[at-l] Trip Report White Mountains,Day 4: July 23 - Galehead Hut to Zealand Falls Hut

[papabear.nyc at verizon.net (Papa Bear)]

Here's the Web address for the full report:
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2h6gy/papabear/Whites_2003.html

I  previously posted the link to the pictures, but here it is again:
http://gallery.backcountry.net/papabear_2003_Whites

Wednesday (July 23rd) - Galehead Hut to Zealand Falls Hut.  


I was up at 6:30 and is was 50 degrees and raining.  Not encouraging.  I had considered getting started about an hour ahead of my colleagues so I could do at least the side trail to North Twin and meet them on south Twin when they made it up there, but the rain discouraged me and I figured I'll just go with the group and see how it goes.

South Twin is very steep: 1150' in .8 miles.  Luckily it is not tough, there are no rock scrambles at all.  It's just one foot in front of the other up, up, and up.  We got going at 8:30 AM and reached the summit just after 9:30.  This is just about "book" time.  The rain had actually stopped and at the summit of South Twin we had only the fog to put up  with.

I split off from the others at this point.  My plan was to do the side trip to North Twin, returning here (2.6 miles round trip) and then further on take the side trip to the Bonds.  The side trail to North Twin was rather easy and scenic, although I had a few doubtful moments getting started since getting off of South Twin was a little tricky.   I went through an area of young Spruce and then through a fir wave (Why aren't they ever called "Spruce waves"?).  The location of the summit itself was a bit ambiguous.  The trail took a left at a cairn near the summit, then rose slightly and got to a view point.  The only view was an occasional glimpse of the Franconia peaks peeking though the clouds.  This seemed to be the highest point - I'm sure most folks stop here believing it is the summit - but maybe it was back a little on the spur or just around the corner in the bushes.  Well, I made sure to hit every possible candidate and then it was back to South Twin.  I was back at about 11:00 AM and after a snack and a short break I was off again, now behind my 3 companions by about an hour and a half.

I followed the ridgeline on the "Twinway" for about an uneventful hour until reaching the Bondcliff Trail which splits off from the Twinway on the open side of Mount Guyote, a little below that summit.  The Bondcliff Trail actually goes straight whereas the AT (the Twinway) turns left up Guyote so this can be a turn you might miss, especially since the sign at the trail junction was twisted a little so the direction arrows were not actually pointing the right directions.

I got going and after crossing a minor peak, moved below treeline.  I passed the Guyote campground and soon got to the West Bond trail.  I left my pack here since it was but a half mile to West Bond and the trail was rather easy.  I measured the elevation from the col to the peak as 210'.  Some folks have disputed whether this col satisfies the 200' rule.  Today according to my Suunto, it did.  There was a short steep rise to the peak and then the cairn.  The fog prevented any views but this point is supposed to be a favorite sunset watching point.

Then it was back to the trail junction and then on to Mount Bond.  The rain started again but not too hard. Bond was taller then West Bond but the top, in the fog, looked remarkably similar.  Seen one, seen em' all, as they say!

I then turned back and by 2:15 I was back on the Twinway. This side trip, about 3.6 miles round trip, had taken about 1:45 so now I figured I was more than 3 hours behind the others. It was actually rather a nice feeling being by myself for this section. At the Twinway I met a thru-hiker named Magnolia and we would move along in close proximity for the next several miles.

After another easy ridge walk, I got to the Zealand Spur, my last side trip of the day.  This was a very short .2 miles round trip and Mount Zealand was but a slight  rise in a vary broad area. There was a nice old fashioned sign there which was nice to see.  Not your standard USFS or AMC rendition.

Now it was just on to the hut with a short break on the Zeacliff viewpoint.  This was quite spectacular and in fact my fellow hikers told me later they spent nearly an hour relaxing here.  Then it was down, down, down.  What we had gained in climbing from Galehead up to South Twin this morning, we gave back here.  One particularly steep spot had a ladder in place.  

Finally I arrived at the hut at around 5:00 PM and found my friends, including Laura, on the porch of the hut waiting for me, arguing with each other over whose fault it was.  It seems when they got to the Bondcliff Trial junction, they took the wrong turn and it wasn't till they were past the Guyote campground that they finally turned around and got back to the Twinway.  They actually got off the Bondcliff trail a mere 20 minutes before I got there.  This fact and that fact that they spent a long time on the Zeacliff view point meant they had arrived at the hut only about a half hour before I did.  I asked "How could you take that trail, it clearly had blue blazes, not white?"  But they didn't know from blazes, so whatever!

I cleaned up and we had a great supper, which was made even better by the fact that Laura had brought up a bottle of wine. To top it off, there was an AMC hiking group there who were doing a hut-to-hut traverse and they had somehow got a large quantity of ice cream of all flavors up to the hut and shared it with the whole hut.   We had actually seen them the first night at Greenleaf and I would see them a few more nights on the trek.

3 NOBOs were working here tonight: Mudflat, Fly and Cameleon.  One had a hammock which he set up between two poles on the porch.  That was neat to see.

After supper, Jim and I went down to check out Zealand Falls, about .1 miles down the hill from the hut.  It was quite impressive. This hut actually derives some of it's electrical power from the flow of Zealand Stream. The other huts used wind and solar panels. It was nice to see these clean energy sources in use.

I was going to call this day "Two Twins, 3 Bonds and Zealand".  Well, I had to scale that back, not having the time for Bondcliff, but "Two Twins, Two Bonds and Zealand" istn't too bad!

Miles: 13.4, elevation gain: 3550', peaks: South Twin, North Twin*, West Bond*, Bond*, Zealand*.



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