Over the last 6 months, my weekend adventures were training-focused.  I enjoyed my training hikes as an opportunity to get outside and enjoy nature, but carrying 50lbs of dumbbells in your backpack limits the amount of fun one can have in the mountains.   Toward the end of my training, I started dreaming about warm summer days with long speed hikes and trail runs with a lightweight pack.  This weekend I that dream became a reality.

I started planning for the weekend’s adventure on Wednesday.  I didn’t have a specific plan, but I knew I wanted to cover at least 20 miles in new territory.  After pouring over a map of the Whites, I decided to make a trip out to the Bonds, heading up Mt Hale before joining the Twinway over to Mt Guyot.  My route would take me out to Bondcliff and cover 24.9 miles.

On Friday night, I packed my DayRunner Camelback.   I went out to dinner with friends, but knew I wanted to be home early for my 3:30am alpine start.  Somewhere during the night, I opted for more margaritas and less sleep.   I woke at 5am on Saturday morning, already running late.  

Still, I made it to the trailhead at 8:07, an hour behind schedule.  Knowing that I was already running late, I left open the option to cut my hike short if I started to run out of time.  I made a schedule of the hike and gave myself cut-off times for all the major waypoints.  Since the trip was out-and-back, I could easily turn around whenever I felt I was running behind schedule. 

But, I never ran behind schedule.  In fact, I was quite pleased with my pace.  I started at the Mt Hale trailhead and climbed to the top of Mt Hale in 1:10, 30 minutes ahead of my schedule.  I quickly realized that I was too conservative on my time estimates.   However, I didn’t know if I had the stamina to continue at that pace, so I headed down Lend-A-Hand trail without stopping on the summit. 

I tried to stay regimented during the entire hike.  At every waypoint, I assigned myself a target time to reach the next waypoint.  I only drank water on the hour.   I didn’t linger on the summits.  I ate a Snickers every 3 hrs and had a handful of snack mix every 2 hours.   I ran downhill when the terrain would allow.

 

I stayed ahead of pace until the stretch of trail between Zeacliff and Mt Guyot where I got behind a large and very slow AMC group.  The trail was rocky and narrow and was difficult to pass the hikers.  I finally moved past the last of the group and made my way over to Guyot .  I had never been this far into the Pemi Wilderness before and I absolutely loved the remoteness.  As I moved toward the Bonds, I absorbed the 360 views of the blue skies and green mountains. On top of Mt Bond, I heard voices.  Aside from the large AMC group back at Zealand, I didn’t see too many people on the trail.  I was a little surprised to hear voices just below the summit of Bond, since we were at 10 miles from the nearest trailhead.   The first hiker popped above the summit, looking rather familiar.  We both did a double take and then said, “Zophia?”  “Yea, Sara?”  “Yea.”  “Victor and Steph are coming up too.”  What a random place to meet up with three friends!

I spent an hour on the summit talking with Steph and making plans for a late summer trip up Mt Rainier before we parted ways.   Of course, chatting with friends slowed down my pace, but it was worth it.    I decided to skip Bondcliff since I lost an hour and I headed back. 

I stopped at the Zealand Hut and treated myself to a glass of lemonade.  At the hut, two hikers made the comment that they had seen me earlier on the trail.   Although I didn’t specifically recognize them, I knew that I passed several hikers that I saw on the way out.  The hut caretaker said I was 2.6 mi from the Zealand trailhead and that it was all downhill.  I wanted to get back to my car (which was an additional mile down the road), so I started running.  I made it back to the car in about 45 minutes.  

Great hike.  It was fun to cover so many miles in a day. 

The stats:

I carried 1.5 liters of water, 3 Snickers, 11oz of trail mix, Sport Beans, map, compass, camera, and Marmot DriClime jacket, EMS System II rain jacket and pants.

 

Waypoint	Dist	Elev
Mt Hale TH to Mt Hale		1770
Mt Hale	2.2	4054
Mt Hale  to Zealand Hut	2.7	2730
Zealand Hut to Zeacliff	1.6	3740
Zealand	1.3	4250
Mt Guyot	1.6	4580
Mt Bond	1.3	4698
back to Guyot	1.3	4580
Mt Guyot to Zealand	1.3	4250
Zealand to Zeacliff	1.3	3740
Zeacliff to Hut	1.6	2730
Hut to Zealand Falls Tr	1.3	2460
Zealand Falls Tr to TH	0.4	2000
Zealand Falls TH to Mt Hale TH	2.3	1770
	1.0	1770
Total Mileage	21.2