Summary
Aug 13th
RT 112 to Kinsman Pond Shelter
NOBO mile #1811.9
Daily mileage 11.5
Total mileage 788.2
Last evening, I took the shuttle into Lincoln to resupply and get some dinner and food for the hostel. After checking out at the Price Chopper, I was walking down to the McDonalds to get something for dinner, when suddenly, my brother Tim’s daughter, Katie, was standing next to me. She had come up a few days ago to do some camping and hiking with her two brothers and her nephew, and they had left, and she had stayed to meet a friend for a final night. She had been aware that I was close by because she had read my blog, and so was kind of on the lookout, even though she didn’t really think I was in Lincoln. She had spotted me and was able to pull into the parking lot as I walked by. To say I was flabbergasted would be an understatement. I mean, what are
the odds?
She drove me down to McDonalds, so we had a chance to catch up. I didn’t have long, since the shuttle schedule only gave us a half hour. As I got out, she gave me a bag of homemade cookies and zucchini bread (thanks, Kathy!!), and an Angry Orchard hard cider. We hugged and she headed back to her campsite.
That totally made my day, my week!!
Back at the hostel, I really enjoyed my Big Mac and fries and my chocolate milk (and chocolate chip cookies!). Then I played the hostel guitar for a little while, then boiled up 6 hard boiled eggs before going to bed.
As I was settling down, a gentleman came whirling into the bunk room, his energy very erratic. He was not a hiker, but had stayed at the hostel a year ago in conjunction with a crafts show, that was happening again this weekend. He had some issues that were upsetting him, but as he talked about them with me, he became calmer and calmer, until he started asking me about thru-hiking, and my reasons for being out on the trail. We ended up getting fairly deep, and talked until late. It actually was pretty cool. The other hikers stayed up late out in the common room.
I had picked up cereal and milk for breakfast while resupplying last night. So I had a big bowl of Cap’n Crunch before packing up for the 7:30 shuttle to the trailhead. On the ride over, Bookie, our driver, warned us of the deep mud on Mt. Wolf. She said someone had recently sunk up to their thigh without feeling a bottom. The raised my anxiety level somewhat. Also, I was remembering Legion warning us of the false summits we would encounter climbing Mt Wolf, and how this was a miserable section of trail.
So I was mentally prepared, at least, for the morning’s walk.
Still, I had lightened my pack by removing my main food bag, my hammock, half my clothes, and some other sundries; it felt awesome to be able to lift my pack with one arm and put it on. The pack weight ended up being the best part of the day.
I started off slow since the trail was pretty steep at the get go. But then I caught up to a section hiker, and we hiked together for a little while before I pulled ahead. Then I caught up with another section hiker. I was feeling strong at that point and felt like I was making good time. Then I hit what I thought was the first of Wolf’s false summits. When I had gone up and down three times, I was reasonably certain I was close to the summit, and when I checked the time, it confirmed that assumptions about my pace. When the next high point was another false summit, I checked my GPS app, and was crestfallen that I was still a mile and a half from the true summit. So the other “false summits” were really faux false summits! <sigh> So my pace was slower than my guesstimate. <deep sigh>
I moved on and started having to negotiate more patches of mud, keeping in mind Bookie’s warnings. I finally got to the false summit following Wolf’s true summit and started down into the saddle. The elevation profile for this section of the trail is deceptive, probably because of the scale of the mountains. South Kinsman summit is at 4357 feet. Moosilauke is 4800 feet. Prior to this point the highest is Mt Killington in Vermont at 4,235 feet. A tall mountain by itself shows pretty clearly on the eleveation profile, but when you get more of the larger mountains together, significant climbs can be seen as noise on the line.
The following list shows the high points in the states I’ve been in: MD 1900′, PA 1803′, NJ 1802′, NY 1433′, CT 2,326′, MA 3491′, and VT 4,235′.
So the descent from Wolf was seemed steeper and longer than it should have been, and my hope to get to Eliza Brook Shelter for a mid-morning snack became a desire to get there for lunch.
At one point, as I was collecting water, a couple came up and settled in for a snack. They said they were planning on getting to RT 93; that they had friends picking them up around 5:30. I told them I thought they might be a little overly optimistic, and they agreed that the trail was harder than they had expected it to be. They would reassess their plans at lunch, at the Eliza Brook Shelter. I think everyone was changing their schedules on the fly.
