The federal holiday for US Independence Day was this Friday, and since long weekends in the summer are a precious commodity, we took to the trails for a few days of backpacking in Pemigewasset Wilderness.
Our route took us up to the top of Garfield Ridge where we stopped by Galehead Hut (closed this summer due to Covid) on our way to Galehead Mountain— a most underwhelming summit marked by a cairn of wet rocks in the wet wood.
We backtracked along the ridge toward Mt. Garfield to take Franconia Brook Trail down to the tent site at Thirteen Falls where we intended to spend the night. Franconia Brook Trail is well named— after a few rainy days this week the distinction between brook and trail was decidedly *ahem* fluid.
By the time we arrived, all the tent sites at Thirteen Falls were already taken, so after filtering some water from the falls and admiring the tenacity of wildflowers growing out of the rock slabs, we started up Twin Brook trail to find a dispersed camping spot.
Just outside the Forest Protection Area the trail leveled off and we found a nice tent-sized clearing 200 feet away from the trail. Timing is everything in life. The weather forecast suggested rain after 5PM. We set up the tent at 5:00, and by 5:30 it was raining. Hard.
The good news is that by morning the rain had stopped, and the better news is that the tent was waterproof. We packed up in the still dripping forest and headed up the trail. We stopped again at Galehead hut to refill water, eat breakfast, and spread the tent (and our socks) to dry in the sun and the wind. We weren’t the only ones with this idea- by the time we set out with a mostly dry tent and mostly dry socks, the entire clearing around the hut was filled by more or less bedraggled backpackers and their more or less soggy gear.
Our next trail climbed 1100 feet in under a mile to reach the top of South Twin Mountain, the first of our four 4000-footers of the day. This summit did not disappoint.
As much as I enjoy hiking in the woods, my favorite trails are the ones that follow the ridge lines, and that’s what we had for most of the day as we followed the Twinway trail down toward Mt. Guyot and then picked up the Bondcliff trail toward the Bonds.
In the winter when many of the dirt roads servicing trail heads are closed, the most remote point in the state of New Hampshire as defined by furthest distance from a road is the summit of Mount Bond in the Pemigewassett Wilderness. In the summer when these roads are open, the most remote spot falls on the steep hillside somewhere between West Bond and Bondcliff. While we didn’t cross the most remote summer spot deep in the valley, we did gaze down on it from both summits.
Geographers of yore decided that the thing that makes a mountain a mountain is prominence. Not every high point in the landscape gets to be a mountain— it needs to stand out distinctly from its surroundings. So even though the trail clings to the ridge line, it‘s a continuous series of the ups and downs that give each of these three peaks prominence.
Above tree line where even the krumholtz gives way to low growing shrubs and lichens, a series of rock cairns marks the trail.
Our plan was to hike down Bondcliff trail to the point where Black Brook meets up with the Pemigewassett River and set up a backcountry campsite in the clearing left behind by lumber camp 16. We didn’t make it quite that far before the we found the right combination of a stream crossing (plentiful water) a dry, flat spot (tent-friendly) and sore feet (low motivation to keep walking) and decided to camp for the night. Freeze dried lasagna has never tasted so good!
On our final day we hiked the last few miles out of the wilderness area. The trail grew flatter, wider and less rocky. We soon began to see the remnants of the abandoned East Branch and Lincoln where the railroad grade was converted to trail. Over three days of hiking we covered close to 27 miles.