.May 27, 2006
After spending the night at the Galehead Hut, I woke up to a very fogged in landscape. It is supposed to clear this afternoon, but it looks like I will miss some great views today.
In the hut, the bunks were stacked 3 high in most places but some were even four high. I can't imagine sleeping on the top and having to use the restroom in the middle of the night. I think I would fall to the floor for sure. I couldn't fit all 4 bunks in one picture so I had to take two and paste them together.
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Brent thinks another long day will be tough on him and he doesn't want to hold me up so he will be taking the Franconia Brook Trail back. This will save him several miles and there is a lot less elevation change. We left Galehead Hut in opposite directions.
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I continued on the AT which is now named the Twinway Trail. I began the steep ascent up to the top of South Twin Mountain. I made it to the summit of 4,902' and chalked up my 18th 4,000 footer. This area is above treeline but as I suspected, it was completely fogged in.
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I plan to come back this way in the future to hike North Twin, so I'll probably hike to this summit again to check out the view. I began my descent of South Twin when I ran into a lot of snow and ice. I ducked back down below treeline for 2 miles. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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I once again entered the alpine zone. I met up to where I had left off the week before on Mount Guyot. It looked exactly like last week, completely fogged in.
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It was nice to connect these two sections of the AT, but now it is time to get off the AT and head down the Bondcliff Trail toward the Bonds Mountains. They consist of three mountains: West Bond, Mount Bond, and Bondcliff. They are considered by many as the crown jewels of the Whites because of both their remoteness and their beauty. It was just killing me that I was still clouded in. I went at a slow pace hoping it would clear. The fogged lifted just a little and I got a look ahead to Mount Bond on the left and West Bond on the right.
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I took a side trail to check out the Guyot Shelter and Campsite.
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Just after the campsite I entered the Pemigewasset Wilderness. Then I took another sidetrail to head up to West Bond. I had trouble determining whether I was at the summit or not. The top of the mountain has a ridge of about .2 miles before going up a little on the other end. From here, it looked as if the other end might be higher. I would hate to come all this way just to find out I wasn't at the summit. I thoroughly searched the area but couldn't find where the trail continued if it did at all. I reasoned that I must be at the summit so this is #19 for me. I got to look ahead to the ridge between Mount Bond and Bondcliff.
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I made my way back to Bondcliff Trail and then up to Mount Bond. The summit is 4,698' and my 20th 4,000 footer. It was completely fogged in. I met another hiker. He was asking me about South Twin and Zealand Mountain.
"You must be doing the 4,000 footers?" I asked.
"Yep," he replied.
"How many have you done?"
"Uh, four, but I just started."
"You're not that far behind me. I was at four less than a year ago." I knew how he felt. I felt a little embarassed last year when someone told me they had done 42 and I had only done 6, but everyone starts at zero. I began my descent of Mount Bond where I dropped below the fog. It was still overcast but at least I was out of the fog. From here I could look back at West Bond.
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From this angle I could tell that the right side is a little taller so I was definitely at the summit earlier. Another thing that is deceiving is that most of the mountain is tree covered. The little rocky summit is not, so the actual height of the left side of the mountains is actually about 15 to 20 feet lower (my estimation of the height of the trees).
I continued to follow the Bondcliff Trail which reminded me of the Franconia Ridge Trail from the day before. I had about a 1 mile area above treeline.
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On the top of Bondcliff I met another peakbagger who has been working on the 4,000 footers. He has completed 40. This was my 21st. He lives in Chicago and uses his vacation time to come over here and knock off a few at a time. I am fortunate. The trailhead to the closest 4,000 footer is about 50 minutes away from where I live. The furthest one is about 2.5 hours away. Before he left, he was nice enough to take my picture on top of Bondcliff. This was very helpful in giving this picture some scale.
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I began my long descent of Bondcliff. About an hour after leaving the summit the sun came out and I had lots of blue sky. This was like adding salt to the wound after missing out on some of the summits. It was a steep trail down but there were lots of stone staircases to assist.
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I finally made my way down to where the Bondcliff Trail joins the Wilderness Trail. This trail was wonderful. Flat and smooth. I later learned that this area was heavily logged at one time. There used to be dozens of logging camps in the area and trains were used to transport the logs out. I was now on a trail that was once a railroad bed. There are not many flat trails in the Whites so this was a treat. I was able to make great time. After two miles I crossed a river and the name of the trail changed to the Lincoln Woods Trail. This trail was even better. 'Runtrails,' my journal correspondent, would have loved this.
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This trail was 2.6 miles long and as flat as it was, it took me no time to cover. Just before the parking lot I crossed a 160 foot suspension bridge.
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After the bridge, I entered the parking lot. My truck was gone.
"Great," I thought, "I parked it in the wrong place and it got towed. Well maybe I'm not remembering exactly where I parked it."
I began to look around when I heard my name being called. Obviously this must be Brent. I turned to see him over by the visitor center.
"The truck is in another space," he yelled.
I walked over towards him to find out what happened.
"Did you have to move it?" I asked.
"I sure did."
"Why?"
"Because I had to go out for pizza."
I had to kid with him and said, "Last night when I was at the hut, I went looking for you."
"I know. I felt bad about that when I was eating the pizza."
"Sure you did."
"I can't believe you are back already. I've only been back for an hour and a half."
"I was moving pretty fast," I said.
"I hope you weren't doing that on my account."
"No. I was mad that the sun didn't come out until after I was off the summits."
I drove Brent back to his truck and began the drive home. I missed the view on a few of the summits but still had a great day.
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