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Day hiking on North & South Kinsman |
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This day hike started at the Layfayette Campground off of Interstate 93 / Franconia Notch Parkway in Lincolb, New Hampshire. From the parking lot we took the Lonesome Lake Trail up to Lonesome Lake and then the Cascade Brook Trail around the east and south sides of the lake to the Lonesome Lake AMC hut. From the hut we took the Fishin' Jimmy Trail up to Kinsman Pond and then the Kinsman Ridge Trail first to the summit of North Kinsman and then to the summit of South Kinsman. We returned to Lafayette Campground using the same route.
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I had spent most of the spring, summer & auturm working on my New England Hundred highest list which had me doing a lot of hiking in Vermont in the spring and then Maine in the summer and early autumn. The last hike I had done in New Hampshire was Mount Chocorua back in April. When my hiking buddy Alysia invited me along on this hike with her and her friend Chris I could not resist. In another month or so it would be time to start working on my New Hampshire 4000-footer winter list so this would be a good warm up for that.
We all met at the trailhead at 8:00 and were on the trail right away. The morning was overcast but by the time we reach Lonesome Lake the clouds were already breaking up and there were some big patches of blue sky. There was some snow on the trail already but there were also many sections that we snow free. It took us just about an hour to hike from the trailhead to northeast shore of Lonesome Lake.
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It did not take long to hike around the lake to the Lonesome Lake Hut and we stopped there for a little while to each some snacks before continuing on. The Fishin' Jimmy Trail is also Appalachian Trail and it felt good to be back on that again. I had hiked many short sections of the AT during my other hiking in Vermont and Maine over the past year and I was hoping to get time off from work in the following year to attempt an AT through hike from Georgia to Maine.
Between Lonseome Lake and Kinsman Pond the trail got a little messy in places. There was a fair amount of snow on it and some ice and as the day warmed up this stuff was starting to melt away and leave mud in its wake. Once the trail started to gain elevation as we got closer to Kinsman Pond there was more snow and this became less of a problem. We knew there was going to be lots more mud to deal with on the way back later in the afternoon though.
We stopped briefy at the Kinsman Pond shelter for another short rest and more snacks.
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We bypassed North Kinsman on the way up as there was already a crowd of people there. We headed straight for South Kinsman and would hit the north peak on the way back. There was quite a bit of snow along the ridge but it had all been heavily travelled and was wall packed.
As luck would have it we had the summit of South Kinsman to ourselves. We had our lunch up there and took lots of photos before starting the hike back. The weather on this day had been absolutelu gorgeous with reasonably mild temperatures and lots of sunshine. There had been a few clouds in the sky earlier in the morning but by late morning most of those had disappeared and we had just the most incredible deep blue sky.
Alysia is a lot of fun to hike with and I always wonder what she will come up with next. I am used to seeing the photos of her jumping on various peaks but now she has drawn me into it as well. On this trip she decided to make a little family of snow people while on the summit of South Kinsman.
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We were on South Kinsman for almost an hour before starting the hike back. On our way back to North Kinsman we met a group that was going up to South Kinsman so we had left just in time. When we arrived back at North Kinsman there was no one else there and we had that to ourslves. We didn't stay there long though, just long enough to snap some photos and then we were on our way again. It was already 2:30 by the time we left there and we knew it was going to be a mad dash to get back to Lafayette Campground before dark.
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It was right around 4pm when we got back to Lonesome Lake and the shadows from the peaks to the west had it already in shade. The peaks of Franconia Ridge were the only places that still had sunlight on them and that was not going to last much longer. It was a beautiful view and we had to stop to take some photos but we did not stay long and continued the mad dash.
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It took just a little more than 30 minutes to go from the Lonesone Lake AMC hut back to the trailhead so we made very good time. The sun had set and it was still getting dark when we arrived back there but it was not completely dark yet.
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After packing our gear back into our vehicles we headed into Woodstock for a post hike meal and some good brews at the Woodstock Inn Brewery. It had been a wonderful day for a hike and there was good reason for celebration.
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