Steve and I met at the Mount Washington Hotel bar on Friday night for some dinner and to watch playoff baseball (not many local options had both). We crashed at the seven dwarfs motel to get an early start on Saturday. We had heard Guyot campsite could be crowded and wanted to be early enough to claim a spot.
Dropped a car at the Haystack trailhead and continued over to Zealand road. The hike to zeacliff was pleasant in cool fall weather with some really impressive views in peak leaf season. The view from zeacliff was excellent and certainly the best we had of the weekend (one of the best of I've seen in the Whites). The clouds rolled in as we approached the Zealand summit and were with us for the rest of the trip. We knocked off Zealand and continued on to Guyot (not official 4K list).
We descended to the Guyot campsite and were among the first people to arrive. Grabbed a tent platform and dropped our gear to head out and hike the Bonds. On our way to the Bonds, we saw 20+ different people headed toward the Guyot tentsite. We were glad to have found a spot early.
The Bonds were uneventful, and wet. It's clear the views here would be incredible in better conditions but we couldn't see anything beyond 50 feet.
The Guyot site was packed when we got back (est. 50 people?) We shared a tent platform with a nice dude doing the Pemi loop, but it's close quarters there. Can't even imagine on a summer weekend with good weather. Given the good water source (there's a spring in the middle of the site), and the great location, I can understand the popularity.
We hiked out on Sunday over the two twins. We had contemplated getting Galehead too, but the weather was rough and neither of us had much interest to do it in the rain and fog. On the way down the weather turned and we finished up under blue skies.
Six more off the list.
Pictures here:Photos
