Over the past month and a half Charlie and I have climbed many smaller peaks in preparation for this years 4000 footer attempts. I have been working on the 48 4000 footer list in New Hampshire for the last 2 years and this will be my third summer working towards it. This year is the first year Charlie has hiked at all so he has got a lot of work to do! We started this season off strong going to a lot of the 52 with a view with around 1500-2500 ft of elevation gain. The goal was to build up our leg muscles and endurance slowly so it would not be a shock once we went for longer miles and bigger elevation.
I have had my sights on the Kinsman Ridge for the last couple of years. I had done Cannon Mountain and Franconia Ridge in the past and always loved that area so I wanted to be able to see the mountains I had climbed from a different perspective. I had done extensive planning and research trying to find the best way to hike this ridge. I also purposefully never really looked at summit photos so that the summits would be a surprise. I packed my bag up the night before with all of my food and supplies including my micro-spikes; which I was hoping I could use. We left my apartment by 6:30am and headed up north to the trailhead.
We arrived just shortly before 8:00am a bundle of nerves. There is always something daunting about pulling up early to a big hike, you just never know how your body is going to feel. The crisp morning air and bright blue skies were a beautiful sight to see and my spirits were lifted as we marched ahead onto the trail.
Right away there was a steep incline. The trail up to Lonesome Lake from Lafayette campground gained about 1000ft in .8 miles. This was probably the steepest section of the entire hike and it was right away! With a 15 lbs pack and too many layers the first couple steps were very sweaty and I was already breathing heavy. It felt like all the planning and exercising hadn't done anything to prepare me for the typical White Mountains elevation! We pushed through and finally made it to Lonesome Lake where we were greeted with a flat section and our first beautiful view of the day. We sat by the water for a while looking out over the lake and at Franconia Ridge in the distance. It was so peaceful and calm. We enjoyed a quick snack and allowed the nausea to wear off a bit before continuing on our way.
We continued up the Fishin' Jimmy trail which is part of the Appalachian Trail up to the Kinsman Ridge and Cascade Brook intersection. This was a really enjoyable part of the hike. Lots of ups and downs over steep rock scrambles. There were sections with old monorail and other sections that were completely dry. We got up to the one section that I had been looking forward too, and that was the wooden stairs embedded in the rock face. Because the spring conditions are in full swing there is running water down this portion of the trail making the already tricky staircase more dangerous. We navigated this section with care and it proved to be a very fun experience going up. But we knew that going down this with the running water would be too difficult. This decision would set us up for failure later in the day,
We got to Kinsman pond in about 3 hours which was pretty good for 4 miles and 3000ft of elevation. We rested on the rocks by the Kinsman Tentsite shelter and look up to the two mountains that we would soon be sitting on top of. This pond hidden in the mountains is probably the coolest place I have ever been. I will definitely be returning to camp there this summer.
We set off to head up the Kinsman Ridge Trail and immediately encountered snow and ice that had not been there for most of the trip. We had the micro-spikes but opted not to use them and continued up the slippery trail. Within half an hour we were sitting on the ledge of North Kinsman and the view was absolutely unreal.
Charlie's first 4000 footer was sure a good one! There was no wind and just one other person that we sat next to. It was truly a magical moment looking over the White Mountains and sitting atop the range I had wanted to do for so long. We sat for 20 minutes before heading along to South Peak. We went down quite a bit and ran into some other hikers who were heading to North. It seemed like it only took 5 minutes before we were on top of South Peak. The actual peak was not that spectacular but when you walk another .1 miles over the trees open up and there is a cairn/ throne that people have made where you can sit and take in what I would consider some of the best views in the White Mountains.
I finally got my picture in the Kinsman Ridge Throne!
From there we planned our long way back to the car. Like I said before we really did not want to descend the way we had come up do to safety concerns so we opted for what we perceived as the safer route Cascade Brook. We started down and immediately were met with deteriorating monorail that was up to 3 feet deep! Hoping the conditions would improve we kept going this route. However, the further we got the worse the conditions got! The monorail as completely unstable and a running brook was underneath all of that to top it off. As the trail started descending it decided to turn into a running brook. It was super confusing at times because the trail was more water than anything else! 2.3 miles and an eternity later we made it to the trail signs. We dragged ourselves the .8 back up to Lonesome Lake and then descended the Lonesome Lake Trail. 12.5 miles and 3900 ft of elevation... you could say it was a pretty successful and amazing day, even with the awful descent!
Comments