| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Bondcliff, Mt. Bond, West Bond, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Lincoln Woods Trail, Bondcliff Trail, West Bond Spur |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Saturday, February 22, 2025 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Plenty of parking at Lincoln Woods. Bathrooms are closed though! Sounds like they’re having an issue with the solar, so not sure when that will be fixed. For now there are some rather full portapotties. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts, Snow/Ice - Postholes |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
All were bridged over, though seemed like things were getting a little soft later in the day. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Nothing major. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Saw one very well-behaved golden in LW on the way back. |
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 | Bugs: |
Nope! |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
All Bonds are at least somewhat broken out from Lincoln Woods! Sort of depends on your definition of broken out, but you won’t be the first person to get to the summits since the last snow. Spiked it up until the wilderness boundary and then the snowshoes went on. By the end of the day, there was quite a nice trench here, but definitely still requires snowshoes. Started getting looser partway up to Bondcliff, but still totally manageable. Hilary step was totally covered in snow and was basically just a very steep ramp. Wouldn’t particularly want to fall there, but it was at least less climby than usual.
Switched back to spikes for Bondcliff up until you get back into the krummholz heading up Bond, as it was pretty rocky. Snowshoes are once again absolutely necessary to get up Bond. At this point enough people have been there that it’s somewhat packed, but you still have to watch out for a few spruce trap spots and do lots of dodging, dipping, ducking, diving, and dodging to avoid getting poked in the eye by branches. Right when the trail goes back into the trees heading up Bond, there are a couple paths that seemed a bit confused about where the trail actually was, but I stayed right-ish and was successful.
After Bond heading towards the West Bond spur junction, it starts to get a lot messier, as the 3 people ahead of me had turned around at various points, and aside from them, no one else seemed to have been there since the last snow. This bit actually wasn’t as bad as I expected – I think the cold temperatures helped keep the snow cold enough that I wasn’t sinking super far.
West Bond was…interesting. The snow there seems to be at least 6 feet deep in spots. With snowshoes, I was sinking ~8 inches most of the time, but sometimes less or a whole lot more. I did my best to stay on the trail, but at a few points, I had to take some detours, as the branches that are normally overhead in the summer are now squarely at body height. This unfortunately led to me making a few paths that lead nowhere, but they won’t make you go very far before ending. During these detours, I figured I might as well check on some spruce traps, so I had a couple fun instances where I was suddenly chest-deep in a hole of snow.
In the vicinity of the bottom of the saddle heading to West Bond, there was one particularly messy section where I tried going 3 different ways, but ultimately the middle option had the most success even though I still had to body-slam my way through a section of very dense branches and checked on the status of another spruce trap along the way. It eventually became a bit more clear where the trail was again, so it will lead you to the summit, you just might get to see some new bits of the woods along the way. It was a beautiful day out there and I pretty much got what I was expecting in terms of conditions. Always feeling very lucky to get to spend a whole day playing in the mountains. |
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 | Name: |
Ibex |
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 | E-Mail: |
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| Date Submitted: |
2025-02-22 |
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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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