We had had a solid 9+ hours of sleep when we got up at 5:00am. We hoped to get an early start and score some cool sunrise views on the summit of Guyot, as well as be well along and finished our hike before too much of the day was gone. We packed up the tents as quietly as we could (since we had some pretty close neighbours) and headed off up the Bondcliff trail. Bye bye, Guyot Campsite! Hope to never stay again (at least in your current state)!
To Mt Guyot
Our camp pack-up was remarkably fast. I'm not used to everyone getting up and away so quickly, and as a result, it was still basically night by the time we arrived at Guyot's open summit. However, since we had decided to go over and bag Zealand Mountain, we reasoned that we may have views as we re-climbed Guyot on the way back (the trail over to Zealand started at Guyot's summit and we needed to return to Guyot summit in order to continue north to the Twins afterwards).
Line of Fire
Since we were coming back this way shortly anyway, we felt it was of no use to lug our packs all the way to Zealand, so we hung them up on some low tree branches. Ewart had decided to skip Zealand and continued on towards the Twins, with the aim of meeting us all again later on.
The hike over to Zealand was, quite frankly, not that fun. The trail from Guyot to Zealand is a portion of the Appalachian Trail, and is probably well-used. However, the footing of this stretch of trail is of the most tiresome kind imaginable: large, angular boulders irregularly jumbled all over the place. Rarely was there a flat spot to put your foot, and the whole affair is one of constantly balancing and hopping up and down and around. And all of it made just a little harder by a light coating of snow flurries, and by me being careful with my sore ankle. As we were hiking to Zealand, it was most disheartening to think that I was going to have to turn around there and re-do this entire stretch.
Glow on Trees
We finally arrived at the highpoint of the AT on Zealand Mountain, where a crude sign seemed to mark the highpoint. However, it seemed to me that a few higher spots of terrain could be seen in the vicinity, as well as a well-beaten spur path. Luc and Jenn didn't seem too interested in verifying if this was the summit, and Jenn immediately started hiking back towards Guyot.
Not wanting to just assume that this sign was it, I did my due diligence, walking a little further to the east along the AT, and then following the muddy spur path. As it turned out, the spur path did in fact lead about 300 feet to a slightly higher spot, and there was a small cairn and a somewhat artsy 'Zealand' summit sign. Jenn and Luc definitely did not make the summit (not that they seemed to care that much about it in any case, since I was the only peak-bagger in the group).
I tried mind-body dissociation as we hiked the annoying stretch of trail back to Guyot. Our views from Guyot's open summit upon arrival were not horrible, but not that great either. Even though the forecast was again for a nice day, a thick layer of cloud still hung over us. Fortunately, its base was right around 5,000 feet -- just above our altitude, so we did have limited views of our surroundings. Far to the south and east, we could see that the overcast ended. Maybe that would come this way??
Well, time again to move on. We were back on our main south-north route now, headed towards South Twin mountain on a portion of the AT called 'The Twinway'. In contrast to the rough and unpleasant state of the AT between Zealand and Guyot, this section of AT between Guyot and South Twin was actually pretty decent, with not very many bouldery sections. A most welcome change.
It took longer to hike between Guyot and South Twin that it first appeared on the map. Mostly the trail was only gradually ascending, and only near the summit did it suddenly get steep. A bit of huffing and puffing and we gained 400 feet to the beginning of the open rock on South Twin. At this point, the Appalachian Trail continues down towards the Galehead Hut, and a trail junction to the Twins leads off north.
Under a still-grey cloud deck, we walked the few hundred feet over to South Twin's open summit. We could still see the sunny edge of the overcast off in the distance, but it stubbornly refused to come any closer to us. At this point I had pretty much given up on any beautiful sunny summits for today. At least, I reasoned, what we had today was better than the complete sock-in of yesterday.
Still having not yet caught up with Ewart, we continued on, hiking north on the North Twin Spur trail. The first part of the trail from South Twin to North Twin is somewhat interesting: it cuts pretty much straight north through the conifers, and as you'll see in the pictures, you can take a long pictures straight down it. Footing on here is nice, too (I was obviously big into good footing this day).
