The Pemi
8:30am, we were a little late in starting but hey, it's summer! Brian (bpschroder from Views) met us, as promised old glory was flying from my pack. So we were off on the flat Wilderness Trail. Brian explained he'd been there to see off Tom and Sherpa John who left just before 8am. They hoped to be back in the spot somewhere around 5-6pm (after travelling 31.5 miles!) Our day wouldn't be quite so rugged but still pretty long, 20 miles. We saw Albee there getting ready to run off towards his "counter clock-wise traverse around the Pemi.
Anne adjusted her makeshift Bandana, we made some final adjustments and headed off rather quickly along the flat (oh did I already say that?) trail. Today it was Brian and I who would be "Sherpas for the day." We carried Gatorade and snacks for the Pemi runners. It was Brian's first trip to the Bonds and he'd planned on climbing all three. We walked at a moderately fast pace, crossing two suspension bridges and passing a few hikers we found ourselves at 10am at the Bondcliff trail. 1-1/2 hrs, not too bad
I noticed some debris left over from an old railroad camp, ties and other rusting things strewn around. The forest is slowly reclaiming them. I remembered the brooks ahead, we once crossed them in May and it was difficult. Today we reached them and crossed both quite easily. Anne was leading and setting a nice pace. The trail is never steep here, just a moderate climb over some rocky and some muddy areas. After the second crossing there's a dry brook bed and then the views open up a little bit. I'd taken a picture here once before.
From the map I'd remembered seeing switchbacks. It'd been four years since I'd been up this trail so I'd forgotten. At this point each of us was hiking apart. Anne was 5-10 minutes ahead at that point.
It was hot down here in the woods with sunlight pouring through openings. Then we made a right turn on a switchback and the woods were more close. The shade was welcome but the bugs weren't. I never stopped through this area, the blackflies were pretty bad. All the sudden the views opened up a bit and I could see a ledgy area ahead.
This is nowhere near as difficult as it looks although a big dog might have difficulty descending. There are natural steps cut into the rock. They showed lots of scarring from crampon hits.
The trail goes through some scrub with views unfolding on all sides. Then you're on the beautiful wide summit of Bondcliff. It had taken me four hours to go from Lincoln woods to this summit more than nine miles away. Anne did 15 minutes better.
I saw Anne waiting for me and we walked up the final few feet to the top together. Light winds kept the bugs down. We sat with our legs dangling over and started to eat lunch when Brian arrived and joined us.
We ate a well deserved lunch and soaked it all in. Brian took our picture lounging on a rock. Anne decided to wait here while Brian and I went up to man "Checkpoint Bond."
So we reluctantly got up and started moving. Diapensia were in full bloom here on the summit in great numbers. Bondcliff moves up a notch in our 100 Prettiest hikes to number 2!
The trip down and over the summit was pretty easy, it seems to descend gradually in stages. The full force of the sun hit us as we climbed the boulders strewn around the trail. I was feeling the effects of a big lunch and the sleepy warm sunshine.
I was doing OK, Brian led as we passed a false summit through the shrinking conifers. I'd already drunk 2-1/2 quarts and was working on another when we reached the scrubby summit. I'd been here before but it was cloudier. Today it was crystal clear and the VFTT were amazing. Now I could see Whitewall and into the heart of Zealand valley. Mt Jefferson also hidden from Bondcliff can be see from here with the Pressie ridge. West Bond looked close and Brian decided to go for it.
So he left his gatorade and I took out mine plus some snacks, putting them in some shade, I then found a convenient rock to lounge on. Again the voice from my past......"Never stand when you can sit and never sit when you can lay down." What a nice motto I thinks!
While relaxing (and flicking black flies off my legs) a couple came up. They looked incredibly fit and when I asked if they were doing the Pemi-loop they said "Yes." So I offered them gatorade and snacks. He took a slug of the gatorade and she took a handful of goldfish. When you're 10 miles from civilization nothing tastes so good.
His name was Andy, I missed hers. They thanked me and just kept moving. They hoped to finish in 12 hours! When we do it in August we're shooting for 16.
I told Brian I'd wait but the afternoon was dragging on. A couple of guys came over after bagging West Bond, looked around a bit and moved on down. Three others came and headed to Guyot campsite. Occasionally I'd look over at Mt Guyot for runners, sit, lounge, wave my flag....etc
Brian showed up at 3:30 from his jaunt over to West, I looked at my watch and thought of Anne baking over there on Bondcliff and said "I'd better head down." He agreed to wait a bit before hiking down.
I'd rather climb boulders than go down over them. I picked my way slowly and had the view of Bondcliff the entire way. By 4:15 I was back with Anne, whistled to her from the cliff jutting out and we packed up.
She put her boots back on and we started down. Once out of the sun and into the woods it got darker. We still hadn't seen Sherpa John or Tom. I hoped we would. Within minutes we heard something and there was Tom running down the trail. He didn't look tired at all! I asked if he'd had some gatorade, he said yes and thanks then was jogging away.
The only other thing he said was that Sherpa John was about ten minutes behind. So we headed down, I thought we were moving pretty quickly...but that's my pace.
Down we went, through dark woods and within 15 or 20 minutes Sherpa John whistled and he caught up to us. I thought he looked pretty good, asked him if we wanted some chocolate. He stopped and talked with us while he munched his chocolate covered granola bar
He seemed a little dejected that his attempt to break the Pemi-loop unofficial record had fallen short. I reassured him that this was his first traverse of the Pemi and that he'd take what he learned and improve on it the next time. The section between Garfield and Galehead had been hard with its annoying ups and downs.
Sherpa John was getting ready to attempt breaking the Fitch record later in the summer and I wished him luck on that. He's done a great job through his hiking ventures and the "48" movie to raise money and awareness of diabetes research. His own fiance' Sarah is afflicted with the disease.
I'm glad to help in any way I can, today it was chocolate and some encouragement. Anne and I shouted to him as he trotted off to GO! We said he was doing great and wished him well.
The rest of the hike down Bondcliff was boring and rather long. We crossed the brooks and I muttered "we'll stop and eat something at the trail jct. It seemed it would never happen, maybe I was moving slower.
By 6:30 we were at the junction, goldfish crackers and water refreshed us a bit. Anne was talking about hammering out this last 5 miles in an hour. Brian arrived just then, sweaty and running down the final stretches of Bondcliff trail.
Great! We made plans to go get some pizza afterwards and started our fast walk back to our cars. It wasn't too bad, though my feet hurt and the bugs buzzed around my head. 1 hour and 15 minutes later we were back. The pizza in Lincoln was great!
We later learned that all four of the VFTT runners had completed the Pemi-loop. They are Albee, Tompar, Sherpa John and KLTilton. Kevin broke the unofficial record with an amazing time of 8 hours and 15 minutes.
For Brian's pictures of the hike please go to His website