Mt. Bond and the Bondcliff region, White MountainsNew Hampshire
To: mitoc@mit.edu From: Robert Zeithammer Subject: TRIP REPORT: Mt. Bond & Thoreau Falls Participants (referred to as "our fearless team" or "we" bellow): Olivera Kessler, Christine Guth, John Foster, Mike Freedman, Robert Zeithammer DAY1: After a late-evening campfire at Camelot with discussion centering on the planned hike and benefits of high-heel shoes, we used our powerful self-discipline to get up at 5:30 AM, and by 8:15, we were already hiking out of the Lincoln Woods Trailhead on the Kancamangus. Expectations of a long hike ahead kept the pace up, and we put away the first five miles to the Bondcliff Trail in about 2 hours (via the Wilderness Trail). This part of the hike follows an old logging railroad-bed, so it's nice and flat, but one needs to constantly step over logs left over from the railroad, so dragging our feet was not an option anyway. The lightning start allowed for frequent stops on the way up to Bondcliff, which made the 2800 ft. climb easier with our full packs. The 4.4 miles to the summit seemed endless as we walked through dense forest, but after traversing the south face on the mountain, the trees abruptly ended, and we were rewarded by unobstructed views of the entire Pemigewasset Wilderness. The Bondcliff is a dramatic rocky outcrop gradually sloping down on the east side, but falling down a few hundred feet almost vertically on the west side. With most of the day's miles and feet behind us and only about 2PM on the clock, we lazed around the summit for quite a while soaking in the amazing views and discussing the intricacies of all kinds of dietary restrictions over lunch. Bondcliff (4265) is the start of the Bond Ridge dominated by Mt. Bond (4698) in the middle. The ridge is exposed and beautiful (imagine Franconia Ridge without the overuse errosion and without people). The last 450 ft. to the summit of Mt. Bond went by quickly, and the "view unparalleled in the White Mountains" was, indeed, there, just waiting for us...amazing!! By now, fatigue and time were starting to catch up with us, so by around 5PM, we descended to Guyot Campsite just in time to snatch the last available tent-platform (FYI: Guyot campsite is tiny and has an attendant which means a $6pp fee...the best place there, is the overflow area up on the Bond ridge, where some of us ended up sleeping, because our tent-platform was not big enough for three tents. The campsite is also the only source of water on the entire ridge). Thanks to the seemingly never-ending daylight, we were able to set up camp and go for a short hike before dinner to enjoy sunset views from Mt. West Bond (4540) - a worthwhile detour. Dinner was a dazzling array of different tastes. While the true mountaineers among us replenished the depleted energy-resources with thousands of calories in the form of ramen&sausage, the less orthodox members of our fearless team ate everything from only Parmesan Goldfish to cous-cous and carrots dipped in hummus... The discussion was varied as well, ranging from the by-then-favorite topic of high-heeled shoes to deep issues of 20th century history and human nature... Summary of day 1: 12.5 miles, 3700 feet vertical gain, thousands of views. DAY 2: Once again, our iron will prevailed over laziness as we got up at 6:30 AM and started hiking slightly after 8 AM. After joining the AT at Mt Guyot (4580), we headed east via Zealand Mountain (4260) to Zeacliff. With a long day ahead, we didn't stop much along the way, but we did make the detours to Mt. Zealand summit (not worth it) and Zeacliff Pond (worth it). Spoiled by the beauty and openness of the Bond Ridge, we didn't think much about this part of the Twinway...until we got to Zeacliff. The view from there is quite nice, and the vastness of the Pemigewasset Wilderness really stands out. It would have been an ideal lunch spot except for the intense heat and the anticipation of swimming at Thoreau Falls... Going down Zeacliff Trail was absolutely gruelling. First, 1200 ft. vertical drop on 1.2 miles is simply not fun to start with, and second, doing it in a dry 80-Fahrenheit heat doesn't make it any better... Ethan Pond Trail was much easier, and we got to Thoreau Falls in no time from the junction. The clock read 1PM, and the steep part of the day was finally behind us. Thoreau Falls offer a nice view back to Mt. Bond, beautiful cascades to look at, and a few pools to swim in. Too bad they are so close to the Zealand Hut which supplies them with a steady stream of day-hikers in sneakers, who position themselves carefully to obstruct every possible view and be in every possible photo taken... We lounged about and ate lunch for about 90 minutes, not very eager to start the difficult 11.5-mile return to the cars via the Thoreau Falls and Wilderness Trails... With over 6 miles already behind us, we were feeling a little tired as well... The hike back was, indeed, never-ending. Thoreau Falls Trail started out quite steep, but soon began to follow a bed of an old logging railroad. Same for the Wilderness Trail. For hours and hours, we only saw a handful of boring views of Mt. Bond, entire armies of mosquitoes and gnats, thousands of secondary-growth thin trees, and the stream. The boredom was interrupted by two sightings of wildlife: first, we saw a "small furry animal" (a new scientific term!) take on a quail, and second, we ran into a family of owls who all stared at us with patient interest. Our burning feet really appreciated the 0.3 mile detour to Franconia Falls on mile 8.5 of the return where we caught the last glimpse of the sun and played in the cool water for quite a while. With the clock showing 7:30PM, we got back to our cars completely exhausted, but thoroughly satisfied with the hike. The restaurants of North Woodstock were only a few miles away, so we rewarded ourselves with thousands of calories from pizza and ice-cream. Sitting on a moonlit porch of Bishop's Ice-cream shop until 9:30 PM and thinking back about our weekend experiences was a great way to end the trip... (Restaurant reviews: Bishop's gets five thumbs up for ice-cream, and Earl Of Sandwich gets mixed reviews for good pizza combined with annoying staff). Summary of DAY2: 18.2 miles, 2 waterfalls, hundreds of mosquito-bites Summary of the trip: 30.7 miles in one weekend!!
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