Four of the OTHH did the exhausting 20-mile north-to-south traverse of the Pemigewasset Wilderness, on a beautiful, sunny, totally clear and dry day. We met at the Lincoln Woods trailhead on the Kancamagus Highway at 5:50 am (John wants all to know that, despite his well-known preference for later hike starts, he had indeed left home by 4:30 am to make the meetup time). We took one car back to 93, up the notch, and around to the end of Zealand Rd off rte 302. The trek got under way at 6:37; an early start was needed, as experience taught us that we probably would take all of the 12-hour "book time" to complete the hike, perhaps more, and sunset would come at 7:35 pm. It was 45 F, making for a very cool start, but without wind, the sun and brisk walking quickly warmed things up.
The easy first three miles took us in to the Zealand Falls AMC hut, with little more than 600 ft of elevation gain. The next 1.3 miles took us up another 1070 ft, to the Zeacliff outlook, with it's great views of the west side of the Tom-Field-Willey range across Zealand Notch and southward down to Mt Carrigain. Further westward along the Twinway trail, we took the short side trail to the viewless summit of Mt Zealand, then continued onward to the barren summit of Mt Guyot (elev 4560 or 4580 ft) and the northern end of the Bondcliff trail. Below is the view southward from Guyot, with West Bond in the center and the long slope up to Bond on the left.
Moving south along the Bondcliff trail, we dropped our packs at the start of the half mile side trail up to West Bond. Below is Pam on top, with Bondcliff in the background.
After retreating and picking up our packs, we continued on up to Mt Bond, about ten miles and halfway through our hike. A pair of hikers came along at the right time to get the picture below, of Pam, Dick, Sandy (her 21st trek to the Bonds), and John. In the background is the east side of the Franconia Ridge, with the long Owls Head ridge to this side of it.
Then it was down and over to Bondcliff, yet another 1.2 miles to the south, and the fifth peak of the day. Below is a shot of all but the top of Bondcliff, from part way down from Bond; the path the trail follows along the rocks is seen easily, even a trio of hikers. The views on this hike were never ending.
Finally, atop Bondcliff, the last bit of uphill was behind us. Below is a shot of Pam close to the edge of the famous rock where many hikers like to stand for their own personal memoir of that peak. West Bond is behind her.
Now it was time to go home, so to speak. But that meant nine more miles. Below is a shot of John, not far from the top, halfway down what some have dubbed the "Hillary Step," a reference to a larger feature near the top of Mt Everest.
Then it was four more miles of fairly decent downhill trail through the woods to the junction with what had been called the Wilderness Trail years ago, an old logging railroad bed. We already were exhausted, having come 15 miles over five peaks, and it was nearly six pm. The next two miles to the bridge over the Franconia Brook, and the final three miles to the cars at the Kanc, were a grueling, "running on fumes" ordeal. If we'd had the energy to do much thinking, we might have recalled the lines from Robert Frost's famous poem: "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." We came out just after sunset, a little over 13 hours after the hike began. Book time was only 12 hours, but, hey, we'll take it and be glad to be able to do this at all, considering three of us range in ages from 74 to 77. For John, it marked peaks 45, 46, and 47 of his "over 75" round, and the same for Dick's fifth round.
