erugs
New member
Trails: Mt. Kinsman Trail to Kinsman Ridge Trail
Conditions: Cold, loose dry snow on a hard-packed surface
Comments: Interesting last hike of the winter for us.We carried snowshoes but stayed with our Microspikes the entire way. The winds swirled the snow around on the ridge so at times we couldn't see each other. Minimal views, but enough to see the neighboring peaks from time to time. Saw a couple coming down in the morning who had spent the night before at the Kinsman Pond Shelter, then not another sole until we were approaching South Kinsman and learned that he had come up from Fishin' Jimmy Trail. Then we saw another solo hiker who left us feeling surprised. He was of slight build, scruffy beard, thickish glasses, pulling a plastic sled with a very light load (like a skinny day pack), and huffying and puffing as he was coming up the slope to South peak. He didn't communicate with any of us as we saw him. The other thing that concerned us was that he seemed to be wearing "non-standard" hiking clothes, like a flannel shirt. On the way back to North, we met another hiker who had seen the guy with the sled and picked up a bungy cord he might have dropped. Can't imagine pulling a sled up Fishin' Jimmy! Because it had no weight on it, it followed the line of slope and the track we saw wasn't always on the footbed. (If you know anything about "sled guy" would like to know more about him.) We stopped off at Bald Knob on the way down and saw tracks indicating a dog or two had had a wonderful time there that day. Also noted where earlier in the season the Flume had been broken out. Saw a rusty old maple syrup bucket hanging from a tree in the woods, saw where a guy is hand sawing quite a lot of wood and some girdled trees sort of near the old sugar shack.
Conditions: Cold, loose dry snow on a hard-packed surface
Comments: Interesting last hike of the winter for us.We carried snowshoes but stayed with our Microspikes the entire way. The winds swirled the snow around on the ridge so at times we couldn't see each other. Minimal views, but enough to see the neighboring peaks from time to time. Saw a couple coming down in the morning who had spent the night before at the Kinsman Pond Shelter, then not another sole until we were approaching South Kinsman and learned that he had come up from Fishin' Jimmy Trail. Then we saw another solo hiker who left us feeling surprised. He was of slight build, scruffy beard, thickish glasses, pulling a plastic sled with a very light load (like a skinny day pack), and huffying and puffing as he was coming up the slope to South peak. He didn't communicate with any of us as we saw him. The other thing that concerned us was that he seemed to be wearing "non-standard" hiking clothes, like a flannel shirt. On the way back to North, we met another hiker who had seen the guy with the sled and picked up a bungy cord he might have dropped. Can't imagine pulling a sled up Fishin' Jimmy! Because it had no weight on it, it followed the line of slope and the track we saw wasn't always on the footbed. (If you know anything about "sled guy" would like to know more about him.) We stopped off at Bald Knob on the way down and saw tracks indicating a dog or two had had a wonderful time there that day. Also noted where earlier in the season the Flume had been broken out. Saw a rusty old maple syrup bucket hanging from a tree in the woods, saw where a guy is hand sawing quite a lot of wood and some girdled trees sort of near the old sugar shack.
