Tuesday, 8/11

AT Miles = 16.4 / 1805.7
Other Miles = 0.8 / 58.1
Total Miles = 17.2 / 1863.8

Miles to Katahdin = 372.6

I had a nice night in North Woodstock, with a good dinner followed by
a nice, filling breakfast this morning. After breakfast I positioned
myself on Rt 112, the road back up to Kinsman Notch, and tried
hitching. After 40 unfruitful minutes, I gave up on hitchhiking and
called The Shuttle Connection. That 5 mile ride cost me $12.00, but it
got me to the trailhead.

It was a few minutes before 9:00 when I started hiking, and it took me
4 hours to hike the 7.5 miles to Eliza Brook Shelter. I stopped here
for lunch, and met a couple out for an overnight heading south. We
chatted a bit about the climb up and over South and North Kinsman
which they had just done and which I was about to do. Just as they
left the woman remarked to me “Well, at least the rocks will be dry.”
Jinx! I packed up from lunch and started up the trail with the sun
shining. 5 minutes later I heard the crash and boom of thunder, and
the skies opened up and poured on me. It was a biblical storm in the
amount of rain that came down. The water was so deep in some of the
usually wet low spots that in one place the puncheon were actually
floating. At least, they were until I stepped on it. Wet feet!

I spent the next several hours climbing and clambering up steep, wet
rocks. It was not fun. My socks and boots were squishy wet. When I
finally got to the summit of South Kinsman I stopped very briefly to
take a few photos. The view was actually quite spectacular and the
storm was clearing down below me, but I could still hear thunder so
was scurrying up the trail as quickly as I could to get back down
before another storm came through.

It was 4:00 by the time I got to Kinsman Pond Shelter. From here it is
only 2 miles to Lonesome Lake Hut, my goal for the day. Pushing as
hard as I could, it was after 5:00 when I finally reached Lonesome
Lake. I just don’t know how to figure the time it will take to hike
between any two points around here. So much of the trails here are not
really hiking at all, but slowly climbing up and down rocks and huge
boulders.

Back while I was eating lunch at Eliza Brook I had turned on my phone
to find a voice-mail from Dave Smith, telling me that if I wanted to
hike the few extra miles down to Franconia Notch he would meet me
tonight and bring me home for a shower, a steak dinner, and a bed.
This was an irresistible offer after the soaking I had taken, so when
I got to Lonesome Lake Hut I wanted to call Dave and tell him I would
take him up on his offer, but my cell phone had gotten wet in the
storm and was not working. I borrowed a cell phone from one of the Hut
staff and called Dave to arrange for him to pick me up at the
trail-head parking area near The Flume in two hours, then pressed on.

Whew! I made it down to the trail-head with about 20 minutes to spare.
I waited for Dave, then he showed up and whisked me off home for a hot
shower and a big steak dinner. Civilization is a wonderful thing!

This was a tough day. 10 1/2 hours to hike 17 miles! Back in Virginia
17 miles would have been a 7 hour hike. After Connecticut,
Massachusetts, and Vermont, I was just getting used to only being able
to cover 2 miles per hour rather the 2.5 I had gotten used to through
the Mid-Atlantic states. Now it looks like I am going to have to start
figuring 1.5 mph at best through the Whites. Ugh!

—
~~~~~
Monkeywrench
Allen F. Freeman
allen@allenf.com
www.allenf.com
allenf.blogspot.com