did it many years ago someone had written on the sign something to the effect that you would have to be an idiot to go up this with a heavy pack. So, being well-informed, Bobby and I gave it our typical “how bad can it possibly be?” and headed up. The idea of saving 2-3 miles over the easier route was appealing and we knew that there were some easy sections. We figured it would take us about two hours and we were right. It really was not that bad and we have no regrets over doing it. The first part was just a lot of steep sections followed by very short level sections – then it moderates a lot before getting to the big scrambles closer to the top. A couple required some thought but none were impossible (there was no chance in hell we were going back down that trail, so we were very motivated! The views were great, the exposure minimal – just a few tough scrambles before it levels out and reaches the Twinway. We headed back towards the Zeacliffs and checked out the view to Whitewall and down to the valley where we had camped then back on the Twinway towards the Bondcliff Trail.
It is a long and winding, fairly easy trip over to Zealand and Guyot – the views from Guyot were spectacular – great views over the Pemi, Franconia Ridge and South Twin. We took a ton of pics and soaked it in for awhile here. We then made our way towards the Guyot tent platforms for the night. A piece of advice – get a free standing tent if you are going to use a platform – it took us well over an hour to get our tents secured – it was a real pain, and at best they were moderately secured. We knew it was going to be windy and that it might rain – we were lucky, as it did not. We finished up, decided to eat dinner late and slack packed it over to West Bond for what proved to be a spectacular sunset. I took way too many pics of this, and included a few here – I will do a separate thread and include all of those pics when I get a chance. Got back around 7pm had a late dinner and hit the tents after being amazed by all the stars and one shooting star – I got up around midnight and it was real cold outside the tent and it was foggy. We got up early, at first light and skipped the hot breakfast – broke camp and again were on the trail before 8am towards the Bonds.
The Bonds were going to prove to be less than perfect today with limited visibility. But we were able to get the peaks for Bobby, who I think now has 33/48 – but he probably has Washington 48 times! We made our way down at a good clip, without too much discomfort back to Lincoln Woods around 4pm and got my car back and had a late swine fest at the Yankee Smokehouse – we did not even ask them if they had instant rice or Ramen Noodles! Again – a great time, great trip and no rain!
PICTURES – about 50 edited down from 202 that I took – Bobby will be linking to his pictures as well:
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaKIkg
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaKIkg
Ethan Pond Trail eased its way past the junction with the Willey Trail and heads towards the pond over a few hundred puncheons. On one of them, about ten feet in front of me Bobby told me there was a grouse – I was not paying attention. This is the first time I have seen one that did not try to scare me to death! I actually got some pictures as the bird walked away into the woods rather slowly. The pond is reached eventually and is quite beautiful – the shelter and tent platforms are a ways past the pond so it looks very natural. We took a quick break here and continued on towards the Shoal Pond Trail and that pond. We took the short and quick trip to the pond – this area is quite remote, and the pond looked like moose heaven – although we were there at midday and saw no activity. I did manage to post hole to my knee in some mud…on towards Thoreau Falls…
After my visit to Thoreau Falls a couple of weeks ago during heavy rain, where the falls were totally impassable it was nice to see them on a calmer day where a four year old could have safely crossed. I am so glad we did not even try on this day as the falls have a very large pot hole in them right where you cross – this was not visible under the six feet of water that was there last time. So I got to cross just for fun and we took a lot of pictures there – very beautiful falls and very popular side trip for folks that were staying at Zealand Hut.
I have been a top the Zeacliffs a couple of times and had admired Whitewall Mountain – well, it is just as spectacular up close when you pass right under it on the Ethan Pond Trail. The slides and cliffs are very impressive. We went across the scenic area and made our way to the Zeacliff Trail, which I will say is a very strenuous, difficult descent when carrying large overnight packs. Very slow going and a real knee crusher. Soon enough, although it seemed like an eternity we bottomed out and crossed Whitewall Brook and made it to the area we planned to camp in (thanks to the suggestions of folks on VFTT) and we were setting up camp around 4-5 pm. Eating and camping and the rustic art of listening to the Patriot’s game while walled in by the Zeacliffs and Whitewall Mountain was fun – we made it through the first half and had one very cool visitor – a fox passed within about 10-15 feet of our camp and was circling our camp and checking us out for a few minutes before taking off for good. A good night sleep, a quick break down and breakfast had us heading up the Zeacliff Trail before 8am.
Well, the guidebook says not to do this trail with a heavy pack, LarryD told us he came down it and it was tough, and SherpaKroto told us that when he did it many years ago someone had written on the sign something to the effect that you would have to be an idiot to go up this with a heavy pack. So, being well-informed, Bobby and I gave it our typical “how bad can it possibly be?” and headed up. The idea of saving 2-3 miles over the easier route was appealing and we knew that there were some easy sections. We figured it would take us about two hours and we were right. It really was not that bad and we have no regrets over doing it. The first part was just a lot of steep sections followed by very short level sections – then it moderates a lot before getting to the big scrambles closer to the top. A couple required some thought but none were impossible (there was no chance in hell we were going back down that trail, so we were very motivated! The views were great, the exposure minimal – just a few tough scrambles before it levels out and reaches the Twinway. We headed back towards the Zeacliffs and checked out the view to Whitewall and down to the valley where we had camped then back on the Twinway towards the Bondcliff Trail.
It is a long and winding, fairly easy trip over to Zealand and Guyot – the views from Guyot were spectacular – great views over the Pemi, Franconia Ridge and South Twin. We took a ton of pics and soaked it in for awhile here. We then made our way towards the Guyot tent platforms for the night. A piece of advice – get a free standing tent if you are going to use a platform – it took us well over an hour to get our tents secured – it was a real pain, and at best they were moderately secured. We knew it was going to be windy and that it might rain – we were lucky, as it did not. We finished up, decided to eat dinner late and slack packed it over to West Bond for what proved to be a spectacular sunset. I took way too many pics of this, and included a few here – I will do a separate thread and include all of those pics when I get a chance. Got back around 7pm had a late dinner and hit the tents after being amazed by all the stars and one shooting star – I got up around midnight and it was real cold outside the tent and it was foggy. We got up early, at first light and skipped the hot breakfast – broke camp and again were on the trail before 8am towards the Bonds.
The Bonds were going to prove to be less than perfect today with limited visibility. But we were able to get the peaks for Bobby, who I think now has 33/48 – but he probably has Washington 48 times! We made our way down at a good clip, without too much discomfort back to Lincoln Woods around 4pm and got my car back and had a late swine fest at the Yankee Smokehouse – we did not even ask them if they had instant rice or Ramen Noodles! Again – a great time, great trip and no rain!
PICTURES – about 50 edited down from 202 that I took – Bobby will be linking to his pictures as well:
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaKIkg
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaKIkg
? We got through it, working together, telling the occasional bad joke to keep things light.
