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| Zealand Trail-head |
I am writing this post with my feet up and some Advil Liquigels running through my system. My feet are covered in blisters and every muscle in my body is aching - but was it worth it? Absolutely! On Saturday, September 16th Paloma and I decided to take advantage of the unseasonably warm September day and beast a traverse of Zealand and the Bonds. For those unfamiliar with the Bonds, they are by many considered the "crown jewels" of the White Mountains. The Bonds are three unique peaks (West Bond, Mt. Bond, and Bondcliff) set deep in the Pemigewasset Wilderness - they are the most remote peaks in the White Mountains. To reach them requires significant mileage - most people opting to do them over two days.
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| Zealand Trail |
Paloma and I had been toying back and forth as to whether we wanted to backpack it or tackle it as a day trip, and ultimately ended up with the latter. Knowing what we were about to embark on, our Friday was spent relaxing, hydrating and carbo-loading. We got to bed relatively early on Friday night so that we could get an early start. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a bit worried about the hike, mainly what would we do in the event we were too tired to finish. That being said, I slept pretty well and before I knew it, Saturday was upon us.
After handing off Vivian to my parents for the day, Paloma and I began the drive up Rt. 93 to the Zealand trail-head located on Zealand road. We arrived at the lot at 8:10AM - it was already quite full - guess everyone wanted to get out on this nice day. We parked and made our final preparations and officially hit the trail at 8:22AM. The weather at the base was 65 degrees and sunny.
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| Route |
Our route for the day can be seen in the image on the left. Our plan was to take the Zealand trail to the Twinway, passing Zealand falls, the Zealand hut and Zeacliff on our way to the summit of Zealand Mt. After summiting Zealand, we would continue on the Twinway to the Bondcliff trail, follow that over the summit of Mt. Guyot (which unfortunately doesn't count on the list due to the prominence rule) and take the West Bond spur to the summit of West Bond. After summiting West Bond, we would backtrack on the spur and continue on the Bondcliff trail over the summits of Mt. Bond and Bondcliff before beginning the long trek back to the Lincoln Woods Visitor Center via the Wilderness and Lincoln Woods trails. All in all, this is a 19.5 mile traverse climbing 5 mountains (though Mt. Guyot doesn't count)! Thankfully my parents agreed to get our car at the Zealand trail-head and drive it to the Lincoln Woods visitors center where we would end.
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| Paloma @ Zealand Falls |
Knowing that we had significant mileage ahead of us - 19.5 miles - we knew that keeping a good pace was critical so that we could finish in a reasonable amount of time. The Zealand trail started off pretty mild, and we quickly were putting mileage behind us. The trees had started to change color indicating that fall had arrived, and there was an interesting smell of decaying leaves in the air. Even though it was the middle of September, the air was quite thick and humid in the woods, and we were both sweating pretty good. Before we knew it we passed by Zealand pond and began to climb as we approached the Zealand Falls hut. We reached the hut at 9:26AM and took a quick peek at Zealand Falls which were beautiful. I would have loved to spend more time exploring the Falls but we were only 2.8 miles into our trek and we had to continue on.
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| View from Zeacliff |
Nearly immediately past the hut the real climbing began. We had done our research and knew that this was going to be the steepest section of the trail so we were prepared for it. For the next mile or so we gained over 1100' of vertical. This got our heart rates going and sweat flowing. Thankfully we brought a lot of water because we were drinking quite a bit at this point. We reached the Zeacliff outlook at 10:15AM and took a short spur trail to take in the views. Definitely do this - it is worth it! We figured this was a good point to break into a snack so we both devoured some Nature Valley Granola Cups with Almond Butter. Holy hell these are amazing. After our quick snack we navigated back to the Twinway and continued our trek to Zealand Mt.
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| Summit of Zealand Mt. |
We reached the Zealand spur at roughly 11:08AM, and after a short jaunt through the woods officially summitted Zealand Mt. at 11:12AM. One mountain down! We snapped a quick photo with the Zealand sign in the background then headed back to the trail. The summit of Zealand is in the trees, nothing worth spending any time at. We continued on the Twinway heading towards Mt Guyot. As we approached Mt. Guyot and emerged from the trees the scenery was gorgeous. It is a bit deceiving as it looks like you could just walk across the clearing towards Mt. Guyot, but the trail actually curves around to the right and links up with the Bondcliff trail. We turned onto the Bondcliff trail, went through a small pine forest and re-emerged on the side of Mt. Guyot, reaching the summit at 12:07PM.
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| West Bond Spur Sign |
Keeping an eye on the time, we once again decided to keep on going but Mt Guyot is certainly a place I would like to visit again. At 12:20PM we reached the junction with the trail that takes you to the Guyot tent-site. We would have taken this trail down to the tent-site to set up camp had we decided to do the traverse over two days, but given that we decided to do it in one day, we continued on. Ten minutes later we reached the spur to West Bond. This "spur" was deceivingly long. For some reason I had in my mind that it was only a few tenths of a mile but in researching it after the fact, the spur is actually a half mile each way. After descending a bit then climbing back up, we reached the summit of West Bond at 12:50PM. Two mountains down!
