Hiking in the White Mountains: Twinway

Date of Hike: 1/24/15

Route 302 & Zealand Road: 4.0 miles / Zealand Trail: 2.5 miles / Twinway: 4.6 miles / Bondcliff Trail: 0.8 miles / West Bond Spur: 1.0 miles / Bondcliff Trail: 7.9 miles / Lincoln Woods Trail: 2.9 miles
Total Miles 24.0 (4,900 feet elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- On Saturday I joined in on a Zealand - Bonds Traverse for Gryffin's 48 - 4,000 footer finish. Gryffin is a Golden Retriever that reminds me of Teddy, he runs up and down the trail wagging his tail with his tongue hanging out as happy as can be. There were three other strong dogs joining in on the hike, Lucy an Australian Shepard, Kibo a Yellow Lab, and Marlie a Terrier Boxer mix. Meanwhile the hikers consisted of Tim, Mark, Jason, Brent (click here for his report and pics), Ian, Matt, Theresa, Holly, Steve, and myself.
- We spotted cars at Lincoln Woods at 5:15 a.m. Believe it or not Lincoln Woods was hopping, as Michael and Monica where leading a group hike of their own over Hale-Zealand-Bonds. We all jumped in and headed north to the Zealand Road winter lot off Route 302 and started hiking around 6:15. The road walk up Zealand Road is the longest of the road walks to bag a 4,000 footer as it is four miles to the start of the Zealand Trail.
- We hiked in our boots up to Zealand Falls Hut and then put on our snowshoes until descending Bondcliff. There were excellent snowshoe conditions above Zeacliff all the way until the highest water crossing of the Black Brook beneath Bondcliff. The group ascended at a good pace as we spread on the ups and stopped at each major junction or summit to regroup.
- Twenty-four miles is a long day for a dog but they all did very well. Temperatures were in the mid to high twenties throughout the day so it was plenty warm enough and the 'balling' of snow on the dogs pads were minimal.
- Even though the hike is twenty-four miles, about eleven of the miles are mostly flat or over easy grades along Zealand Road, the first two miles of the Zealand Trail, and the last five miles along the old Wilderness Trail on the back end (it's now the Lincoln Woods Trail to the Pemi wilderness boundary, and Bondcliff Trail from there). The other thirteen miles has pretty much everything; a steep burst from the hut to Zeacliff, a moderate ascent from Zeacliff to Zealand's summit, then a couple of up and downs over to Guyot, West Bond, Bond, and Bondcliff, followed by a long descent from Bondcliff to the old Railroad grade.
- Between Guyot and Bondcliff are some of the most incredible views in the White Mountains; Owl's Head and the Pemi Wilderness with The Twin Range, Garfield Ridge, and Franconia Ridge rising high above to the west and north. To the south and east is the rugged ridge line of Bondcliff. Way off to the west you can spot the Green Mountains of Vermont, closer to the north is the White capped Presidential Range dwarfing all other mountains.
- We caught the weather just right as we had great views and high clouds until West Bond, then the snow slowly started rolling in on our way to Bond, and snow squalls landed on us as we celebrated Gryffin's finish on Bondcliff, followed by the snow tapering off as we descended Bondcliff. We had a nice enjoyable flat walk out of the Pemi Wilderness as the sun set...Perfectly timed hike with a great group!

Early morning on Zealand Road as we pass by the Hale Brook Trailhead on our way to Zealand Trailhead

The group hikes the bridge as they make there way towards Zealand Pond

Snow is almost burying a footbridge over the Zealand Pond outlet

Making our way to Zealand Falls Hut

Lucy, Gryffin, Brent, and Jason cross over the top of Zealand Falls

The Zeacliff Outlook - Whitewall Mountain, and Zeacliff Pond

Whitewall

Carrigain Notch

The sun trying to shine through a purple haze

Gryffin!

Heading up to Zealand Mountain

Zealand Mountain summit

Heading to North Guyot

Looking toward Mount Carrigain from North Guyot

Mount Garfield over to Mount Lafayette and Lincoln

Presidential Range as seen from North Guyot

Brent and Jason breaking out of the trees along the Twinway

Lucy getting goofy on Guyot

Gryffin taking in the views

Mark, Marlie, and Ian on North Guyot

Tim and Gryffin with the Presidential Range behind them

Heading to Guyout

The gang hooks onto the Bondcliff Trail over to Mount Guyot

Jason on his way to West Bond

Looking down into the Pemigewasset Wilderness

On the way to West Bond

Gryffin and Lucy on West Bond as Jason makes his way up with Bondcliff in full view from the summit

West Bond sub summit and Mount Garfield

Twinway Slides

Garfield and Franconia Ridge

Bondcliff

Heading to Mount Bond

Gryffin on Mount Bond!

Snow moving in over Bondcliff

West Bond from Mount Bond

Dropping down to Bondcliff

Owl's Head with Liberty and Flume behind it

Owl's Head and the Franconia Ridge

Guitar and Monster Slides of West Bond

West Bond from Bondcliff

#48 for Gryffin!

Jason on Bondcliff

Ian and Marlie on Bondcliff

Descending from Bondcliff

Hiking through a snow squall!

