Hiking in the White Mountains: Hale

Date of Hike: 1/9/21

Zealand Road: 2.6 miles / Hale Brook Trail: 2.2 miles / Lend-A-Hand Trail: 2.6 miles / Twinway: 4.2 miles / Bondcliff Trail: 0.6 miles / West Bond Spur: 1.0 miles / Bondcliff Trail: 8.2 miles / Lincoln woods Trail: 2.9 miles

Total Miles: 24.1 / 5,909' elevation gained

Trip Report:

- Saturday morning Sarge got the day off because it was going to be a big mile day traversing through the Pemigewasset Wilderness with the trail running group (Kristina, Nate, Rem, Rich, Todd, & Vic). The weather leading up to the hike called for clear skies and decent wind speeds with temps in the twenties, however in the morning the weather changed to mostly cloudy. Even with the cloudy forecast we held out hope for some undercast or breaking clouds by the time we reached the Bonds in the afternoon, and lucky for us we caught a break and got a pretty sweet cloud show.

- Conditions once again were pretty tame for a Hale-Zealand-Bonds traverse, a 1000X easier than my last HZB traverse in early December of 2018 through feet of snow and bent over trees (click here for report).

- Zealand Road and Hale Brook Trail were well packed, Lend-a-Hand Trail was packed but a little soft, Twinway to Zealand was well packed, Twinway and Bondcliff to Guyot and the West Bond Spur were packed but soft, and the rest were well packed. This made for an easy day to maintain a solid hiking pace and to be able to finish before it got dark.

- Thick clouds and no views was the theme until Guyot, which made the first ten miles quite the grind, but soon after we started to see blue skies above us, and by the time we reached West Bond the clouds slowly started breaking away and the views kept expanding as we hooked around to Bond and down Bondcliff Ridge.

- Overall, trails were very quiet for a Saturday, as we only saw a handful of hikers, including Ryan and his friend, Will, attempting a Winter Hut to Hut Traverse.

- It was the first twenty mile day I had since November and I felt good for most of the day, only feeling wonky in my head a few times, which has been a recurring theme since the pandemic started, but luckily I have been able to get a better hold of this over the last few months, however feeling comfortable while doing consistent big mile days are still a long ways away, but I'm hopeful that over time I can get back to where I was last year when I was working on my snow season triathlon 48.

Breaking above the trees on the Twinway

The Gang heads towards Guyot

Follow the leader

On West Bond looking towards South Twin

Bondcliff

Bond

Mount Washington playing peek-a-boo

Heading to Bondcliff

Sun makes its first appearance!

Bondcliff clears off for good

Layers of clouds made for a pretty cool scene

Approaching the summit of Bondcliff

The slides of West Bond

Hellgate Ravine

West Bond and Bond

Guitar Slide and the Monster Slides of Hellgate Ravine

The iconic Cliffs of Bond

Views starting to open up to the north

One last look at the clouds before heading home

Date of Hike: 12/1/18

Zealand Road: 2.6 miles / Hale Brook Trail: 2.2 miles / Lend-A-Hand Trail: 2.6 miles / Twinway: 4.2 miles / Bondcliff Trail: 0.6 miles / West Bond Spur: 1.0 miles / Bondcliff Trail: 8.2 miles / Lincoln woods Trail: 3.0 miles
Total Miles: 24.2 miles (6,063 feet elevation gained) Garmin Forerunner 920XT

**Click here for collaborative photo album**

Trip Report:
- On Saturday morning I joined a super strong group of hikers to tackle breaking out a majority of the Hale-Zealand-Bonds Traverse. The group was made up of Jason, Leah, Nate and his dog Piper, and Todd.
- We started just after 7am and happily hiked the broken out Zealand Road and Hale Brook Trail to Mount Hale's summit. From here we would be breaking trail for the next eight hours over thirteen miles through one to two feet of snow with higher drifts in spots.
- While breaking trail is nothing new for any of us, what made the day extra challenging and exhausting were the several miles of trees that were so heavy with snow that they were bent over across the trail. To navigate through these sections we spent a lot of time knocking ice and snow off of trees, then snaking around the trees slowing our progress considerably.
- However, we were rewarded handsomely with some of the most incredible undercast I have ever seen, second only to a Presi Traverse from December of 2014 (Trip Report).
- Views from Guyot, West Bond, and Bond were incredible. We caught sunset from Bond and hiked in the twilight along the Bondcliff Ridge while a sea of clouds floated everywhere below 4,000 feet as far as the eye could see.
- We all took turns breaking trail and knocking the stunted growth pines free of snow and ice. It was a total team effort and impressive to watch everyone break trail and route find in places where the trail corridor would basically disappear in a maze of bent over trees.
- We finally hit a broken trail at the last water crossing of the Bondcliff Trail, a much welcome sight, we still had seven miles to the car but at least we wouldn't have to route find in the dark. This made hiking much easier and we were able to cover the last seven miles in under two and a half hours finishing just after 8PM .
- What an incredible day, spent with an easy going, strong, and energetic group!