Hello friends!
We intend to do a full Zealand – Bonds traverse as some in our group need these peaks for their 48. This will be a very easy pace hike, but a long day. Round trip will be about 19 miles. In addition to bringing your ten essentials (a headlamp and backup are vital), it is important to remember extra warm layers for our time up on Bond as the summit is completely exposed. Extra water and food are also a must.
As of now, there are 4 of us definitely going. We will leave a car at Lincoln Woods trailhead off of Route 112 (Kancamagus Highway) the night before and plan to arrive at trailhead for Zealand Trail off of Zealand Road at 3:30am for a 4:00am start time. For others interested in joining please reach out if you need help coordinating a car-spot.
We will take Zealand Trail to Twinway to the summit of Zealand, 5.5 miles from trailhead. Hoping to be to Zealand by around 7-7:30ish.
We will continue on the Twinway Trail to Mt. Goyot and then hop on Bondcliff Trail to make our way to the Bonds.
The cut off for West Bond is about 2 miles from Zealand. Hopeful to be there around 9 – 9:30.
We will take the .4 to the summit of West Bond via the West Bond Spur. Hoping to be back to Bondcliff Trail by 10:30 to make our way to the summit of Bond.
The summit of Bond is about half a mile from the cut off to the West Bond Spur. Ideally we’ll be there by 11:30 at the latest so we can set up our flag pole and raise our flag by noon.
We’ll have our flag flying from 12:00-2:00, weather permitting. After packing up our flag and pole, we’ll continue on to Bondcliff, about 1.1 miles from Bond. I anticipate being on Bondcliff by around 3:00.
From Bondcliff we’ll continue along the Bondcliff Trail until it meets up with Lincoln Woods Trail. We’ve got about 9 miles from Bondcliff back down to our cars. I anticipate being back to our cars by around 8:00.
Here is the link to the All Trails map for our route: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/map/zealand-bonds-traverse-7ec69dd
Friendly reminder to Leave No Trace, hike safely and responsibly and follow rules and guidelines outlined by the White Mountain National Forest.
Please contact Courtney either via IG @littlemountainotter or via text or call at 207-751-3581 if you intend to join and have any questions.