Crossing the Black Brook, the Black Brook Trestle from the early 1900's logging Railroad, and the old Bondcliff / Wilderness Trail Junction

Hiking out along the old Railroad grade

Route for the day, click here for details

Date of Hike: 5/27/13

North Twin Trail: 4.3 miles / North Twin Spur: 1.3 miles / Twinway: 6.2 miles / Lend-a-Hand Trail: 2.7 miles /
Mount Hale Fire Warden's Trail 2.5 miles / North Twin Trail 1.0 miles
Total Miles: 18.0 (5,300 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- Last year on Memorial Day weekend I was jumping in the East Branch of the Pemi River near Stillwater Junction deep in the Pemigewasset Wilderness. This year there would be none of that as rain, sleet, and snow came to the White Mountains over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I waited out the storm, enjoyed reading the hikers on two facebook 4,000 footer hiking pages overreact to the weather, and planned my hike for Monday. I decided a Twins - Zealand - Hale Loop was a perfect hike to play in the mud, water, and snow!
- I arrived at the North Twin trailhead just after 8 a.m., it was already in the low 40's, the sun was out, and the wind was calm. I was surprised to see six other cars at the trailhead this early but was happy to know there would be other people out there.
- There are three crossings of the Little River before the trail starts to ascend to North Twin. Usually at this time of year I would do all the water crossings but since they were running high and it was the beginning of the hike I decided to take the herd path bypass and only deal with the final crossing. However, there was a hiker who was doing all three crossings, good for him!
- When I got to the third crossing I ran into a group of around seven, most of which were taking off their boots and wading across, none of them seemed really thrilled to be doing this. I just hopped across getting half of my trail runners wet....The hikers probably rolled their eyes when I did this as they stood there freezing their feet off!
- Next the fun began, the trail was a wet muddy mess transforming to snow and running water and then all snow above 3,500 feet. I took one nasty slip and smashed my left hand on the ground, my left hand which was holding my trusty old camera 'FrankenCamera'. This time there would be no fixing FrankenCamera as the lens popped out and nothing I did was able to fix it. So I was now using camera #2.
- I was pretty amazed at the snow on the trail, it was heavy spring snow and the warm temps were melting all the snow off the ferns creating a rain shower in the trail. I was soaked by the time I got to the outlook just below the summit. The wind was whipping pretty good, probably around 20-25 mph so I took a few pictures and kept on moving up to the summit and over to the summit outlook.
- There was about three to four inches of snow on the trail but no other tracks so it was pretty fun trudging through the North Twin Spur Trail between North Twin and South Twin. The rocks and roots were hidden so it was an ankle buster minefield.
- The temperatures were in the 40's but with the wind and the rain shower from the trees I had to keep on moving to stay nice and warm so I didn't linger long on the summit of South Twin.
- The hike over towards Guyot was more of the same, a little less snow but a couple of blowdowns and some slippery bog bridges under the snow.
- When I popped out into the scrub near the Bondcliff trail junction I was treated to amazing views, unfortunately camera #2 had froze up so now it was onto camera #3, my Apple Phone.
- The wind was still whipping at a decent rate so I couldn't really enjoy the views for too long before heading over to Zealand Mountain.
- The hike down and up to Zealand Mountain was a lot wetter as the snow was started to melt and create puddles under it. I was soaked and just kept on trucking and not stopping until I made it to the summit. I took a break at the summit to eat lunch and put on my winter mittens. Up until this point I had my regular mittens on but they were soaked and my hands were freezing. I waited for my hands to warm up and took off down towards Zeacliff and then to the Lend-a-Hand Trail Junction.
- I finally ran into the first hikers since the last water crossing of the Little River over six miles ago. I ended up coming across over a dozen hikers in a short amount of time all heading to Zealand.
- The trail quickly went from snow to mud and standing water. The lower I dropped the warmer it got and by the time I reached the Lend-a-Hand Trail I was in a short sleeve shirt.
- The Lend-a-Hand Trail started off dry for about the first quarter of a mile but then became wet and muddy with snow up higher. There was only and inch or two of snow, much less than on the Twinway so it was easier to navigate.
- I made good time up to the summit where there were a few other hikers relaxing and taking in the views...of a pile of rocks, Hale isn't really the most exciting of summits! I didn't stay long on the summit, maybe ten minutes at most to refuel before I headed down the abandoned Fire Warden's Trail. The Fire Warden's Trail is a great old trail that sees a lot of use and in my opinion is much more enjoyable than the Hale Brook Trail. It was very muddy with some boot sucking mud like an Adirondack trail but was a joy to hike down as the Birch glades are beautiful. I took a fall on my butt and was full of mud but loved every second of it.
- When I hit the North Twin Trail I dipped my muddy feet in the Little River which was cold but refreshing. I made it back to the car shortly before three and changed out of the muddy mess I had become before heading back home excited that I'll be back in a couple of days with my friend Tom Diaz from our days at 'The College of the Quinnipiac University'!!

Started 8:20 a.m. / North Twin Summit 10:10 a.m. / South Twin Summit 10:40 a.m. / Zealand Summit 11:45 a.m. / Hale Summit 1:55 p.m. / Finished 2:50 p.m.