Hiking the New Hampshire 4000 footers

There was a last minute decision as to what particular hike we were going to complete this time around. Kyle would not be present on this hike but good friend Jeremy would come along. After talking it over about which hike to do we decided on the Kinsmans. Originally we were thinking Moriah or Cabot but ultimately it was the Kinsmans in Franconia Notch. This would be Jeremy’s second time conquering these two peaks but he had no problem with climbing these again. He currently has nine peaks left on his own journey so for him to suck it up and do this for me meant a lot.

We spent the night at our “Maine House” located in Bridgton as this made for a shorter ride over to the notch. We hit the trail (Rocky included) at around 7:30am and started our climb up to Lonesome Lake via the Lonesome Lake trail. This is a steady grade of elevation gain from the start. The gain is roughly 1000 feet in the first mile as the lake sits at 2700 feet. Then you hop onto the Cascade Brook Trail for a quick 0.3 mile jaunt up to the hut. After stopping at the Lonesome Lake Hut for a quick snack we headed up the Fishin‘ Jimmy Trail. This trail is named after a gentleman James Whitcher who spent his entire life in Franconia and became a caretaker to the hut after the original owners had passed away. This trail along with the Kinsman Ridge Trail, which you hop on at an intersection was rough, steep and hard on the legs.

We were on the Fishin Jimmy trail for about two miles before connecting on to the Kinsman Ridge Trail for the push of a mile or so to these two 4000 foot peaks. We hit North Kinsman first which was a great place to stop and eat lunch so we did just that. After a well deserved break we started up again for the second of these two peaks. North had some views from a lookout that we would check out on the way back, we couldn’t see anything earlier due to clouds. Once we got moving again it was a short haul to South Kinsman. We got fooled by a false summit and quickly figured out where the real summit was and once we got there it took my breath away. Clear skies at this point and these views were some of the best I’ve seen to date. There was also a path off the summit that brings you to another lookout where the 4800 foot Mount Moosilauke stares directly at you. After having one more snack, sitting on the “throne” which is a handmade throne of rocks on the summit and losing my bottle of nitroglycerin we began our descent.

We both knew the descent was gonna suck as we would be going up and down for a few miles. This is a bit annoying because you climb so much but also dip down quite a bit too so after hiking the initial 5 miles you know what is coming on the way down. After climbing up and down with what seemed to last for hours we finally reached the hut again, took our last break and descended the final mile to the Lafayette Campground parking lot. All in all this was a fantastic hike and had a ton of fun with Jeremy who I look forward to continue hiking with. It was a bit hard for me as my plantar fasciitis is still lingering and my left knee gets really sore just on the downhill but as much as I hurt it was still an awesome day and would recommend this trail to anyone. The views are spectacular and you work really hard for them as well. These were number 23 and 24 for me and that means I am halfway to 48!!!!

The Kinsmans

WELCH-DICKEY

Mount Carrigain