Thirteen Falls to Bondcliff trail

 My friend from Michigan grad school, Paul, flew out from Texas to go on a much-needed backpacking trip. 

We planned on an easy route, but the ranger at the trailhead talked us into ramping it up a bit.  We hiked 8 fairly flat miles to thirteen falls tentsite the first day.

We got there fairly early and didn't really have anything to do, so we decided to day-hike our original route up Mt. Garfield.  The trail up Franconian Brook was pretty hairy: it was pretty much a brook that we hiked straight up.  We got up to the ridge (~2 miles), but didn't have time to make it all the way to the peak. 

The next day, we hiked up a trail up to Galehead Hut.  This is run by AMC, and was a good time chance to get a bowl of hot soup.  The college kids who work there are pretty chill, and have to pack in food a couple of times a week.  Nice place for a bit of a rest though.

Right after the hut, we hiked up Twin Peak on the Appalachian Trail.  The trailbuilders apparently didn't know how to make switchbacks.  It was a killer 0.6 miles, and was pretty rough on the knees with a pack.  The trail was basically hopping between rocks.  We felt old:)

The top was too cloudy to to get a nice pick, but we really lost our steam.  This was a nice pic of Paul stretching his back, which pretty much looks how we felt.  

and then a nice smile during the cool alpine zone.

We finally made it to Guyot Tentsite with jelly legs and very little will to move further.  It was pretty rainy and we were the first ones there, so the shelter was empty.  We crashed in the shelter to stay out of the rain and avoid the extra work of setting up a tent.  We chilled with a lone hiker Tim and the caretaker Skyler for a bit, and went to bed.  The next morning, things finally cleared up and this was the view from my sleeping bag.

The next day, we hit the Bond Cliff trail back down, with awesome views the whole way!  We weren't sure that there really was a sun in the White Mountains, but it ended up being a beautiful day!  We were walking like a couple of old men to the car, but it was totally worth it!!!