The mud became more and more of an issue when the trail went through a boggy area near a small pond. There literally was no dry place to step, and it was a question of how to minimize how wet I’d get. I did not want to sink up to my thigh in mud. In the end, I had wet feet, but it never came up over my ankle.
I had tried to take some photos with my phone during the morning, but it was telling me I had no storage left. Bummer! I had my video camera as a back up, but it would be harder to get the photos off of it. So this blog entry will have no photos, at least when I initially publish it.
I finally got to Eliza Brook Shelter around 1pm, too early to stop there, but feeling like getting to Kinsman Pond might be an issue. There was a section hiker there dealing with a gastrointestinal issue, so I was wary about spending any significant time there. Two NOBOers I had met at Hikers Welcome came in as well, planning on getting to 93. I sometimes get frustrated because most young hikers coming up from Georgia have the stamina to push through on these harder sections, and are even joyful about it. I’m so envious! The two section hikers I had passed in the morning came in, and seemed intent on settling in for the night. Then the couple heading for 93 came in, and still felt they had time to reach the road.
One of the NOBOers left, then I packed up to follow. He and I leapfrogged each other once or twice and for a while I was able to keep him in sight in front of me before he moved beyond me. The climb up South Kinsman was steep, technical in places, and endless. I watched the afternoon slipping away as I crawled up, and I started to get concerned that I would be making less than a mile an hour to cover 4 miles between Eliza Brook and Kinsman Pond. I was glad I had bought new batteries for my headlamp.
I suddenly hit my wall when I came to an overlook (one of the first of the day; Wolf was almost completely treed in), and saw the mountain rising up above me, checked my Guthook’s app, and saw that I had more than 1000 feet of elevation to go. I was feeling trapped between the difficulty of the trail behind me and the certainty that it was going to continue to be difficult ahead. Once again, I came to the decision that I was done. That I just couldn’t keep this up. Just get me to 93, and I’m done. Then I put down my head and ground out the steps.
A little while later, the second NOBOer showed up behind me, and he was beaming. I could tell he was tired, and he wasn’t racing up the trail, but he was in love with the trail. I let him pass by, but then put on my best effort to follow him. He soon passed beyond my sight, but I knew he wasn’t far ahead. After a second eternity passed, the trail finally leveled out, and the view opened up around us. There was the first NOBOer; obviously he had been there a while taking it all in. The two of them were elated. I was less so, certainly drinking in the amazing view, but still questioning its cost. And knowing that if the climb up was hard and slow, the climb down was potentially the same.
We hadn’t reached the summit yet, but that was an easy walk through krumhotlz and across ledge. There were quite a few day hikers up there, and I was amazed at that, and wondered if there was an easier trail than the AT leading up to the summit.
A short walk across a saddle brought me to the North summit, and I bypassed a short but steep climb down to a ledge which provided a view north and east. Instead, I started down to the Kinsman Pond Shelter. It was only a drop of 600 feet over .7 miles, but there was more steep ledge, requiring hands, or backing down, so my pace continued sub mile an hour.
At last, I got to Kinsman Pond.
Kinsman Pond is a beautiful place, and the shelter is new and clean and well cared for. There is a caretaker at the site, and it costs $10 to stay the night. There is a new policy where one pays the camping fee, then gets a card that halves the fee for subsequent campsites/shelters, and gets the bearer a 2 baked goods and a bowl of soup at the huts. I made sure to get my card!
There was a tramily of Southbounders already in the shelter, but plenty of room for me to layout out my pad and top quilt. I changed out of my wet shirt and threw on my puffy jacket, and visited a while with the SOBOers. They were a lively crew, and entertaining bordering on being annoying. But I was just so glad to have the day’s walking behind me, and grateful to have company for the evening.
As the afternoon merged into evening, the two section hikers I had met in the morning and at Eliza Brook tromped in separately, and I learned one’s name was Bumbles. She set up in the shelter, while the other found a tent platform. And then the couple heading for 93 came in, resigned that they would be staying the night.
It was becoming pretty chilly; it’s obvious that Summer is coming to an end up here in the northern mountains. I can’t believe I started this quest back in April, and August is almost halfway over.
Tom Maynard 
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