Kinsman Notch to Franconia Notch

Tuesday, 8/11

AT Miles = 16.4 / 1805.7
Other Miles = 0.8 / 58.1
Total Miles = 17.2 / 1863.8

Miles to Katahdin = 372.6

I had a nice night in North Woodstock, with a good dinner followed by
a nice, filling breakfast this morning. After breakfast I positioned
myself on Rt 112, the road back up to Kinsman Notch, and tried
hitching. After 40 unfruitful minutes, I gave up on hitchhiking and
called The Shuttle Connection. That 5 mile ride cost me $12.00, but it
got me to the trailhead.

It was a few minutes before 9:00 when I started hiking, and it took me
4 hours to hike the 7.5 miles to Eliza Brook Shelter. I stopped here
for lunch, and met a couple out for an overnight heading south. We
chatted a bit about the climb up and over South and North Kinsman
which they had just done and which I was about to do. Just as they
left the woman remarked to me "Well, at least the rocks will be."
Jinx! I packed up from lunch and started up the trail with the sun
shining. 5 minutes later I heard the crash and boom of thunder, and
the skies opened up and poured on me. It was a biblical storm in the
amount of rain that came down. The water was so deep in some of the
usually wet low spots that in one place the puncheon were actually
floating. At least, they were until I stepped on it. Wet feet!

I spent the next several hours climbing and clambering up step, wet
rocks. It was not fun. My socks and boots were squishy wet. When I
finally got to the summit of South Kinsman I stopped very briefly to
take a few photos. The view was actually quite spectacular and the
storm was clearing down below me, but I could still hear thunder so
was scurrying up the trail as quickly as I could to get back down
before another storm came through.

It was 4:00 by the time I got to Kinsman Pond Shelter. From here it is
only 2 miles to Lonesome Lake Hut, my goal for the day. Pushing as
hard as I could, it was after 5:00 when I finally reached Lonesome
Lake. I just don't know how to figure the time it will take to hike
between any two points around here. So much of the trails here are not
really hiking at all, but slowly climbing up and down rocks and huge
boulders.

Back while I was eating lunch at Eliza Brook I had turned on my phone
to find a voice-mail from Dave Smith, telling me that if I wanted to
hike the few extra miles down to Franconia Notch he would meet me
tonight and bring me home for a shower, a steak dinner, and a bed.
This was an irresistible offer after the soaking I had taken, so when
I got to Lonesome Lake Hut I wanted to call Dave and tell him I would
take him up on his offer, but my cell phone had gotten wet in the
storm and was not working. I borrowed a cell phone from one of the Hut
staff and called Dave to arrange for him to pick me up at the
trail-head parking area near The Flume in two hours, then pressed on.

Whew! I made it down to the trail-head with about 20 minutes to spare.
I waited for Dave, then he showed up and whisked me off home for a hot
shower and a big steak dinner. Civilization is a wonderful thing!

This was a tough day. 10 1/2 hours to hike 17 miles! Back in Virginia
17 miles would have been a 7 hour hike. After Connecticut,
Massachusetts, and Vermont, I was just getting used to only being able
to cover 2 miles per hour rather the 2.5 I had gotten used to through
the Mid-Atlantic states. Now it looks like I am going to have to start
figuring 1.5 mph at best through the Whites. Ugh!

