Home > Hiking > Hiking Trip Reports > Richard, Susan, and John do the Bonds

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We arrived back at the camp three and a half hours after leaving and found John in the midst of cooking dinner. He had rearranged the rocks so we both had a seat while cooking our dinner, which we both thanked him for his thoughtfulness as we shared our soup with him. Just after dinner it began to sprinkle, so we all headed to our tents for what we would hope would be a good night sleep. No such luck. About an hour after hitting the pads the sky opened up and it poured for the rest of the night. Come morning, it was still misting out as we broke camp and began our six hour hike back to our car and our warn dry house.

We were the first one's out that morning as we passed the caretaker's tent and said our goodbyes. The hike back up to the Bondcliff trail felt like it had to be the longest hike we've done in ages. Although our legs were not sore, we were still somewhat fatigued given we didn't get a lot of sleep that night. We simply put our heads down and just put one foot in front of the other without the usual conversation that accompany most hikes. When we hit the summit of Mount Guyot, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees as we all scrambled top layer up so as not to get a chill too early into the hike. By the time we reached Mount Zealand the temperature had returned to normal and the sky actually began to clear. The overlook just north of the Zealand summit that was overcast on the way in gave us the best view of the Zealand notch and the Pemi wilderness that I had ever seen. We discussed how next year we wanted to do a Pemi traverse minus the five peaks that we climbed on this trip.

I arrived at the Zealand hut about ten minutes ahead of Susan and John and began to sun myself by the waterfall while waiting for them to catch up. We all rested for about fifteen minutes before making the final push to our car and eventually our house. We arrived back at John's car just over five hours after we left the Mt Guyot campsite a little frazzled by in good spirits. The only thing that kept us going was the thought of having corn beef hash and eggs at a local dinner in North Woodstock, which we did. Although it is too early to tell, I think Susan just might be up for another overnighter if John comes along. Sometimes having a third person can change the makeup of a hike where it doesn't seem so bad. Besides, 44, 47, and 51 year olds need to stick together.

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Submitted by Richard Kipphut
Cheshire, CT
Mon, 10 Sep 2001