Last weekend I backpacked in the Whites, mostly with my friend Mike. The cast of hikers for this trip changed several times during the planning, but in the end it was just me for the first day, and me and Mike for the next two.
Approaching the days of the hike I was worried about the weather. The last forecast I saw before I left had occastional showers and thunderstorms on Friday, mostly dry with a chance of showers on Saturday, and thunderstorms for most of Sunday.
I parked my car in Lincoln Woods, and Mike's son, also Mike, shuttled me to Crawford Depot. He had planned to come and had to cancel, but was nice enough to do the car spot anyway. From there I hiked up to Tom, over to Field, then to Willey, down the very steep south side of Willey to the AT, and over to Ethan Pond Shelter. I met a lot of other hikers in the beginning, but only a couple once I got past Field. Despite the forecast, I didn't get a drop of rain. I went beyond Tom's summit to find the lookout towards the Twins, but somehow got looped back to the summit, and just continued back from there. There were a few views on Field, and a great viewpoint just south of Willey looking out on the Webster Cliffs and the Presidentials.
The elder Mike was at Ethan Pond Shelter when I got there. We set up our tents on platforms (even though neither of us had freestanding tents). Several thunderstorms rolled past while we were in our tents.
The next morning, Saturday, it was partly cloudy. We hiked on Ethan Pond Trail to Zeacliff Trail, which we took. That was very steep. After we got back on the AT (here Twinway Trail), we headed west, with a detour to Zealand Mtn., to Boncliff Trail, which we took to Guyot Shelter. The views around Guyot Mtn. were very nice, if a bit hazy. Except for Zeacliff Trail, we met a lot of people on the trail that day. We did not get a drop of rain that day, either.
While on the Guyot summits I noticed that from the northeast summit the southwest summit looks higher, and from the southwest summit the northeast summit looks higher. I'm still not sure which summit really is higher; although my map puts the true summit to the northeast, I've seen maps which put in to the southwest.
At Guyot we both slept in the shelter itself. Again thunderstorms kept coming through during the night.
The caretaker at Guyot had said that the latest forecast she'd seen for Sunday had thunderstorms arriving at 8:00 a.m., so we got up at 4:00 so we could be past the exposed parts of the Bonds before then. We started hiking at 5:14, a few minutes after a sunrise which we couldn't see because we were in a cloud. We remained in a cloud during all the time we were above the treeline. We skipped West Bond, and headed over Bond and Bondcliff. It rained a bit on Bond, and then somewhere around the Bondcliff summit it started raining again, and kept it up for the rest of the hike. We got below the treeline at about 7:30, although I don't think the thunderstorms ever came, at least I didn't hear them.
The hike down Bondcliff Trail and then along the old railroad beds of Wilderness and Lincoln Woods Trails were easy, but on that day very wet and muddy. We leapfrogged a couple of women who had also been at Guyot most of the way, and once we were on the railroad beds we started meeting lots of hikers.
The section of the AT between Willey Range Trail and Ethan Pond Shelter was new trail for me, as was Zeacliff Trail. All the rest of the trails I'd been on before.
I've been trying to reclimb the Northeast 111 after I turned 60. Tom, Field, and Willey are numbers 85-87 (out of 115) for that project.
Here are the pictures.
--
Cumulus
NE111 in my 50s: 115/115 (67/67, 46/46, 2/2)
NE111 in my 60s: 87/115 (62/67, 23/46, 2/2)
NEFF: 50/50; Cat35: 39/39; WNH4K: 41/48; NEHH 89/100
LT NB 2009; CT NB 2017; FHT EB 2023
"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
Approaching the days of the hike I was worried about the weather. The last forecast I saw before I left had occastional showers and thunderstorms on Friday, mostly dry with a chance of showers on Saturday, and thunderstorms for most of Sunday.
I parked my car in Lincoln Woods, and Mike's son, also Mike, shuttled me to Crawford Depot. He had planned to come and had to cancel, but was nice enough to do the car spot anyway. From there I hiked up to Tom, over to Field, then to Willey, down the very steep south side of Willey to the AT, and over to Ethan Pond Shelter. I met a lot of other hikers in the beginning, but only a couple once I got past Field. Despite the forecast, I didn't get a drop of rain. I went beyond Tom's summit to find the lookout towards the Twins, but somehow got looped back to the summit, and just continued back from there. There were a few views on Field, and a great viewpoint just south of Willey looking out on the Webster Cliffs and the Presidentials.
The elder Mike was at Ethan Pond Shelter when I got there. We set up our tents on platforms (even though neither of us had freestanding tents). Several thunderstorms rolled past while we were in our tents.
The next morning, Saturday, it was partly cloudy. We hiked on Ethan Pond Trail to Zeacliff Trail, which we took. That was very steep. After we got back on the AT (here Twinway Trail), we headed west, with a detour to Zealand Mtn., to Boncliff Trail, which we took to Guyot Shelter. The views around Guyot Mtn. were very nice, if a bit hazy. Except for Zeacliff Trail, we met a lot of people on the trail that day. We did not get a drop of rain that day, either.
While on the Guyot summits I noticed that from the northeast summit the southwest summit looks higher, and from the southwest summit the northeast summit looks higher. I'm still not sure which summit really is higher; although my map puts the true summit to the northeast, I've seen maps which put in to the southwest.
At Guyot we both slept in the shelter itself. Again thunderstorms kept coming through during the night.
The caretaker at Guyot had said that the latest forecast she'd seen for Sunday had thunderstorms arriving at 8:00 a.m., so we got up at 4:00 so we could be past the exposed parts of the Bonds before then. We started hiking at 5:14, a few minutes after a sunrise which we couldn't see because we were in a cloud. We remained in a cloud during all the time we were above the treeline. We skipped West Bond, and headed over Bond and Bondcliff. It rained a bit on Bond, and then somewhere around the Bondcliff summit it started raining again, and kept it up for the rest of the hike. We got below the treeline at about 7:30, although I don't think the thunderstorms ever came, at least I didn't hear them.
The hike down Bondcliff Trail and then along the old railroad beds of Wilderness and Lincoln Woods Trails were easy, but on that day very wet and muddy. We leapfrogged a couple of women who had also been at Guyot most of the way, and once we were on the railroad beds we started meeting lots of hikers.
The section of the AT between Willey Range Trail and Ethan Pond Shelter was new trail for me, as was Zeacliff Trail. All the rest of the trails I'd been on before.
I've been trying to reclimb the Northeast 111 after I turned 60. Tom, Field, and Willey are numbers 85-87 (out of 115) for that project.
Here are the pictures.
--
Cumulus
NE111 in my 50s: 115/115 (67/67, 46/46, 2/2)
NE111 in my 60s: 87/115 (62/67, 23/46, 2/2)
NEFF: 50/50; Cat35: 39/39; WNH4K: 41/48; NEHH 89/100
LT NB 2009; CT NB 2017; FHT EB 2023
"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