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| Summit of West Bond |
Wow. The views from the summit of West Bond might be my favorite out of all of the mountains we have hiked. We were treated to 360 degree views of the surrounding peaks and were given a fantastic view of Mt. Bond and the ridge over to Bondcliff which we would be hiking across. Being so remote, you couldn't see any roads or buildings except for the summit of Mt. Washington. I could have spent hours just taking in the views. It was quite warm and sunny on the summit and I could feel my face burn in the sun but damn, I didn't care! We met two girls who were to be completing their 47th peaks after reaching Bondcliff later that day, and we chatted with them and played photographer for one-another. We had another snack and snapped a ton of photos before heading back up the spur to get back on the Bondcliff trail.
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| Summit of Mt. Bond |
We continued on Bondcliff and began climbing towards the summit of Mt. Bond. From West Bond, Mt. Bond looked quite far, but before we knew it we emerged from the trees onto the summit of Mt. Bond, only about 40 minutes after leaving West Bond. The time was 1:35PM, three mountains down! We decided to eat our lunch here but unfortunately were bombarded by little black flies, so once again we decided to continue on our way after only a quick ten minute break. We took our summit photos and got back on the trail.
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| Ridge to Bondcliff |
The hike from Mt. Bond to Bondcliff is breathtaking. After a short descent through the trees you emerge onto an exposed ridge flanked by West Bond. We looked up to the right and saw where we had been just about an hour before. While the elevation gain across the ridge isn't anything crazy, the jagged rocks require you to take your time. Bondcliff is covered with really cool rock formations and steep, rocky cliffs. I commented to Paloma that what made this hike so amazing was that all of the summits were very different and the terrain along the way changed quite a bit.
We reached the summit of Bondcliff at 2:33PM and I quickly ran back to the rock outcrop that I have seen so many people take photos of. Paloma snapped some pretty cool pictures while I risked my life on the edge of the cliff! Four mountains down! Much like West Bond, I could have spent hours up here as well and will definitely be returning. I can only imagine what sunset or sunrise would look like from the cliffs.
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| Obligatory Bondcliff Photo |
After all of the hiking we had already completed, we still had a LONG way to go - 9.1 miles to be exact. Ugh! Not to mention we were basically out of water at this point - I did have my filter for emergencies but we didn't want to stop. We continued over Bondcliff via the Bondcliff trail and began to descend quite rapidly through the trees. We were cruising pretty quickly and began to pass a number of people hiking in the opposite direction. I am glad we decided to take the route we did because coming up the Bondcliff trail from this direction did not seem fun at all. It was a pretty steady climb for nearly four miles, and those that we passed that were hiking up didn't seem amused. After 4.4 miles we finally reached the Wilderness trail at 4:35PM and began what some refer to as the "death march" back to the Lincoln Woods Visitors Center.
Why is it the death march, you ask? Well after all of the hiking we already did, we still had 4.7 miles
to go on the Wilderness and Lincoln Woods trails. While these trails are incredibly flat, they are never ending. So much so that when we reached the Wilderness trail we encountered a guy hiking solo who was dumbfounded as to where he was. He was trying to hike to the Visitors Center as well but had gone for a few miles and wasn't sure if he was going the right direction so he turned around. Sorry bud - you were going the right direction, you just have to KEEP going. We got him back on track and he took off. The worst part of these trails is the fact that they are on top of an old railroad track, so you can't even zone out or you'll take a digger over a railroad tie.
At 5:10PM we reached the junction with the Lincoln Woods trail and began the final 2.9 mile walk to the Visitors Center. By this point we were both starting to feel the effects of the previous 16+ miles. I was basically just letting my limbs go, barely under control. I wanted nothing more than a cold beer and a pile of greasy food. Paloma and I kept talking about what we were going to eat on the ride home. For those that follow my blog, you'll recall that the Lincoln Woods trail is the same trail we used when hiking
Owl's Head. On the Lincoln Woods trail there are two signs 200 feet apart to help you pace out the appropriate distance from the trail you should camp put. When we hiked Owl's head I took 75 steps between the two - this time it was 68. Pretty close!
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| Success! |
We finally crossed the bridge to the Visitors Center at 6:02PM - nine hours and forty minutes after we started. 19.5 miles done. Four mountains off the list. Only two remain! I was proud of us. I considered this hike to be quite an accomplishment. After meeting up with my parents and Vivian in the parking lot, we quickly shed our boots (thank God!) and downed some water and seltzer that we had stashed at the car. We were beat. On the way home we stopped at McDonald's and crushed copious amounts of food. I am not even the slightest bit ashamed.
All in all this was an amazing hike, perhaps one of my favorite hikes we have done. The scenery is gorgeous, the remoteness is relaxing and the varied terrain makes this hike worthwhile. I know I will be returning to the Bonds in the future. Till next time...
Hike Stats
Trails: Zealand, Twinway, Zealand Spur, Bondcliff, West Bond Spur, Wilderness, Lincoln Woods
Total Time (Including Breaks): 9:40
Distance: 19.5 Miles
Elevation Gain: 3700'
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