Zealand Mountain 4260’, West Bond 4540’, Mount Bond 4698’ and Bondcliff 4265’

19.8 Miles 4100’ Elevation gain

Zealand Trail/Twinway/Bondcliff Trail/Wilderness Trail

Kevin, Judy and Emma

After a very cold night which brought very little sleep and a hard frost, I'd have to say the coldest night we ever camped, we awoke to a bright, shivery morning. The only problem with high pressure systems is that the nights are icy, with no clouds to hold in the earth's warmth. This morning was a perfect example as I struggled to pick up the things I had left on the picnic table overnight. The thick frost had secured them to the table. Things were beginning to look like the perfect hiking conditions we had hoped for.

After making tea and checking our gear we got in the car to make our trip down to Lincoln Woods. We arrived at 7:20am, met Dan and left our car. Dan drove us back north to the parking lot on Zealand Road and we were off. Dan hiked in with us, almost to the hut, then he turned around and we had to beat feet. This would be my third trip across Zealand Mountain to the Bonds, always in this direction. One time I backpacked to Bondcliff from Lincoln Woods, spent the night and hiked back out the same way in the morning. Jude and Emma had made the trip before, too. They had each finished their 4000 footer lists, by design, by crossing these mountains from Zealand to Bondcliff. That trip was October 12th, 2002. That day was a little warmer but the sky was overcast all day and visibility varied from 100 yards to about a half mile. We had wanted to return so Jude and Emma could see what they had missed before, so here we were again.

The alternative to hiking 20 miles in a day is carrying a heavy pack 10 miles, spending a cold, restless night on the ground, getting up and carrying a pack over whatever mountains you didn’t climb the first day on your ten mile journey back out of the woods. If you carry a pack in the direction we hiked you could spend the night at Guyot Tentsite and on this day we must have seen 40 people headed there. If you left your pack at the campsite in the morning you would have to climb West Bond, Mount Bond, then down and over to Bondcliff and back over Mount Bond to your pack, then back over Guyot and Zealand to get out. The easiest would be to leave the pack at the start of West Bond Trail, go over and back to West Bond, then over Bond and Bondcliff on the way out to Lincoln Woods, but 2 cars or a ride are necessary. The same problem of climbing Mount Bond twice exists if you go in from Lincoln Woods and stay on Bondcliff leave your pack and go to West Bond.

For these reasons we make it a twenty mile dayhike. It is in no way easy, but it is not as hard as it sounds, either. We have managed pretty well on each trip, though the next day we don’t do any climbing, and spend the day pretty sedentary, but not crippled, like in our early climbing days. We saw lots of people out there this time whereas our previous trip in bad weather, we saw very few. Most people were backpacking. Along with the people we got to see the beautiful scenery of the Pemigewasset Wilderness as we cut across it from north to south. The views east to the Willey Range and the Presidentials, south to Bemis, Nancy, Anderson, Lowell, Vose Spur, Carrigain, and the Hancocks, North to the Twins and Garfield. West past Owl’s Head to Franconia Ridge and beyond to Moosilaukee, outstanding. Hardly a clue can be seen that man has been within a hundred miles.

The towers and Cog smoke on Washington and eventually as you reach Bondcliff the skitrails at Loon become apparent, but other than that there is very little evidence of the highways and condos that make up the mountain towns beyond our view. The chance to be in this wilderness on a beautiful fall day is well worth the grueling hike. Once we got down to the Wilderness Trail we were able to hike out at a pace of 15-20 minutes a mile on the flat, former railroad bed. Despite the pace we were in the dark for about the last mile. The kicker was trying to return to Lincoln on the Kancamagus highway we were stuck in traffic for close to an hour trying to go the five miles back to Rte 93. After picking up chinese take-out in Lincoln we got back to our camper around 9PM, pretty much too tired to eat, so we had a light supper and saved the rest for the next days lunch before spending another cold night in the woods. No hot showers after this hike, but we were too tired to care, and we quickly drifted off, exhausted, to make up for the sleep we had missed the night before.