Owl's Head, South Twin, Bond, and Bondcliff Loop

Date of Hike: 8/28/09

Lincoln Woods/Wilderness Trail: 2.9 miles
Franconia Brook Trail: 1.7 miles
Lincoln Brook Trail: 3.4 miles
Owl's Head Path: 1.2 miles
Bushwhack (West and North West) to Lincoln Brook Trail: 1.0 miles
Lincoln Brook Trail: 2.5 miles
Twin Brook Trail: 2.7 miles
Twinway: 2.8 miles
Bondcliff Trail: 6.9 miles
Lincoln Woods/Wilderness Trail: 4.7 miles
Total Miles: Around 29.8 (6,700 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- Overnight at Lincoln Woods, solo hike, on trail at 5:15am finished 6:15pm
- Weather was around 45 degrees in the morning and warmed up to lows 60's the rest of the day
- Clear skies, unlimited awesome views, no wind, no bugs!
- Saw trail runner on Lincoln Woods trail at 5:45 am, and only two other people until Galehead Hut
- Headlamp died out 30 minutes into hike, new batteries were in it to, time for a new headlamp!
- All Lincoln Brook Trail crossings were easy, Owl's Head Path has a cairn on Lincoln Woods trail for now
- Moose carcass all but gone, just a few bones remaining, a few clumps of fur, very faint smell lingers
- Bushwhacked down from Owl's Head summit to rejoin Lincoln Brook trail. Bushwhack was somewhat dense in places at first but opened up with lots of tall evergreen trees and lots of smaller rotted trees that would fall over very easily. Avoided all booby traps! (mossy covered holes between rocks and hidden overturned old tree trunks)
- last 2.5 miles of Lincoln Brook trail was a wet mess with boot-sucking mud in lots of places
- Met AT through-hiker at Galehead Hut who was hiking with his dog. He had been off the trail for the past 8 days in Lincoln because he has Lyme disease. Gave him some "trail magic"
- Forgot to fill up my camel pack with water at hut
- View from South Twin Summit is one of the best views in all of the White Mountains
- On the Twinway I ran into a playful family of grouse's hanging around on the trail
- Ran out of water about a half mile before West Bond Spur
- Walk from Mount Bond summit down to Bondcliff summit ranks right up their with some of the best
- Ran out of Gatorade on Bondcliff Summit, hiked last 9.1 miles without hydration, no big deal because it was downhill and flat the rest of the way
- At the Bondcliff Lincoln Woods/Wilderness Trail junction I walked around in the woods a little bit looking at some of the railroad pieces, most of it isn't appealing to look at as it's basically all rusted old pieces of metal, buckets, cans, RR scraps, etc etc.  Maybe next time I'll take some of these awesome "souvenirs" home with me...I kid I kid!
- Last 2.6 miles on Lincoln Woods/Wilderness Trail was a battle of the wills
- Only stubbed my toes 4 times on the old railroad ties hiking back on LW/W trail!

Pictures: Click here to view all pictures

View of Franconia Ridge from Owl's Head SlideGalehead, Garfield, and Mount Lafayette from Twinway Presidential Range from South Twin SummitOwl's Head and Fraconia Ridge Hiking down from Mount Bond to Bondcliff

Video:

Grouse Family having some fun on the Twinway!