Well it seems like there were a whole bunch of us out there on Friday doing a traverse. We didn't want to be left out.
It was a fantastic day to be in the mountains. 49 degrees at the start of the hike at the North Twin trailhead but warming up as the day went on. We had spotted a car at the Wilderness trailhead the night before.
Going over North Twin and South Twin and the Bonds, including the spur up to West Bond, works out to about 19.2 miles. Elevation gain for the day is not huge, it's just a lot of miles.
Had a chat with a WMNF backcounty ranger on the summit of Bondcliff. Young guy, very enthusiastic about the mountains and the history of the Whites. Good guy. He told us the story of how the Owl's Head summit sign came down.
His boss had taken a hike up Owl's Head about a month before the sign and cairn came down. The boss would have taken the sign down right then and there but he didn't have any tools. Well he sends one of his backcounty rangers up there to break up the cairn and take down the sign. Apparently the bc ranger took the sign down with a leatherman tool. Took him about 10 minutes we were told. No special equipment needed. The reason being that it is an unmaintained trail in a wilderness area and should not have any signage. If the trail was officially maintained, the WMNF would be happy to put up a sign at the start of the trail to mark the trail.
Continuing our hike down, we run into two hikers looking for a spot to camp for the night. After chatting with them for a few minutes, turns out one of them had actually been up on Owl's Head the same time the WMNF boss was up there checking out the illegal sign. Talk about coincidences! As we were chatting, the bc ranger we talked with on Bondcliff comes along. He fixes these two guys up with a legal campsite. Like I said, he's a good guy. These two guys we met are also VFTT'ers so maybe they'll have a word to add.
Dinner at the Station and a good night's sleep completed the day.
Photographs: www.jj1.smugmug.com
It was a fantastic day to be in the mountains. 49 degrees at the start of the hike at the North Twin trailhead but warming up as the day went on. We had spotted a car at the Wilderness trailhead the night before.
Going over North Twin and South Twin and the Bonds, including the spur up to West Bond, works out to about 19.2 miles. Elevation gain for the day is not huge, it's just a lot of miles.
Had a chat with a WMNF backcounty ranger on the summit of Bondcliff. Young guy, very enthusiastic about the mountains and the history of the Whites. Good guy. He told us the story of how the Owl's Head summit sign came down.
His boss had taken a hike up Owl's Head about a month before the sign and cairn came down. The boss would have taken the sign down right then and there but he didn't have any tools. Well he sends one of his backcounty rangers up there to break up the cairn and take down the sign. Apparently the bc ranger took the sign down with a leatherman tool. Took him about 10 minutes we were told. No special equipment needed. The reason being that it is an unmaintained trail in a wilderness area and should not have any signage. If the trail was officially maintained, the WMNF would be happy to put up a sign at the start of the trail to mark the trail.
Continuing our hike down, we run into two hikers looking for a spot to camp for the night. After chatting with them for a few minutes, turns out one of them had actually been up on Owl's Head the same time the WMNF boss was up there checking out the illegal sign. Talk about coincidences! As we were chatting, the bc ranger we talked with on Bondcliff comes along. He fixes these two guys up with a legal campsite. Like I said, he's a good guy. These two guys we met are also VFTT'ers so maybe they'll have a word to add.
Dinner at the Station and a good night's sleep completed the day.
Photographs: www.jj1.smugmug.com
