Little Sister
New member
After leaving a car at Govanis restaurant, Meb, Andy and I met up with Steve, Lisa and Dave at the Hi Cannon trailhead. Meb and I were planning to head to the Eliza Brook shelter for a sleepover, while the others in our group would turn back at South Kinsman. We started out a bit before 9am. The Hi Cannon trail is a combination of steep spurts with level ground making the ascent fairly pleasant and manageable. After the ladder, the trail levels out a bit and slowly winds over to the summit. We dropped packs at the intersection 1/4 mile from the summit. The last few times I've been to the summit, the tower was closed, but on this day, we were able to climb to the top. The tops of the Franconia Ridge peaks were a bit in the clouds, but we did get views of the Kinsmans and also saw Wolfe Mtn. which Meb and I would go over on our way out the next day.
Leaving the summit, we quickly made our way back to our packs, and then began a steep descent...down...down...down. A short flat section and then we headed straight up over the NE ball. There was confusion on the "true summit", but fortunately we had Andy with us and he was able to point out the actual summit!
The trail then does a series of ups and downs over the next 2 cannon balls, and then finally intersects with the fishin' jimmy trail. From here, it was only .6 miles to North Kinsman, and by the time we reached this summit the views had pretty much disappeared. So, on over to the south summit. I really enjoy this ridge walk...it's short and pretty and woody and before you know it you're on the summit of south Kinsman!
By now it was 2:30, and I was feeling like a slow poke, tired from carrying my heavy pack up and down all the bumps. Steven told us that the elevation for this hike was about 4500 feet?(not sure if that's correct, cause my brain was a little fuzzy). So even though the mileage wasn't that high, the elevation was pretty good, so I felt a little better. Anyway, here we said our goodbyes and Meb and I headed off toward the Eliza Brook shelter, 4 miles away. We were both very excited...new trial for both of us!!
So, the trail goes pretty steeply down after leaving the summit, with sketchy footing and slickery rocks. We took our time, and just when we thought it was leveling out, down it would go again! We came to a beautiful open boggy pond area where there were hundreds of pitcher plants...shaped like a pitcher of water, they are one of a few species of carniverous plants! Very cool to see so many! The trail continued, eventually running alongside the brook. Lots of nice swimming pools and cascades...very tempting, but we continued on!
We finally reached the shelter around 4:30. Three girls were waiting for their 4th friend and deciding whether to stay the night or push on to Lonesome Lake. Over the next hour the place slowly filled up as more and more thru hikers arrived. I think there ended up being about 15 people who stayed the night. Meb and I had brought a tent, so we set up camp at one of the sites. The whole area was a maze of strings designating revegetation areas. It was kind of creepy, but the strings were great for clotheslines! There is also a bear box behind the leanto, but it was locked! So we just hung our food bag and luckily no bears came!
The next morning, per usual, Meb and I were awake at about 5am...we both are early risers, especially when camping. So we took our time getting our stuff together and breaking camp. Enjoyed a nice cup of coffee and then headed out a bit before 7. The day was overcast and gray, and we were pretty much in a cloud. We got no views at the lookout from Mt Wolfe, although the sun did make a valiant effort to appear.
About a mile from Mt. Wolfe, we turned left onto the Gordon brook trail. The upper portion of this trail was a mud pie quag of crap and it sucked! Any logs or rocks were slick and partially buried and I felt like a drunk person trying to walk! I was so focused on my displeasure of this trail, that I completely missed Gordon Pond and everything else that was probably nice about this trail. Eventually, it dried out and then meandered at a nice grade through pretty open woods. The last part of the trail is a mish-mash of snowmobile/atv trails/roads, powerlines and other stuff. Not the best trail I've ever walked on, but it did end at my car, so that was good!!
All in all another great weekend with the sister!
Leaving the summit, we quickly made our way back to our packs, and then began a steep descent...down...down...down. A short flat section and then we headed straight up over the NE ball. There was confusion on the "true summit", but fortunately we had Andy with us and he was able to point out the actual summit!
The trail then does a series of ups and downs over the next 2 cannon balls, and then finally intersects with the fishin' jimmy trail. From here, it was only .6 miles to North Kinsman, and by the time we reached this summit the views had pretty much disappeared. So, on over to the south summit. I really enjoy this ridge walk...it's short and pretty and woody and before you know it you're on the summit of south Kinsman!
By now it was 2:30, and I was feeling like a slow poke, tired from carrying my heavy pack up and down all the bumps. Steven told us that the elevation for this hike was about 4500 feet?(not sure if that's correct, cause my brain was a little fuzzy). So even though the mileage wasn't that high, the elevation was pretty good, so I felt a little better. Anyway, here we said our goodbyes and Meb and I headed off toward the Eliza Brook shelter, 4 miles away. We were both very excited...new trial for both of us!!
So, the trail goes pretty steeply down after leaving the summit, with sketchy footing and slickery rocks. We took our time, and just when we thought it was leveling out, down it would go again! We came to a beautiful open boggy pond area where there were hundreds of pitcher plants...shaped like a pitcher of water, they are one of a few species of carniverous plants! Very cool to see so many! The trail continued, eventually running alongside the brook. Lots of nice swimming pools and cascades...very tempting, but we continued on!
We finally reached the shelter around 4:30. Three girls were waiting for their 4th friend and deciding whether to stay the night or push on to Lonesome Lake. Over the next hour the place slowly filled up as more and more thru hikers arrived. I think there ended up being about 15 people who stayed the night. Meb and I had brought a tent, so we set up camp at one of the sites. The whole area was a maze of strings designating revegetation areas. It was kind of creepy, but the strings were great for clotheslines! There is also a bear box behind the leanto, but it was locked! So we just hung our food bag and luckily no bears came!
The next morning, per usual, Meb and I were awake at about 5am...we both are early risers, especially when camping. So we took our time getting our stuff together and breaking camp. Enjoyed a nice cup of coffee and then headed out a bit before 7. The day was overcast and gray, and we were pretty much in a cloud. We got no views at the lookout from Mt Wolfe, although the sun did make a valiant effort to appear.
About a mile from Mt. Wolfe, we turned left onto the Gordon brook trail. The upper portion of this trail was a mud pie quag of crap and it sucked! Any logs or rocks were slick and partially buried and I felt like a drunk person trying to walk! I was so focused on my displeasure of this trail, that I completely missed Gordon Pond and everything else that was probably nice about this trail. Eventually, it dried out and then meandered at a nice grade through pretty open woods. The last part of the trail is a mish-mash of snowmobile/atv trails/roads, powerlines and other stuff. Not the best trail I've ever walked on, but it did end at my car, so that was good!!
All in all another great weekend with the sister!
