Day 104 Kinsman

Today we hiked the Kinsman Mountains, covered a total of 18.3 miles, and had unexpected trail magic from Tyler’s mom.


I slept really well last night. The peepers gave a very nice background noise that helped me stay asleep. I didn’t have any specific time to wake up, because I was going to wait for Spencer to get back to the trail around 9 AM. So I slept in until 7 and then hung out at camp. It was nice having a chill morning. I was able to call Ashley for a while and listen to an audiobook.


I started taking down camp around 8 AM. I then went to the trailhead and ate breakfast while waiting for Brooke to come drop off Spencer. They brought me a breakfast sandwich and a hot chocolate, both of which were delicious. Spencer also picked up a resupply for me in town, which was very helpful.


We started hiking around 10:15. Over the first miles we hiked up Mount Wolf. Although it isn’t a very tall mountain, there were some good views of Franconia Ridge on the way up and from the summit.




After Mount Wolf, we began the difficult ascent up Kinsman, which is a 4300 foot mountain that has two peaks. For the first part of the ascent who walked along a stream that had many waterfalls. We stopped briefly and swam in one of the pools.




At the top of the stream was a mountain pond, and a flat area where we could see the steep cliff up to the top of Kinsman.



Then the trail got very steep. There was about a mile and a half of very steep handover foot ascent to reach the top. We took our time and went carefully. The view from the southern peak were worth it.





We then ate lunch and hiked over to the less spectacular northern peak, which still had pretty good views of Franconia Ridge.



The descent down from Kinsman was also quite steep, but not as steep as the climb up. Once again we took our time. Near the bottom, we passed Lonesome Lake Hut. The White Mountains have multiple huts up at elevation along the trail. All of the food and fuel that the hut use needs to be carried in on peoples backs, or flown in by helicopter. The hunts are very expensive, so thru hikers tends to avoid them as much as possible. But they can be useful in bad weather. Lonesome Lake hut wasn’t very useful to us, but the lake itself had fantastic views.




After the hut, we climbed down to a trailhead where we met Tyler‘s mom who had a whole set up to make us dinner. She drove up today to help us out and support us as we hike through the whites. She offered to help us a few more times, which will be very much appreciate.



After enjoying awesome cheeseburgers, fruit, and spindrift seltzers we hiked another two miles to get half way up Mt Liberty. We set up camp at a stealth site on the side of the steep ascent. We got to camp around 8:30.


Tomorrow we wake up early and try to get over Franconia Ridge before the rain starts in the afternoon. The weather in the extended forecast continues to look very rainy. Hopefully it changes, but if not, we will continue to push through despite the added challenge.


Good night, 

Walker 





If you want to follow Spencer, here is his log:

https://www.instagram.com/baxter.bound?utm_source=qr&igsh=MWx4MzRqa3M4dGk3Mw==

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