Hiking in the White Mountains: Sarge's Winter 48 Finish on West Bond

Date of Hike: 3/10/21

Lincoln Woods / Bondcliff Trail / West Bond Spur: 22.8 miles, 4,700' elevation gained

Trip Report:

- Over the past few winters when Sarge isn't heading into Tuckerman Ravine for "Bowl Pawtrol," he has, unbeknownst to him, been slowly picking away at his Winter 48 - 4000 footers of New Hampshire.

- On Wednesday morning we headed to Lincoln Woods for an out and back of the Bonds. With weather forecasted to be above freezing we got an early start, 6:30AM, to be able to get up and down before the snow started to get soft and sloppy, and hopefully have the whole ridge to ourselves.

- Trail conditions were the best I can recall for an out and back of the Bonds, all trails were completely packed down, with only minor drifting between Bond and West Bond, even the ridge walk between Bond and Bondcliff, which is usually wind blown with rock-snow-ice had complete snow cover.

- We made good time up to Bondcliff, making it there by 9AM under abundant sunshine and zero wind. I took a few pics of Sarge and gave him some water, but he was more interested in eating ice chips and crunchy snow, so I put some ice in the water and he slurped it right up.

- From Bondcliff we made the beautiful trek up to Bond along the exposed ridge before dropping back into the trees again on our way to West Bond.

- Along the way we enjoyed views into Hellgate Ravine, across to Owl's Head and Franconia and Garfield ridges, Guyot and South Twin, along with Redrock Ravine.

- I was happy we got the early start as it was getting pretty warm along the ridge as we made our way back across Bond and over to Bondcliff. Sarge enjoyed himself running up ahead of me and eating ice and snow chunks as I caught up to him.

- We took one last break at Bondcliff taking in the views and eating snacks before the long trip back to Lincoln Woods. On the way down, the top part of Bondcliff trail started to soften up so we nailed the timing perfectly making it to the super packed portion after the highest water crossing and not having any issues with chewing up the trail or postholing.

- After fifteen miles of having the trails to ourselves we started seeing a handful of hikers about two miles before the Camp 16 turn, still it was relatively quiet as we saw only ten hikers heading in on the Bondcliff Trail and amazingly only another six people walking the Lincoln Woods Trail.

- It was a great day in the Bonds with Sarge, and I was happy he finished his winter 48, and he was happy to get a bunch of extra treats for the occasion!