As
a sort of "last hurrah" of the summer, I decided to throw in a long
ridge hike in the Pemigewasset Wilderness of New Hampshire. I left
Burlington around 6:30am on a Sunday in late August of 2013 and parked
at the trailhead of North Twin mountain. The trail heads up to North
Twin in about 4 miles, but not before crossing over a beautiful river
three times. The views were incredible. Looking to the northeast was
the Presidential range, and to the southwest was the Franconia Ridge.
Absolutely killer.
From
the top of North Twin I headed along the ridge to South Twin, which is a
few hundred feet higher in elevation. The views from here were even
more spectacular, though it was more crowded than North Twin, which had
only one other hiker. The hike I had planned, which was 21 miles and
five 4,000 footers, did not include Galehead mountain, which was just
over a mile from South Twin, via the Galehead hut. Seeing as it would
only add about 2.4 or so miles onto my day, I decided to go for it. I
didn't realize, however, that the trail would drop over 1,200 feet in .8
miles! Coming back up was a challenge. Galehead mountain offered zero
views from the summit, but there was a vista on the way up that looked
back toward South Twin.
Once
back on top of South Twin, I headed south along the ridge toward the
Bonds. The trail comes out of the trees at Mt. Guyot, which is not
itself a separate 4,000 footer due to its lack of prominence. However, I
headed over Mt. Guyot and continued toward the Bonds. I took the trail
split and headed west to tag West Bond, which offered really killer
views looking back toward the Bondcliffs. I backtracked the mile back
to the main trail, continued to Mt. Bond, and after a very brief stay
due to limited views, I finished the trail over to the Bondcliffs. The
Bondcliffs offered arguably the greatest views of the day. It was so
clear at this point, and I had amazing views of the entire Presidential
range as well as the Franconia Ridge. It was amazing.
By
this point in the day, I had gone about 15 miles and it was hot. I had
about 8 or 9 miles to get back to my car and I was nearly out of
water. I had my purification pump, but no water sources to be had up on
the ridge. In any event, I headed back over Mt. Bond and on to Mt.
Guyot, where there was a trial split heading east to Mt. Zealand.
Although I had been told Zealand offers very little in the way of views,
I felt like I had to tag it while I was up there. So I took the trail a
little over a mile to Mt. Zealand. The summit was just a pile of rocks
in the middle of a bunch of trees but hey, another peak bagged.
I
was pretty dehydrated as I backtracked to the ridge trail and up to
South Twin. I knew there were some water sources on the way down from
North Twin, so I just had to make it there it one piece. I feel like I
was a bit delirious at this point, but I trudged over South Twin, on to
North Twin, and let gravity do its job taking me down the trail to the
water source. I pumped bottle after bottle of water and took it all
down. Once I let it settle a bit, I started to feel a lot better. I
finished off the last three or so miles, met some great people and had
some great hiking conversations on the way out, and back to my car. The
mileage ended up being, ironically, 26.2 miles, so I essentially did a
marathon on the mountains! Another great day to be alive!
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