Bondcliff

The hike I'm doing in Iceland has one day that's 14.9 miles with 2952 ish feet of elevation gain, which is pretty strenuous! I decided I should try doing a similar hike to get my body ready for it, and to show myself that I can do it. I decided on Bondcliff because I remember it being so nice, but I didn't stay there for long because of the bugs, and I thought it would be nice to go back. Which it was!

Bondcliff is broken into four 4.4 mile sections - 4.4 miles on a flat, former rail trail, 4.4 miles up the mountain, and then returning with the same - 4.4 miles down and 4.4 miles back, for a total of 17.6 miles - I had to park about .3 miles away from the parking lot, so that added another .6 miles - though it was on pretty flat road. So, it was about 3 miles longer than the hike I will do, and there was over 3086 feet of elevation gain (Bond Cliff is 3086 feet higher than the trailhead, but there is always some up and down on the trail, so it was probably a little more elevation gain.) So, that's higher than the Iceland trail. Also, all the elevation gain in Iceland is at the start, on fresh legs, as opposed to in the middle. So, I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

I was pretty nervous about the hike, because it is pretty long, and so I didn't sleep well the night before. It became a lot of lying awake worrying about lying awake. The plan was to get up at 6 am and get to the mountain by 8:30, since it's such a long hike. When my alarm went off at 6 am, I thought I would hit the snooze for 10 minutes and then get up. But, somehow I turned the alarm off, and got the best two hours of sleep from 6 am - 8 am. Sigh. When I woke up, I was so upset with myself, and spent some time trying to decide if I should go or not. I really wanted to get in the long hike, but there are others closer by which I thought I could do instead - for example the blue hills. But then I thought that if I did the blue hills I would want to turn back before mile 8.8, and the drive to get there can often take an hour, even though it's closer to home, so I decided to just go for it, with a hard turn around that got me out of the woods before dark (I didn't turn around at the hard turn around, of course.)

I have a new book that I'm listening to so the drive up went pretty fast. I had to stop once for a bathroom break, but I left at 8:30 ish and arrived at the trail at 10:30 ish. By the time I headed out, it was about 10:40, and I knew I was pushing it on daylight. On the other hand, the start and end is on a rail trail which I had hiked in the dark before (when doing Owls Head), so I wasn't too concerned.

I booked it up the flat trail as fast as I could, walking less then 20 minute miles for the first 3 miles, and then around a 20 minute mile for the next 1.4, so it didn't take me too long to get to the uphill parts. From there I slowed down to my regular hiking pace. The trail was pretty muddy, but not too difficult at first. At a certain point there is a huge flight of stairs, and that marks the real ascent. It took me an hour and a half from there to get to the top. At that point it was 3:30 and I was so hungry. I had a banana with peanut butter before I left home, 3 hard boiled eggs on the road and some trader joes pb&j ball, but that wasn't enough. I was dragging by the top, and so happy to eat!

As I was getting closer to the top, I was a little weak, and asked some people who were coming down if I was close. They said "no!" which no one ever does, but the thing is that I was close - I was about 20 minutes from the top. I thought about turning around, because it was 3 and that was meant to be my turn around, but then I looked at the map on alltrails, and decided that it wasn't that far, and I'm so glad that I went to the top! As I was going the last little bit, it was really busy with people leaving the top - all the smart people who didn't hit their snooze bars, and when I finally made it, I had the place to myself! That never happens, but I was up there for about 30 minutes and saw 2 people. 

The view from Bondcliff is amazing! I could see to Washington, and over to Franconia, and just mountains everywhere! It was a little buggy again, so I found a spot with a breeze, and sat and ate a cheese, tomato and avocado sandwich.  It was so good! I ate and admired the view for about 30 minutes, but then I knew I had to go because it was almost 4, I had 8.8 miles to go, and the sun goes down around 7:40 these days. I knew it was going to be tight, and actually I was low on water, so I knew I was going to have to stop and filter. 

The hike down wasn't too bad - much of the trail is steady uphill, but not crazy, and in many places there aren't even rocks on the trail, so the downhill had a lot of easy-to-navigate spots. It took me an hour and a half to get down the long stairs and to the more gradual downhill. The next part, to the old railtrail seemed long - I think it was because I knew I was going to have to finish in the dark. A guy passed me and was all "do you have enough food and water? You won't get out until 9:30." Which was nice of him to be caring and make sure I was ok, but also I had done the calculations in my head, and I was thinking about 8:30 for the trailhead (and I was right.) He kind of through me for a bit, though, and I think that made things seem longer. 

I finally got to the railtrail part and knew I had a long but easy walk. The last 2.6 miles are especially flat and easy, though there are still some of the train trestles on the path - I did a little trail running even - I ran for 50 steps and then stopped and walked - I figured this would get me closer before it got dark. One of the bridges is out, so there was a (easy) stream crossing that I wanted to do before dark (and I did). The last 45 minutes or so the trail was getting darker and darker, and I probably hiked in the dark for about 30 minutes - I thought about using my headlamp, but actually didn't even need it. I got to the trailhead at 8:30 and to my car about 10 minutes later. By this point my feet were killing me and I was so sweaty and muddy, so I drove to the parking lot (yes, .3 miles, but I drove) where I was able to clean up a little in the bathrooms. I was starving again by this point, and stopped - first I tried to get pizza but the place was closing, and then for ice cream. I got a black raspberry oreo ice cream, and the woman gave me 2 scoops because that was the end of the container. It was sooo sooo good!

It was about 11:15 by the time I got home due to stopping at the rest area in Concord, plus ice cream eating time. I was so sore, but really happy about the day.  For some reason All Trails hasn't been working well - it turns off every time I look at it, and even though I was in airplane mode my battery drained super fast - I wound up having to turn my phone off and on to save battery, and not really recording my hike. IDK what's happening with that - it's happened all three of my training hikes. I feel like I might want to look for another program since my membership expires this week.

I did once again fill up my bladder with 2 liters of water and was glad that I did because I was almost out by the time that I got to the top (though there were a ton of water crossings and streams to fill up from). I regret that I didn't have more food to eat while walking to the summit - I think it would have been much more pleasant if I wasn't starving. And, of course, the whole not sleeping/oversleeping thing was a bummer. But, otherwise, I was pretty happy with the hike and feel good about being able to do the Iceland one!