North Twin-South Twin-Guyot-Bond-Bondcliff-West Bond
24-25 Sep 2011
Fred Knight and Mike Pineault
Fred's Home

A panoramic 180-deg view from West Bond. The valley was red with turning maples, the lower slopes yellow from birches, and the upper slopes green with fir and spruce. Mike was surveying the grandeur. Click on image to see enlargement and detail.

Another panorama looking from South Twin toward Franconia Ridge with Owl's Head and associated ridge (to left) in the foreground. Click on image to see enlargement and detail.

Mike and I planned a two-day excursion to reach Bond, Bondcliff, and West Bond. Everything went according to plan. The first day was mostly in the clouds with few views. The night at Guyot Tentsite was very warm. The second day was partly cloudy with good views west but not much east toward the Presidentials. The view from Bondcliff on the cover of The AMC White Mountain Guide was completely obscured by clouds when we were on Bondcliff the day before.

The weather was really warm; probably in the mid fifties at night and up to 70s in the daytime. The clouds were thick on Saturday, but Sunday was partly cloudy. The one river crossing on the North Twin Trail had a couple new downed trees to hold onto. We avoided the other two crossings in the usual way by staying on the east side of the river. There was evidence of quite a flood from Irene a few weeks ago.

Meals were tasty. Mike's method of making Raman worked fine, especially since we had been on the trail the entire day. We arrived at Guyot tentsite, retrieved our packs that we had left earlier before doing Bond and Bondcliff, and chose tentsite #6. It rained some during the night. For breakfast, I brought burritos to be heated in plastic bags in the boiling water. They came out fine. That did not quite make up for my forgetting Saturday's breakfast at home. I reached for it at about 6:30am in the car. Oops! We settled for Dunkin Donuts.

Summary: 23 miles in 31.5 hours, 6 4000'ers, some nice vistas when the Saturday fog lifted on Sunday. Quite fun!

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Snaps from Twins-Bonds Hike 2011 Sep 24-25

Mike near North Twin and in clouds 4.3 miles and 2600' rise into the hike, we reach our first peak, North Twin.	South Twin in the fog Can't see South Twin, just the ridge line	Shrouded in fog near North Twin Our first stop about 3.5 hours into the hike
South Twin: take fork to Bondcliff Second peak after 1 hour hike from North Twin	Looking back to Bondcliff adorned with our Guyot caretaker As we left Bondcliff, the caretaker, out for a jaunt, was shrouded in fog	Guyot tentsite #6, 7:47am, 25 Sep 2011 They say a platform holds up to 6 people, but we used it all.
River crossing, 2 miles from the end Coming down from North Twin was pretty slow for me; Mike was a good sport.