| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Bondcliff, Mt. Bond, West Bond, Mt. Guyot, Zealand Mountain, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Lincoln Woods Trail, Bondcliff Trail, West Bond Spur, Twinway, Zealand Spur, Zealand Trail, Zealand Road |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Monday, April 8, 2024 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Lincoln woods is plowed as well as the lot across from zeland road |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Wet Trail, Snow - Drifts, Snow - Spring Snow, Snow/Ice - Postholes, Slush |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
All easily rock hopped |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
Let the terrible trail breaking conditions continue.
We barebooted for the first 4 miles as Lincoln woods was pretty much bare other than minimal slush that was solid at the beginning of the day. After the sun started cooking we opted for snowshoes. We were able to follow in a roughly broken trail, looks like 1 or 2 people had been out previously since the last storm, still lots of work needed before the trail is semi stable (if that ever happens). Trail conditions were not too bad until we reached around 2,200 ft or so. Since the sun had been out for several hours the real fun began, postholing in 25 inch snowshoes. It was fairly manageable until you get to around 3,000 ft then the snow pack starts to become very deep and unconsolidated and you sink with every step. The tracks previously mentioned made it until the final water crossing before they opted to turn around, from there we followed some ski tracks, but they may as well of not been there, from the waterfall to the summit of bondcliff was some of the worst snow conditions we have experienced this year, 2-3 ft at least, not tracked out and super soft from the sun. Once we reached bondcliff we switched to barebooting as it was rather bare on the ridge. We kept it this way until we started going up bond, then we encountered snowdrifts that had to be at least 3 feet and ready to swallow us up. The fun only continued once we reached the trees, the snow is so deep that branches that are normally above your head in summer were chest height or lower today, made for a fun swim through the trees that were still covered in snow. This remained true to west bond, more tree swimming with occasionally difficult route finding and unbroken trail that we were sinking shin to knee deep in. From west bond to guyot was one of the worst sections, the trees are bent over from heavy snow, combined with several feet of unbroken snow made it so we were almost crawling through the trees. Once we reached guyot a miracle! We ran into nick and his group of three who thankfully had come from zeland and had broken out twinway. We were able to follow in their tracks but after baking in the sun the snow had become a compete slushy mess and provided no support. Twinway was more of the same, swimming through trees and postholing to the shin despite the use of snowshoes. Luckily once we got to zeacliff there were signs of more traffic and the trail from the hut to zeacliff had been pack down pretty well. We kept snowshoes on all the way to Zeland road and until about .5 miles after hale brook trailhead. After we switched the road consisted of a couple inches of slushy snow mixed with bare mud and lower down the occasional bare asphalt patch.
The moral of the story: the whole stretch has been broken out, it’s very rough though and will test every last bit of patience you probably have and you definently need snowshoes |
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 | Name: |
George and Gemma |
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 | E-Mail: |
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| Date Submitted: |
2024-04-08 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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