"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out 'til sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in."
-John Muir
Start: Kinsman Notch
End: Franconia Notch
Today: 16.3 mi
Total: 532.1 mi
Mornings can be a funny time on the trail. Some days you can't wait to get out there and start climbing the high peaks while other days you desperately try to come up with some excuse for not hiking. You scan the weather channels, seek out the heat index and even check the fire risk level from Smokey the Bear (jk). Today was that type of day. We planned on hiking one of our longest days in the toughest terrain we've yet seen this summer. I gritted my teeth, subverted my thoughts of shortening the day and left for the trail.
The only flat sections of the entire day was the street crossing at .1 mi and the parking lot we arrived at as the skies began to grow dark 16.3 miles at the end of the day. My mood lifted with the rythem of my steps, the cadence of my heart beating hard and the sweat dripping down my face. Any worries I had for the day evaporated.
We started the trail early and hadn't seen anyone until about 11am when another group of Dartmouth freshman hiked past us going southbound. Hiking is their college orientation! I wish I had had the grades to get into Dartmouth...or the money (wouldn't want to pay that off for the rest of my life)! A little while later I passed an older man who was sitting on the side of the trail. He told me "you're almost there." Hmm..."I'm almost where?" Sounding like some oracle out of a greek myth he explained "wherever it is you are going."
Just over 4 hours into the day we arrived at Eliza Brook Shelter. The first thing I did was take off my boots, ankle brace and socks and massaged my feet back to life. Every inch of them felt bruised and extremely sore. At least we were almost halfway done with today's mileage by noon. After our break at the shelter we began our tallest and steepest climb of the day. I soon fell into a rythym and moved up and up and up the mountain. Heather, joking around, complained that I was a "slave driver" and even put my unreasonable hiking into sound with a totally exaggerated "whoopitish!" The climb was long and each turn of the trail revealed another stone staircase. But as trees became more dwarfed with elevation, the views began to pay off. To our south we could see Moosilauke and Cube Mt. To the north we could see Franconia Ridge and the Presidents.
We took a break on South Kinsman and next tackled North Kinsman before the drop. The trail plummeted almost 1500' in 1.5 miles. Our pace was excruciatingly slow as our feet and knees took a beating going down. We got to Lonesome Lake Hut at 5:15 and rested there 'til 6pm. Just as it was getting dark we emerged from the woods into a parking lot at the base of Franconia Ridge. Our toughest day was done! I layed on the hard, paved parking lot but somehow it felt so comfortable!
~DADDY LONG LEGS
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