3.18.2012

Bondcliff to Galehead Birthday Bash

Date:  3/17/2012
Route:  Bondcliff to West Bond, South Twin via the Twinway, Galehead, Gale River Trail to Rte 3.
Gear:  light packs, light shoes, no snowshoes, microspikes (except tMail)
Team:  MadDog, DogMan (birthday celebration), tMail (birthday celebration) and me.
Conditions:  Bondcliff:  good snow cover, some postholing off the narrow treadway.  Bondcliff and the Twinway over Guyot were melted out.  Twinway between Guyot and South Twin was painfully slow due to postholing, as was descent off South Twin.  Gale River Trail had sporadic postholing higher up, completely melted out on lowest mile.  The Loop road has no snow on it.
Mutha's Pictures:  here
tMail's Pictures:  here

Trip report:  DogMan, MadDog and I trotted the rail bed from the campground (0:55 to the turn to ascend Bondcliff).  My microspikes exploded and we all got separated while I was doing repairs.

Lots of folks heading up to BondCliff - quite the crowd on a summit known for its remoteness.  Probably a dozen people on the trail on the way up, a few already on the summit, and another dozen coming in from Zealand.

DogMan and I stuck together for the next few hours, tagging West Bond.  We ran into tMail a few minutes into the W. Bond spur, on his way out.  While the three of us were on the spur trail, MadDog trotted by on his way north.  We eventually all met up by the time we got to South Twin.

The Twinway between Guyot and South Twin was pretty tough w/out snow shoes.  The postholing was unpredictable and I lack the language skills to do justice to just how hard that 2 miles was.

We all ran out of water by South Twin and refilled from a brook crossing the Gale River Trail later in the evening.

tMail took off on the final descent and arrived at the cars a good 1:30 before the rest of us.  DogMan defeated his demons and ran out the last 2 miles at a half-marathon 'sprint'.

Good for us.

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