Roxi
Active member
North and South Kinsman 5/28/2006
My idea of the perfect day is waking up (beats the alternative), eating a light breakfast (I love cereal and milk), and then doing something physical (like cycling or hiking). I’ve been having a great weekend! Garfield was a blast yesterday despite summit views of gray. As I came off the trail before 2, I even thought, “I have time to go do something else,” but thought better of it knowing that I was hiking the Kinsmans on Sunday. I’m glad I saved my energy!
Skiguy and I had tried to hook up for this hike, but it didn’t happen. I hope he got to do his hike and enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed mine.
I arrived at the Lafayette Campground Parking Lot at 8:40 am and was on the Lonesome Lake Trail just before 9. What a beautiful trail. I saw perfect specimens of Painted Trillium as I hiked up. They looked just like Tom Rankin’s avatar, except they had more pink in the middle of each of the three petals. The trail goes up for a ways, then levels out and soon (about 1.5 miles) I reached the Cascade Brook trail, then shortly after the Lonesome Lake Hut which had lots of activity going on as guests geared up for the day. The weather was gorgeous, the bugs more numerous than the previous day, but not yet annoying, and the temps promised to be warm, but bearable. I brought more water along to compensate.
I took the Fishing Jimmy Trail to the Kinsman Ridge Trail. I knew I still had some significant elevation to climb. My first clue that this was going to be a challenging trail was it started off going down for quite a ways. I knew from Murphy’s Laws of Cycling: what goes down, must come up! Sure enough it did. The trail was steep, to the point that short blocks of what looked like unused railroad ties were bolted into some of them. And the rocks were wet. Going up that trail is one thing, but I decided I did not want to come down it and would choose another path on my return.
About 2.5 miles later I arrived at the Kinsman Ridge TRail and headed up to the North and South Peaks. The sides of the trail were lined with beautiful green moss. The ledge at the top of North Peak afforded breathtaking views of the peaks along Franconia Ridge across the notch. I love gazing at Mt. Lafayette! I rested for a few minutes and enjoyed an apple saving my peanut butter and fluff sandwich for the south peak. I left the viewing area by 11:30. The col between the peaks was relatively relaxing compared to the Fishing Jimmy trail. On South Kinsman I met a woman and her dog, and enjoyed their company while I ate my sandwich. She told me about the bugs being horrendous just south of Moosilauke. While Cannon Mtn affords great views of Mts. Lafayette and Lincoln, It was really nice having a closer view of Mts. Liberty and Flume from South Kinsman as well as Mt. Moosilauke. By 12:30 I was headed back. I passed the north peak and made my way back to the 4-way intersection where I decided to take the Kinsman Pond Trail around to the Cascade Brook Trail before descending via Lonesome Lake trail again back to the parking lot. I am so glad I did!
I am drawn to water even more than I am drawn to the mountains. Kinsman Pond comes into view very quickly and the trail skirts one side of it until it reaches where it empties into a rushing stream. The pond itself was so beautiful and reminded me of the ponds and lakes I’ve seen in Acadia. Leaving the pond I had the extreme pleasure of rock hopping down the stream and hearing the sound of rushing water, a sound I can never get enough of! I thoroughly enjoyed this trail! It was a lot less steep and much more enjoyable for me than the Fishing Jimmy trail would have been on my return, despite adding at least a mile to my overall distance for the day. At the end of this delightful trail is a gorgeous stream crossing. Again I enjoyed just standing there and listening to the water cascade over the rocks, while feeling the cool breezes created by its movement. What a pleasure! *euphoric smilie*
Upon turning onto the Cascade Brook trail, however, I reached that point in my mind where I decided I was done with the hike. It’s a weird sensation, but at the point I knew what lay ahead and I was tired. So for reasons I can’t explain I sped up. I became a woman on a mission who wanted nothing more than to get back to her car and remove her hiking boots. I would have felt badly if anyone had been hiking with me at that point as the pace was definitely not leisurely! The hike back was entertaining, however, as I passed two drunks on Lonesome Lake Trail who were coming up from the campground. How do people who reek that strongly of alcohol stand upright and continue walking?
Upon reaching my car I felt exhausted, but oh so happy! I think my total distance on this hike was 11 miles, only a mile longer than yesterday's hike, but unlike the previous day, I knew I had succeeded in finally wearing myself out. This kind of tired is the best!
