Tom Rankin
Well-known member
Chip was nice enough to host Paradox, JDub, Puck and myself at his 'cottage' in NH this weekend. It was a manly weekend, no women were involved, except Britney! 
(Chip's puppy)
Friday we did some 'trail work' (in Chip's yard), and climbed mighty Mount Agassiz, not far from his house.
Friday afternoon, the full cast of characters arrived, and it seemed everyone had brought a pound or more of bacon! We discussed what to do with it, and agreed eating it was the best course of action. Alas, we gave it a good try, but we failed to consume it all. We also had a few adult beverages during the course of the weekend. Anyway...
Saturday morning it was cool and beautiful outside. We finally decided about 5 minutes before we left that we were doing to do the Kinsmans from the west. I have never taken this route, so I thought it was a good plan. We left the trailhead around 8:20 and started up a trail that soon turned into an old road. It passed an old maple sugar shack, and soon afterwards, began climbing fairly steeply up the mountain. After about an hour, we had already gained 1400', with just a patch or 2 of snow here and there. About this time, we came to the spur path for Bald Knob, so we decided to go check it out. It was well worth it! The views were great. We could see all the way over to Mansfield, and down south to Moosilauke. And of course, UP towards the Kinsmans. We still had almost 2000' of climbing to do, so we tore ourselves away from the lookout with the promise of even better views up high.
Around 3000', we came to a huge ice flow that crossed the trail and filled it in as high as we could see, so we all put on traction aids. We left them on till we returned to this point a few hours later. Above the ice flow, there was largely snow covering the trail, increasing slowly to the point where there was at least a foot of hard packed snow. We never post-holed, so the micro-spikes were a good choice. Speaking of marks in the snow, there were a LOT of bear and moose tracks going up the trail. The bear turned back after a while, but the moose made it all the way to the top! After about 3 hours, we made it to the summit of North Kinsman. There is a ledge just east of the summit that has great views, including a young man hanging around who turned out to be Dunbar! Nice to run into you! Another ledge just below the first one (reached by a short, easy herd path) offers views down to Kinsman Pond. We took a brief break here before resuming the trek to South Kinsman. Before we knew it, we were over at the other summit, and enjoying a slightly different aspect of the views.
Here, we decided to split up, with Chip, Paradox and JDub heading south to do what was perceived to be a slightly easier hike to a more southerly trailhead (Reel Brook), and Puck and I heading back the way we came. Since we thought we had to hike a little farther and drive to meet the other 3, we hustled back up to North K, and back down the trail in about 1.8 hours, covering about 5 miles in the process. We drove down to the southern trailhead and waited, and waited, ... and waited....
It turned out Chip had twisted his ankle, and that the route, while coming out 500 feet higher, was actually longer than the route we took. After about an hour we were able to communicate with Paradox via cell phone, and he apprised us of the situation. Eventually he showed up, with Chip following a few minutes later. Chip was not real happy, but eventually every one was drinking a beer back at his house, and we laughed it off.
Speaking of beer, we met peakbagger at the Woodstock Station for beers and had an enjoyable meal. Paradox found out that 'Death by Burger' is a HUGE sandwich! He was hungry, but I don't think he finished 1/3 of the massive burger!
Sunday morning, we worked on the bacon again, and said our goodbyes. I at least had a great time, and I hope everyone else did as well!
Other people have better pictures, I'm sure, but here are a few from my cell-phone camera.
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/k1.jpg - Bear Prints
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/k2.jpg - Franconias from North Kinsman
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/k3.jpg - Kinsman Pond from North Kinsman
(Chip's puppy)Friday we did some 'trail work' (in Chip's yard), and climbed mighty Mount Agassiz, not far from his house.
Friday afternoon, the full cast of characters arrived, and it seemed everyone had brought a pound or more of bacon!
We discussed what to do with it, and agreed eating it was the best course of action. Alas, we gave it a good try, but we failed to consume it all. We also had a few adult beverages during the course of the weekend. Anyway...Saturday morning it was cool and beautiful outside. We finally decided about 5 minutes before we left that we were doing to do the Kinsmans from the west. I have never taken this route, so I thought it was a good plan. We left the trailhead around 8:20 and started up a trail that soon turned into an old road. It passed an old maple sugar shack, and soon afterwards, began climbing fairly steeply up the mountain. After about an hour, we had already gained 1400', with just a patch or 2 of snow here and there. About this time, we came to the spur path for Bald Knob, so we decided to go check it out. It was well worth it! The views were great. We could see all the way over to Mansfield, and down south to Moosilauke. And of course, UP towards the Kinsmans. We still had almost 2000' of climbing to do, so we tore ourselves away from the lookout with the promise of even better views up high.
Around 3000', we came to a huge ice flow that crossed the trail and filled it in as high as we could see, so we all put on traction aids. We left them on till we returned to this point a few hours later. Above the ice flow, there was largely snow covering the trail, increasing slowly to the point where there was at least a foot of hard packed snow. We never post-holed, so the micro-spikes were a good choice. Speaking of marks in the snow, there were a LOT of bear and moose tracks going up the trail. The bear turned back after a while, but the moose made it all the way to the top! After about 3 hours, we made it to the summit of North Kinsman. There is a ledge just east of the summit that has great views, including a young man hanging around who turned out to be Dunbar! Nice to run into you! Another ledge just below the first one (reached by a short, easy herd path) offers views down to Kinsman Pond. We took a brief break here before resuming the trek to South Kinsman. Before we knew it, we were over at the other summit, and enjoying a slightly different aspect of the views.
Here, we decided to split up, with Chip, Paradox and JDub heading south to do what was perceived to be a slightly easier hike to a more southerly trailhead (Reel Brook), and Puck and I heading back the way we came. Since we thought we had to hike a little farther and drive to meet the other 3, we hustled back up to North K, and back down the trail in about 1.8 hours, covering about 5 miles in the process. We drove down to the southern trailhead and waited, and waited, ... and waited....
It turned out Chip had twisted his ankle, and that the route, while coming out 500 feet higher, was actually longer than the route we took.
After about an hour we were able to communicate with Paradox via cell phone, and he apprised us of the situation. Eventually he showed up, with Chip following a few minutes later. Chip was not real happy, but eventually every one was drinking a beer back at his house, and we laughed it off. Speaking of beer, we met peakbagger at the Woodstock Station for beers and had an enjoyable meal. Paradox found out that 'Death by Burger' is a HUGE sandwich! He was hungry, but I don't think he finished 1/3 of the massive burger!
Sunday morning, we worked on the bacon again, and said our goodbyes. I at least had a great time, and I hope everyone else did as well!
Other people have better pictures, I'm sure, but here are a few from my cell-phone camera.
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/k1.jpg - Bear Prints
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/k2.jpg - Franconias from North Kinsman
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/k3.jpg - Kinsman Pond from North Kinsman
