February 21, 2009
This is it! The big one! A Zealand-Bonds Traverse. Today we would be a group of three and joined by a couple others later in the day. Besides myself our group consisted of Jeremy Clark and Darcy Hobgood. Jeremy has a great website. If you ever want to check it out it is www.franklinsites.com. I did several Bonds traverses last year, but this is the first for this year and my first time doing this traverse southbound. We had a fairly good size snowstorm a couple days ago so most likely will be having some trailbreaking to do today.
We left with another group of three at 6:00 a.m. It soon became apparent that our two groups were not compatible as far as the pace went. Jeremy set a good pace as we covered the 3.5 mile roadwalk. Darcy was right behind him. They are both fast hikers but I did my best to keep up. We reached the actually trailhead about 7:30-ish. We headed up the Zealand Trail. As we neared the frozen beaver ponds Jeremy was the first to spot this moose.
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He was right on the trail. As we hiked, he just moved ahead of us. Then the unexpected occurred. A group which we could not yet see was coming from the other direction. The moose now felt trapped between the two groups. He was not about to give up this well packed trail that he claimed as his own and none of us were about to arguing with him. Darcy and Jeremy were much closer than I. The moose turned and looked at us. Being in the back, I couldn't get a good view but Darcy said she could see the hair (or is it fur) around his neck stand up. Jeremy and Darcy step off the trail as the moose began to charge. He was then coming straight at me. So I stopped to take a picture - NOT.
OK, this was an emergency. What do you do in an emergency? Remove anyone who is in immediate danger. Well, that would be ME. Playing chicken with this moose was not a good idea. He was running at a pretty good clip by now and I was just able to step a few feet off the trail as he went running by. Jeremy was able to take this picture.
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We then saw the group ahead coming toward us. We warned them about the moose. Unfortunately, this moose was not done claiming this trail as his own. We later learned that similar thing happened a few minutes later. The moose was now between the group that passed us heading north and the other group of three who left the parking lot when we did. There was an incident but things do tend to get blown out of proportion. We heard that the moose trampled a 13 year old girl who was cross country skiing, but I never heard of any injuries so I'm assuming Mr. Moose made another charge went running by this girl, bumping her, and knocking her out of the way. In deed had she been trampled by this 1000 pound animal she clearly would have had serious injury. Regardless, I'm sure the experience was dramatic for her.
Next up, we reached the hut.
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Jeremy and Darcy went in to get some hot drinks. I did not want to get that comfortable. If I went in there, I wouldn't want to come out again. I had a quick snack on the porch. I was clearly the slowest out of our group of three, so I poked my head in the door and told them that I would start heading up to Zealand at a slow pace.
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This would be the biggest climb of the day, and I knew I could use the headstart. We were in luck. I thought for sure we would be breaking trail by now but it was still broken out. Part way up the mountain, I took the time to write Darcy and Jeremy's names in the snow, sort of just a little encouragement to them that I was indeed ahead of them.
A few minutes later Darcy caught me.
"I see you signed us in," she said.
Jeremy took a longer break at the hut so he didn't catch up until a while after the Zeacliff lookout. We then reached Zealand where there was another hiker who was having a little trouble locating the spur trail. I had only done this hike a couple of times in the snow and as I mentioned earlier in was from the other direction.
As we searched I felt bad for Darcy who gets cold easily while not moving.
"Does anyone really need it?" she asked.
"Oh yes," replied both Jeremy and I.
She was patient and humored us. In fact she was the one who finally spotted the sign to the spur trail. It was a reminder to me that when you are looking for signs this time of year you need to be looking down near your knees and ankles which was were this sign was.
The 4260' summit of Zealand marks #42 for my 48 in 1 winter season.
Well the gravy train was over. Now we had to break trail. I use the word 'we' loosely since it was the strong legs of Jeremy that did most of it. Darcy did her share as well. I was the slacker today. They are both such strong hikers, and it took all I had just to keep up while they were doing the toughest part. (photo by Jeremy)
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Guyot was socked in as we made our way across the windy summit. Once we reached the junction with the spur trail to West Bond, Darcy and I left our packs while Jeremy continued to carry his. Next we reached the 4540' summit of West Bond. That is #43 for this year.
Jeremy on West Bond - photo courtesy of Darcy
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Eric on West Bond - photo courtesy of Darcy
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Darcy and Eric on West Bond - photo courtesy of Jeremy
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We returned to the West Bond spur junction.
We saw two hikers coming. We had been expected MEB and her sister Rachel to catch up. It was indeed them.
"Yes, we finally caught up," said MEB.
"Not really," I said.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"We've already been to West Bond, so you are still a mile behind us," I said.
"Oh shoot."
Darcy started out as we headed up to Bond.
A couple tenths from the summit I saw her coming back.
"I have good news and bads," she said. "The bads news is that I've sort of lost the trail. The good news is that there are people up there."
That was good. It meant that our trailbreaking for the day was almost over. The bad news, well it wasn't too bad. A couple minutes later we found the trail. Up we went to the 4698' summit of Bond. That's #44.
Jeremy and Darcy on the summit of Bond
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"I'm going to wait here for MEB and Rachel," said Jeremy.
As Darcy and I made our way over to Bondcliff the cloudy weather began to break. The Bonds rarely disappointment me as far as getting a nice view.
Looking ahead to Bondcliff
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Blue skies began to appear as I looked back to West Bond
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And just like that, we had blue skies everywhere.
Mount Carrigain
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Almost there
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Mount Garfield
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North Hancock
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I reached the 4265' summit of Bondcliff. That's #45 for this year.
For a 360° video clip click here.
Darcy got this picture of me as I began to descend Bondcliff.
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We were still nearly 9 miles from Lincoln Woods, but we had well broken easy trails ahead that were all either downhill or flat. Down, down, down we went. Darcy had to wait several times for me to catch up, but I didn't feel too bad. We still needed to let Jeremy, MEB, and Rachel catch up so I wasn't really holding anyone up.
Darcy and I took our last break at the bridge at the end of the Lincoln Woods Trail.
"I believe it is three miles from here," said Darcy.
"2.9 miles," I said.
A tenth of a mile isn't much but at this point 2.9 sounded a lot better than 3.
A few minutes later Jeremy caught up. Rachel and MEB were not far behind.
About a half a mile from the end we were met by Mountain Drew. He was there to give Rachel and MEB a ride. It was nice of him to come in to greet us - photo courtesy of Jeremy.
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We reached Lincoln Woods about 6:15-6:20 p.m.
Jeremy has been working hard on finishing up his winter 4s this year. He made this comment earlier, "Until I have the Bonds done, I really don't have anything."
He took the words out of my mouth regarding my attempt at my 48 in 1 winter season. I'm not done yet, 3 peaks to go, but now that the Bonds are done, the end is finally within reach.
I think the funniest line of the day came as Darcy was driving us back to our vehicles.
We stopped at an Irving Gas Station for beverages.
While paying for his food, the cashier asked Jeremy, "How are you?"
His response, "I hurt."
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