Hiking Zealand, Bond, West Bond, and the Twins

Posted on July 25, 2015 by Chris Lumens in .

For several weeks now, Lon and Sharon and I had been planning a backpacking trip across the Bonds and Twins so Sharon could finish up her NH 4000ers. We were planning on staying at the extremely busy Guyot campsite about halfway through the route. Unfortunately, the weather promised to be pretty bad on Sunday with rain all night and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Rather than pack up in the rain or skip doing it entirely, we decided on doing the trip as a day hike.

We also changed the route a bit. It turned out Sharon needed Zealand and had already gotten Bondcliff on a previous trip. That meant with two cars we could do a trip starting at the Zealand trailhead, go across Zealand, do an out & back to Bond and West Bond, then go over both the Twins to finish up at the North Twin trailhead. Going this direction would be slightly easier and would mean Sharon would finish on North Twin instead of the very boring Zealand.

So that’s what we did.

With the car spot, we got a start somewhere around 9:15 and set off at a very fast pace up to Zealand Falls Hut. It’s either flat or very gently uphill until about a quarter mile from the hut, so we were able to move very quickly. Sharon was a little concerned we’d keep up the 3+ mph pace all day, but we assured her it was just because this was the intro overhead. Despite the flatness of the trail, once you hit the ponds it’s one of the most scenic parts of the trip. The trail wanders around the shores of the ponds and crosses their outlets on long wooden bridges. You also get some really great views up to Whitewall and Zealand, which make up the sides of the notch.

Anyway we got the intro out of the way very quickly and kept up the quick pace for the very steep quarter mile right before the hut. This is also where the route hooks up with the AT. I think the two are related. A couple minutes later, we were sitting on the porch at the hut, drinking water and eating baked goods we bought inside. The porch here has a similar view to the one at the ponds, except this time you are several hundred feet higher. It extends all the way down to Carrigain, where you can just barely see the fire tower on a clear day. Today was not an especially clear day.

And then we were off on the biggest climb of the day: from the hut up to Zeacliff the trail gains 1000’ in just over a mile. It’s certainly not overly steep by White Mountain standards, but it’s the biggest and most sustained climb we’d have all day. We made it pass pretty quickly with lots of talk about past adventures and our thoughts on through hiking the AT. Before we knew it, we were on top of the ridge looking out over the Pemigewasset Wilderness. We took a shorter break here to check out the view down to Carrigain and the Hancocks, out east to the Willey Range and the Presidentials, and far off to the rest of the Pemi. In my opinion, this is another one of the top five viewpoints in the Whites. We also met up with a guy named Corey from Vermont who was camping nearby and joined us as far as Guyot.

From here, the trail follows the ridge over to Zealand. The first part was nice as we walked through slabs and scrubby trees and had occassional views to the north towards Hale. However as it climbed away from the exposed cliffs and back into the trees, it got much more boring. This was probably my least favorite section. There were a couple very steep points where we had to use our hands to climb, but aside from that it just rolled along towards Zealand. I made a brief side trip to Zeacliff Pond to refill a water bottle but it was too low and marshy to do anything with. We hit Zealand with little fanfare and kept moving across the wooded ridge.

Finally, we popped out of the trees just below the summit of Guyot. It’s not an official 4000’er because it may not rise up enough from its surroundings, but it has a better view than most of the official ones. We could see all the places we’d be hiking later in the day, where we’d come from, and out to Franconia Ridge. At least, we could see them sometimes because the clouds had really moved in and the ceiling was only a couple hundred feet above our heads. The clouds obscured the summit of Bond (where we’d be next) and even hit us with a few rain drops. That’d be all the rain we got all day, though.

We had lunch on Guyot but couldn’t stay too long because despite the day’s high humidity, the occassional gust of wind made it uncomfortably cool. We said goodbye to Corey who went back the way we came, and we headed towards the two Bonds. The trail immediately dropped steeply back into the trees, then dropped a little less precipitously for about half a mile. Here, we passed the side trail to the Guyot campsite where we would have stayed and the spur out to West Bond. There’s really not much to say about the trip out to Bond. There was no view from the summit today due to it being in the clouds. We just quickly had a drink and left since we still had about ten miles left to hike.

On the way over to West Bond, the clouds lifted and we got a little sun. We were also all starting to get a little bit tired so the couple hundred foot climb was a little slower than it would have been earlier in the day, but it was still a decent page. The summit of West Bond is a long, thin ridge that juts out into the middle of nowhere and just barely sticks up above the trees. This marked #46 of 48 for Sharon and the halfway point on the day, so we took a longer break to eat and change socks. That’s one of the great simple pleasures of long hikes.

Then once again, it was time to get moving. We still had to get back to the summit of Guyot to complete the out and back to the Bonds before setting off for the Twins and the end of the hike. The climb back up Guyot was probably the first one where we really slowed down as it was rather steep. Once we popped back out on its treeless summit, we could look back and see that all the clouds were being held on the eastern side by the ridge of the Bonds. Where we were hiking and where we were going was completely clear, but where we’d been earlier in the day was totally clouded over. I’d never seen anything like that before.

There’s not a lot to say about the next portion of the hike. It was two miles from Guyot to South Twin, and we cruised through it despite the miles behind us and the high humidity. Only the last couple tenths up to the very summit of South Twin is very steep and here I slowed way down once again. I still felt great, but I was just getting a little tired. It was actually pretty nice how well we were all matched up on this hike. No one was ever really the one slowing the group down. We took our first break since West Bond on South Twin’s treeless summit, though the summit was mostly clouded in and the views were only good towards the north.

Once again, we got chased off by a cold breeze. This time, Lon was starting to feel pretty tired and was anxious about the minor bumps between South and North Twin but once we got moving again, that anxiety went away. It was only a mile between the summit and we covered them very quickly and even found the extra energy to briefly check out some interesting cliffs along the way. By about 3:45pm, we were standing at the viewpoint just past the summit of North Twin and Sharon had completed her list. She was very excited about it and Lon got lots of pictures of her jumping off rocks in celebration.

We took another good break, admired the views over towards Galehead Hut and Garfield, and contemplated the Pemi loop. We headed out around 4pm and spent the next two hours making the four mile descent along the North Twin Trail. There was nothing too remarkable about the way out except for a couple fun river crossings. Then we just had to go back to pick up the first car and drive home.

This was a long day with lots of climbing and a strange route with lots of out and back (as you can see from the track below). It was also a very rewarding day. Not only did we get a long hike in across a bunch of peaks above treeline, but we also got to go along for Sharon’s finish. And even though we didn’t get to go backpacking, the weather on Saturday held off but stayed interesting with the clouds constantly coming in and out.

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GPS Track