The Twin Range is a huge, sprawling, remote mass of mountains that is probably the most uncrowded yet high and scenic sub-range in all the White Mountains. Even though it ranks third in height in the Whites, the Twin Range is far from any highways, discouraging dayhikers in favor of backpackers from the Pemigewasset Wilderness and users of the A.M.C.'s Galehead Hut, least visited in their eight-hut chain.
The range begins with North Twin (4714'), an undistinguished, forested peak, and then runs south to South Twin (4902'), the highest in the Twin Range, its summit just barely above the trees and offering excellent views. Next is Mount Guyot (4560'), which although considered just a sub-peak of South Twin, is actually more interesting due to its large above-timberline area covering its flat summit. South from Guyot lie the real gems of the Twin Range, the Bonds. Mount Bond (4698'), West Bond (4520'), and the Bondcliffs (4265') cradle remote and alluring Hellgate Ravine, and are the three most remote White Mountain 4000-footers from a road. The Bondcliffs, a long, open, craggy crest, are especailly awsome. The Bondcliff trail and its spurs connect all three summits to the Twinway (Appalachian trail) at Mount Guyot, but Hellgate Ravine remains one of the great bushwahcks in the Whites.
Three more 4000 footers are spurs from the Twin Range: Mount Galehead, a minor summit connecting with the Garfield Ridge that eventually leads to the Franconia Range; Mount Zealand, a forested knoll to the east; and, north from Mount Zealand, fine, open Mount Hale (4077'), major summit of the ridge called the Little River Mountains. A spur of Zealand Mountain to the east forms one wall of Zealand Notch, site of Zealand Falls A.M.C. hut beside especially scenic waterfalls. Zealand Pond in Zealand Notch has two outlets, one flowing to the Connecticut River, the other to the
Merrimac, making a large chunk of New England an island of sorts--this is one of the few examples of this hydrologic phenomenon in the United States.
