| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Bear Pond, Mt. Bond, Bondcliff, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Lincoln Woods Trail, Franconia Brook Trail, old railroad bed, logging roads, bushwhack, Twinway, Bondcliff Trail, Guyot Campsite Spur |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Wednesday, August 7, 2024 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
We parked at Lincoln Woods. $5/day fee to park since they have restroom facilities there. It looked like there's a card/electronic option to pay now. Lots of cars at 5:15am but still plenty of room. Not dissimilar when we returned at 9pm. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Mud - Significant |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Rock hopable if not easily so. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
The slide part of the bushwhack would certainly not be appropriate for them. The trails portion would probably be okay for most hiking dogs with the exception of the Hilary Step leading up to Bondcliff where dogs would need help. |
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 | Bugs: |
Not too bad for the most part. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
None |
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 | Comments: |
Trail signs were intact as far as I recall. There were probably some blowdowns but I don't recall them. Not sure there's much blazing along this route as most of it's within the Pemi Wilderness. The trails are generally easy to follow. Bondlcliff Trail is a little ambiguous when it comes above treeline and approaches the summit and again on the north side of the summit and also where it turns right up a washout when descending (well below treeline).
Lil Young and I joined someone who knows Redrock Ravine and the surrounding area very well for a very fun hike to Bear Pond and up what's show on Gaia as Twinway Slide. This is NE of Bear Pond and the nothernmost slide in the northernmost lobe of the ravine. There is another slide just south of it in the same lobe. Originally, the plan was to do this hike with the three of us AND old man and the saw. Needless to say, my dear friend who loved a thick bushwhack, a mossy drainage, and a terrifying slide, was very sorely missed.
Lil Young and I walked in Lincoln Woods and Franconia Brook Trail to its crossing of Redrock Brook (probably the hardest water crossing of the day but still rock hopable with care) where we met my friend. We continued about 0.8mi further to where we turned right and immedaitely found an old railroad bed that parallels the Franconia Brook Trail. We took this back south and, while I don't know exactly how long we followed it for, I think it was at least the greater part of a mile as I believe we crossed the southern ridge of SW Twin on it and approached Redrock Ravine along it. The ridge was a 1/2mi from where we left the trail. This was pretty quick walking as one would imagine. Obviously one could whack from Redrock Brook as well and just follow the brook or hit the railroad bed much further south by whacking a short distance north of Redrock Brook but my friends thinking was that this was the quickest option. Once the railroad grade left, we whacked up to a logging road just above which we followed for a short ways. My friend uses Lidar and saw various old roads we could follow. Since the one closest to the brook was now in the brook, we decided to take the middle one (there was also a higher option). While we struggled to find/stay on this at times as various roads branched, we made relatively quick work alongside the brook doing this and followed roads for another 2/3mi where around 2500-2550ft, we whacked steeply uphill almost due north, till we hit a southern drainage of SW Twin and picked up another, but much less obvious road, around 2725ft. We followed this for a ways but it was slower going and harder to stay on. During this time, we passed a little boulder field on SW Twin where the road briefly disappeared.
Eventually the road disappeared and we whacked, trying to contour, and eventually found our way to, and crossed Redrock Brook about 1/3mi south of Bear Pond. We whacked north from here to the pond, at easy-moderate grades before reaching it. I'll also add that the woods we whacked in or alongside on the various roads were, at minimum, descent, if not quite good the entire way! Bear Pond was quite a sight and I was sad that old man and the saw didn't get to see it once more as he'd wished to. We followed a rough herd path along the east side of it before crossing an inlet, filtering water, then following this drainage up to the base of the slide. We hiked right up the drainage which wasn't steep was was still slick and required some caution before it peetered out and we pushed our way through young growth with sandy/gravelly footing, as we knew we neared the slide. The start of the slide walking was pretty easy and it generally got more difficult as we ascended. I would classify this slide as not the best for beginners but not the worst either, generally falling into what I'd call a "average or moderate: category. It was mostly gravel and small rock, but, at times, loose and steep enough to be unnerving. There was some cliff bands/slab too which were wet but these are easily avoidable and, actually, much of it actually seemed like you could hike too. Interesting persective on Owls Head, Flume, and Liberty from the slide.
At the top of the slide we found our way into the shade and expected to find horribly thick spruce. Luckily, we found mostly decent woods which were nice enough to whack through for the most part. Rather steep for a time but no scrambling/boulders, until it levelled out as we neared the Twinway. We hit the Twinway just east of the roughly 4600ft knob that's 3/4mi SE of South Twin. Pretty easy walking from there to Guyot Shelter where we made the steep descent to filter water. We then made the exceptionally long but not terribly difficult trek out and over Bond and Bondcliff and back to Lincoln Woods. We saw lots of people along the Twinway and up to around Bondcliff after which we saw few. In fact, we saw NO ONE along Lincoln Woods Trail much to our surprise. We hiked out part of lincoln Woods Trai in the dark with our headlamps and I think were all glad with our decision to skip West Bond due to time.
The views were of course magnificent and it was great fun to be back on the Bonds for me. I would be remiss if I did not speak to how grateful I was for my friends great knowledge of Redrock Ravine and for sharing it with us and to highlight Lil Young's incredible tenacity on her first 20+mi hike with such elevation gain, first LONG bushwhack, first slide bushwhack, etc. Overall, trails are dry but still lots of mudpits along the ridge and many along Lincoln Woods too though these were not crazy deep. Gaia had us at 23.5mi, 4300ft of gain, 15.5hrs. |
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 | Name: |
Liam Cooney and Lil Young |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2024-08-12 |
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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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