--
~~~~~
Monkeywrench
Allen F. Freeman
allen@allenf.com
www.allenf.com
allenf.blogspot.com

Hikers Welcome Hostel in Glencliff NH to Kinsman Notch and the Carriage Motel in North Woodstock NH

Monday, 8/10

AT Miles = 9.5 / 1789.3
Other Miles = 0.9 / 57.3
Total Miles = 10.4 / 1846.6

Miles to Katahdin = 389.0

The weather toyed with me this morning. In my "Appalachian Pages" book there is a notation that "North side of Mt Moosilauke is steep and often slick," and I had heard that there are signs on the trail warning that it is hazardous when wet or icey. Since it was raining when I went to bed last night, I was determined to try to ascertain the weather before venturing up and over Moosilauke. Well, when I went outside this morning there were bits of blue sky showing and it looked like the weather was going to break up, so I was at the post office when it opened at 7:00AM to get my food drop and the warm clothes Jodi had sent to me, and by 7:45 I was walking up the road towards the trailhead.

As soon as I left the road I had to climb down a mud bank, then swap boots and socks for my sandals so I could wade Oliverian Brook, which was more a river than a brook. After a short warm up wherein the trail climbed rather easily, the world turned quite vertical and I spent the next few hours climbing steeply and steadily. The weather, meanwhile, had closed in again and I climbed through a heavy fog with quite warm temperatures and 100% humidity. I poured gallons of sweat and thousands of calories into climbing to the summit of Moosilauke, and in return I was treated to views that went on and on for two, sometimes three feet! I did prevail on a couple of day hikers who were also at the summit to take my photo next to the summit sign. I haven't looked yet to see how that turned out.

Some of you may recall that I climbed Moosilauke last February, on snowshoes, from the east. That was quite a clear day, though bitterly cold at the summit. If you go to the hiking folder in my photo gallery, there should be a Moosilauke album there from that trip.

With the wind blowing shreds of cloud across the summit sideways, my glasses were totally fogged up and covered with water droplets. I couldn't see anything with my glasses on, and without my glasses I can't see much of anything anyway, so I was pretty much blind. I managed to find a white blaze and started across the summit and down the north side. I missed the turn for the Beaver Brook Trail, which is the route the AT follows, and started down what I later figured out was the Benton Trail. After descending a couple tenths of a mile, I noticed that I was breaking through a lot of spider webs. I knew other AT hikers were ahead of me this morning, so those webs shouldn't have been there. That's when I stopped to study the map and figured out what I had done. So, I turned around and climbed back up those couple of tenths, then started down the correct trail.

I picked my way down the rocky trail until I reached the Beaver Brook Shelter. This was my nominal goal for the day, and I could have stayed here, but it seemed early to stop and it wasn't a very inviting spot anyway. I thought of pushing on 9 miles to the next shelter north, and was getting ready to leave when another thru-hiker, Baltimore Andy, showed up. We fell into a very pleasant conversation and then a couple of day hikers stopped by and they joined the conversation. Again I was going to leave, then I remembered my promise to myself to stop pushing so hard for miles all the time and let myself enjoy the hike more, so I settled back and let the conversation flow until it was well past 2:00PM.

Finally I left, with the goal simply of hiking down to Kinsman Notch, at which point I would decide whether to go on another 7.5 miles to the next shelter, or to hitch into town for the night. Well, the 1.6 miles from Beaver Brook Shelter to the Notch took me nearly an hour and a half to negotiate. The Beaver Brook Trail here descends very steeply over a jumble of wet rocks and boulders. Even going downhill, I was sweating up a storm and was exhausted from concentrating so intently on foot and pole placement to avoid taking a bad tumble. It was nearly 4:00 when I got to the trailhead, much too late to set off to hike another 7 1/2 miles, so I turned my attention to trying to hitch a ride into town. I've been told that it's tough to hitch around the Whites, and so far my experience bears that out. I lucked out, though, and a family I had passed on the trail just in from the road, and exchanged pleasantries with, saw me and offered me a ride into town. It turns out that they, too, are
from the Boston area. The husband said he used to climb Moosilauke all the time as a teenager, and that he had proposed to his wife at the summit. They are in the Whites on vacation, and were trying to decide when their daughters would be old enough to be able to make the climb to the summit. They asked a lot of questions about thru-hiking, and very kindly went a bit out of their way to drop me right at the motel here. Now I just hope I can get a ride back out of town and up to Kinsman Notch in the morning.

My plan for tomorrow is to hike the 13 miles from the Notch to Lonesome Lake Hut, where I am going to make my first attempt at getting work for stay. Hopefully that will work out. That will leave me just a few miles from Franconia Notch on Wednesday morning, where I need to go into the town of Lincoln to pick up my bounce box at the post office. On Wednesday night I will be staying with a couple that live near Franconia Notch. They have been reading this blog and very kindly offered their hospitality wqhen I reached the area. I am greatly looking forward to meeting them.

I was hoping last week's weather was a portent of a changed weather pattern for August, but it seems now we are back to warm humid weather with a chance of thunderstorms pretty much every day. I hope the weather treats me well as I make my way through the Whites. Being above treeline in a storm is no fun, to say the least!

So, goodnight from North Woodstock!
--
"Home is where I hang my food bag"

Monkeywrench
Allen Freeman
allen@allenf.com
www.allenf.com
allenf.blogspot.com

Smarts Mtn Fire Warden Cabin to Hikers Welcome Hostel in Glencliff NH

Sunday, 8/9

AT Miles = 19.9 / 1779.8
Other Miles = 1.3 / 56.4
Total Miles = 21.2 / 1836.2

Miles to Katahdin = 398.5

Last night was a beautiful night. I went up in the fire tower to take some evening photos, and also to get cell service. That was the first place I had been able to get service since leaving Hanover. There is no service at all here in Glencliff, so I don't know when I will be able to send this.

This morning was sunny and I had some great views while climbing over Mt Cube. By noon the sky was starting to cloud up, and by 3:00PM it started raining lightly.

The original plan for today was to hike 12.4 miles to Ore Hill Shelter, but soon after starting off this morning I decided I would try to get all the way into Glencliff if I could. I hiked pretty hard all day and got here before 5:30. I've showered and my laundry is in the washer. It's a bit pricey at $5.00 for wash and dry for 2 pairs of socks and a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, but clean dry socks are important and I have to send the shorts and T-shirt home in the mail tomorrow. Jodi probably wouldn't appreciate opening a package of dirty, sweaty clothes.

The post office opens at 7:00 tomorrow, and I will pick up my food drop and my warm clothes that Jodi sent. If the weather clears up I will leave here and climb up and over Mt Moosilauke, the first of the White Mtn peaks. If it rains all day tomorrow I may stay here and postpone the climb a day. The guidebook warns against climbing down the north side of Moosilauke in wet weather.

I have a sort of schedule that puts me at Katahdin on September 15. That schedule includes no zero days, and there is no way I am going to hike for y6 weeks without taking any days off, but I am determined not to let the 9/15 date slip, so I will have to 'earn' any zeros. I arrived here in Glencliff a day ahead of schedule, so I have one zero day 'in the bank.' It would be nice not to have to use that banked day tomorrow.

I got an email from Paulman and CuppaJoe today. Paulman fell just across the Maine border and hurt his knee, so they had to get off the trail for a while. Luckily he is apparently healing well and they will be back on the trail in a few days, but you just never know what mishap could end your hike.

--
"Home is where I hang my food bag"

Monkeywrench
Allen Freeman
allen@allenf.com
www.allenf.com
allenf.blogspot.com