NH 48 4000 footers: Bondcliff, Bond, West Bond, Galehead

Saturday, September 16, 2017
Start: Lincoln Woods Visitor Center
End: 13 Falls campsite
Miles: 17.9
Ascent/Descent: 5472’/4406′
Listened to: Nancy Podcast.
Cried from said podcast: 3

I drove up to NH after work yesterday, and stayed the night at the Notch hostel. I got up around 5:45am and was in the parking lot of Lincoln Woods by 6:30am. I paid for my parking, finished packing up, and hit the trail by 6:45am.

The first 4 miles or so of the trail was super flat and smooth sailing. 

Then the slow and steady climbing started. I climbed up to Bondcliff (4265′) first, then Bond (4698′), and then out and back on the West Bond (4541′) spur. 

I dropped down to Guyot shelter for water and then climbed up the side of Mt Guyot and then up South Twin Mountain (4902′). From there, I descended to Galehead hut, arriving by 2:30pm, where I got water, soup, bread, and  a piece of frosted yellow cake. I had nice chats with one of the hut croo, Holly, who recently graduated from UConn, majoring in healthcare business management. From the hut, I headed to the Galehead spur, dropped my pack, and went up and back (4026′).

After that final climb of the day, I descended 2.6 miles to the 13 Falls campsite (2231′). 

I arrived at the campsite at 5pm. There were plenty of tent spaces left when I arrived; I don’t think the sites are full even now, after dark. I set up my tent, treated water, cooked my dinner (which, as it turned out, sucked), checked out the falls, forced myself to eat dinner, and then packed up and headed towards bed. I’m sleeping without my rainfly tonight since it’s supposed to be a nice night and only drop to 55. Tomorrow, I have a much easier day, with only 12.9 miles and only climbing Owls Head before getting to my car.

The dinner didn’t turn out well. The food was stale and plastic tasting, and I neglected to add much salt at all… it was beyond bland and tasted weird. And there was a lot of it; it was an ordeal to finish the majority of my dinner. It left my jaw tired and painful. I didn’t even bother to eat dessert.

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As I was hiking over Bondcliff, I met Fynn, an AMC caretaker out for a walk. We had great conversations, and we walked together from Bondcliff to West Bond spur, and then we chatted a bit more when I went to Guyot shelter for water. Once the season ends in a few weeks, Fynn will be back living in western mass, so we exchanged phone numbers and plan to keep in touch.

I’ve been listening to Nancy, an LGBTQ podcast from WNYC. It’s a beautiful thing and I’d highly recommend it. For a 25 minute podcast, they manage to pack a lot of intersectionality into their episodes. There’s some beautiful trans representation.