7/?/99
Trip 10 North Kinsman 4293’ and
South Kinsman 4358’
10.2 Miles 3550’ Elevation gain
Kevin, Judy and Dan
So, another attempt on the Kinsmans. This time there is no snow left on the trail, and we try a different route, parking at Lafayette Place Campground, and taking the Lonessome Lake Trail, the same as we did going to Cannon last fall, except this time turning south at the lake and continuing on to the Lonesome Lake Hut. This may be the easiest 1.6 miles that affords stunning views in the Franconia State Park. From the small “beach” area near the hut there are superior views of the Franconia Ridge, particularly Lincoln and Lafayette to the northeast. The hut was crowded with dogs and people so after a quick look around we got on the next trail to get away from “Grand Central”. Actually, this name could apply to any hut on any given weekend. Prefering the woods and wilderness experience to the camaradery we try now to avoid the huts, although we’ve been to all of them. Don’t hesitate to seek help at one if you need it. Hiking on weekdays if possible helps to avoid crowded huts, trails and mountain tops. Taking the Fishin’ Jimmy Trail named after a true White Mountain character, after 2 miles of ups and downs turning into a long steady up, we came to Kinsman Junction. 6/10’s of a mile and 550’ above this on the Kinsman Ridge Trail is the wooded summit of North Kinsman. Just east of the summit is a rocky outcrop with a great view of Franconia Ridge, although we couldn’t see it well this day. Another 9/10th’s of a mile and 350’ elevation brings us to the bald summit of South Kinsman with good views in all directions. There are also many excellent, sometimes filtrered views along the Kinsman Ridge Trail between summits. Retracing our steps back across North Kinsman and down to Kinsman Junction we decide to take a different route out, and turn southeast on the Kinsman Pond Trail which takes us past beautiful Kinsman Pond. We take this trail down to its junction with the Cascade Brook Trail, where we turn north and head back toward Lonesome Lake again, and again finding ourselves climbing, which we would really prefer not to be doing at this point. Reaching the lake near the hut we turn back onto the Lonesome Lake Trail that brings us back to Lafayette Place Campground and our car.
Mistakes on this trip.) A great trip in all, the only mistake being adding on the extra at the end when we were already worn out, but it wasn’t that detrimental, we just made ourselves work a little harder than we really had to to get out of the woods. In bad weather or other adverse conditions this could have been bad, but we dodged the bullet again. K(15) J(13)