My idea of the perfect day is waking up (beats the alternative), eating a light breakfast (I love cereal and milk), and then doing something physical (like cycling or hiking). I’ve been having a great weekend! Garfield was a blast yesterday despite summit views of gray. As I came off the trail before 2, I even thought, “I have time to go do something else,” but thought better of it knowing that I was hiking the Kinsmans on Sunday. I’m glad I saved my energy!
Skiguy and I had tried to hook up for this hike, but it didn’t happen. I hope he got to do his hike and enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed mine.
I arrived at the Lafayette Campground Parking Lot at 8:40 am and was on the Lonesome Lake Trail just before 9. What a beautiful trail. I saw perfect specimens of Painted Trillium as I hiked up. They looked just like Tom Rankin’s avatar, except they had more pink in the middle of each of the three petals. The trail goes up for a ways, then levels out and soon (about 1.5 miles) I reached the Cascade Brook trail, then shortly after the Lonesome Lake Hut which had lots of activity going on as guests geared up for the day. The weather was gorgeous, the bugs more numerous than the previous day, but not yet annoying, and the temps promised to be warm, but bearable. I brought more water along to compensate.
I took the Fishing Jimmy Trail to the Kinsman Ridge Trail. I knew I still had some significant elevation to climb. My first clue that this was going to be a challenging trail was it started off going down for quite a ways. I knew from Murphy’s Laws of Cycling: what goes down, must come up! Sure enough it did. The trail was steep, to the point that short blocks of what looked like unused railroad ties were bolted into some of them. And the rocks were wet. Going up that trail is one thing, but I decided I did not want to come down it and would choose another path on my return.
About 2.5 miles later I arrived at the Kinsman Ridge TRail and headed up to the North and South Peaks. The sides of the trail were lined with beautiful green moss. The ledge at the top of North Peak afforded breathtaking views of the peaks along Franconia Ridge across the notch. I love gazing at Mt. Lafayette! I rested for a few minutes and enjoyed an apple saving my peanut butter and fluff sandwich for the south peak. I left the viewing area by 11:30. The col between the peaks was relatively relaxing compared to the Fishing Jimmy trail. On South Kinsman I met a woman and her dog, and enjoyed their company while I ate my sandwich. She told me about the bugs being horrendous just south of Moosilauke. While Cannon Mtn affords great views of Mts. Lafayette and Lincoln, It was really nice having a closer view of Mts. Liberty and Flume from South Kinsman as well as Mt. Moosilauke. By 12:30 I was headed back. I passed the north peak and made my way back to the 4-way intersection where I decided to take the Kinsman Pond Trail around to the Cascade Brook Trail before descending via Lonesome Lake trail again back to the parking lot. I am so glad I did!
I am drawn to water even more than I am drawn to the mountains. Kinsman Pond comes into view very quickly and the trail skirts one side of it until it reaches where it empties into a rushing stream. The pond itself was so beautiful and reminded me of the ponds and lakes I’ve seen in Acadia. Leaving the pond I had the extreme pleasure of rock hopping down the stream and hearing the sound of rushing water, a sound I can never get enough of! I thoroughly enjoyed this trail! It was a lot less steep and much more enjoyable for me than the Fishing Jimmy trail would have been on my return, despite adding at least a mile to my overall distance for the day. At the end of this delightful trail is a gorgeous stream crossing. Again I enjoyed just standing there and listening to the water cascade over the rocks, while feeling the cool breezes created by its movement. What a pleasure! *euphoric smilie*
Upon turning onto the Cascade Brook trail, however, I reached that point in my mind where I decided I was done with the hike. It’s a weird sensation, but at the point I knew what lay ahead and I was tired. So for reasons I can’t explain I sped up. I became a woman on a mission who wanted nothing more than to get back to her car and remove her hiking boots. I would have felt badly if anyone had been hiking with me at that point as the pace was definitely not leisurely! The hike back was entertaining, however, as I passed two drunks on Lonesome Lake Trail who were coming up from the campground. How do people who reek that strongly of alcohol stand upright and continue walking?
Upon reaching my car I felt exhausted, but oh so happy! I think my total distance on this hike was 11 miles, only a mile longer than yesterday's hike, but unlike the previous day, I knew I had succeeded in finally wearing myself out. This kind of tired is the best!
