August 4-6, 2007
We left Lincoln Woods around 9:15AM on Saturday. The weather was clear and sunny, but warm for hiking - low 80's probably. The plan for the first day was just to go 6-7 miles up the Wilderness and Bondcliff trails so that we could find a nice campsite for the night. We headed across the bridge and up the trail. Soon we had a view of our destination - the Bonds!
By about 1pm, and after a little bit of going up and down the trail comparing locations, we settled on a nice spot - far off the trail and sufficiently far from Black Brook that we felt confident calling it legal.
The afternoon was lazy, as we set up camp, filtered water and brought it back to camp, prepped for the next day, then settled in with our books. Dinner was black beans and brown rice. Tasty and quick. The evening was quiet and we had no animal activity near the tent during the night.
Sunday morning, we were awakened by our local alarm clock - the red squirrel. We got up, made a nice hot breakfast, and were headed up the Bondcliff trail by 7:15AM. The hike was all uphill, but there were really only a couple steep portions, and in those places, stone steps had been put into place to help. The one "tricky ledge" mentioned in the trail description wasn't all that tricky. Lots of handholds and footholds to use.
We had Bondcliff summit to ourselves. Took lots of photos of each of us on the overhang. The views in every direction were mind-blowing. Looking across Hellgate Ravine to West Bond, and knowing we were going there later in the morning, was fantastic. As an aside, the Mount Washington Observatory reported 120 mile visibility for the same morning.
Next, we walked the ridge over to Mt Bond, just 1.2 miles and mostly an open ridge walk. There were places here where the footing wasn't so great, but we made it just fine.
Again, we stood in awe at the views. We could see the Presidentials much better from Mt Bond, and looking back at Bondcliff was amazing. We could also see down to Mt Guyot's open summit, and had a great view of South Twin.
From Mt Bond, it was just one mile to the West Bond summit. Up there, we chatted with Lee and Christine, who had spent the night at the Guyot campsite. They were having a leisurely day on all three summits and we enjoyed talking with them. They had finished their NH48 last autumn, so they had a wealth of information to offer. The views of Bondcliff from West Bond were spectacular.
After coming down from West Bond, we made a 0.8-mile side-trip to the Guyot campsite to refill the water bottles and check out the sites. Not sure it was worth it for the amount of extra elevation we climbed as a result, but at least we were well-supplied before heading back over the ridge. Also, at this point, it became apparent that Valerie was getting quite sun-burned. We stopped and applied SPF, but it may have been too late. We quickly ascended Mt Bond (again) and stopped to talk to Lee and Christine (again). We marveled as the jet plane went overhead and left a giant shadow all the way from Mt Washington to where we were sitting.
Lastly, back over to Bondcliff. Now it was 4:30PM, what a day! The sun was shining on the cliffs from an entirely different angle. Everything was beautiful!
We spent a little while on top, then headed back down. Lee and Christine camped near us that night. The stars were plentiful, the conversation was great!
In the morning, we headed out towards the car just as the skies opened up. It *poured* rain for the entire walk out. We consider it "getting a chance to test out the new pack covers". Overall, it was just an absolutely fantastic weekend!