Just short, local hikes again this week so I will be sharing probably the most amazing and difficult hike I have done so far.  In August 2016 my friends Kathie, her dog Bodhi, Beth and her daughter did our first overnight backpacking trip.  Kathie has overnighted many times so she was a tremendous help to us newbies.  We started out on the Zealand Trail which leads you to the AMC Zealand Falls Hut then took Twinway Trail to the wooded summit of Zealand, once we took our pictures at the summit we headed over to Mt Guyot which is 4000 feet but not on the list.  It is an open summit and has some amazing views.

 

Then we headed to the Guyot Campsite were we planned on spending the night.  This is a very busy campsite so we did our best to hike at a faster pace than normal.  The trail to the campsite was a very steep descent with lots of rocks and roots to navigate, that along with heavy packs and being exhausted made it rather unpleasant.  Once we made it to the campsite we where lucky to get a platform large enough for all of us.  We set up camp, refueled and set out to tag Bond and Bondcliff.

We used smaller packs so hiking was a little easier.  The trail to Bond was a short hike from the campsite, but the trail to Bondcliff was tricky and long.  But the scenery and view around the trail was amazing which made it bearable.  When your out their you truly feel like you are completely alone.  The Bondcliffs are incredible the views were amazing and Reba and I ventured out on the cliff for our picture, we didn’t go all the way out, honestly I think we where both a little nervous!  After spending sometime at the cliffs we headed back, exhaustion was setting in and it was a long hike back to the campsite.  Once back we had some dinner and then went to bed.  Reba really likes the tent so she slept well even with all the commotion from the other campers around us.

 

 

 

The next morning Beth, her daughter, Reba, Bodhi and I headed out to tag West Bond.  Kathie had already hiked West Bond and stayed back to rest some more.  It was drizzling rain and very foggy.  When we got to the summit it was completely soaked in so no view for us.  We headed back and packed up camp.  From the campsite we headed back towards Mt Guyot and took Twinway to the summit of South Twin, the trail to South Twin was fairly level and a nice easy hike.  But the last quarter mile to the summit was a tough uphill ascent.  When we summited we had the pleasure of running into a friend who had overnighted at Thirteen Falls Campsite.  After a nice visit we headed out on the North Twin Spur Trail to North Twin, then down North Twin Trail back to where we left a car.  North Twin Trail was a very, very long trail that felt like it would never end!  The total mileage was 22 miles in two days.  It was a great first overnight backpacking trip!