Kinsman Notch 1804.9 to Interstate 93 1821.2 (16.3 miles, 795.8 total miles)
My alarm went off at 5AM, and I managed to lounge around till about 5:30, when I started packing up. Sunshine, Scott, Chill Out, and another hiker named Keystone were all heading out on the 6AM shuttle with me.
I didn’t get coffee till 5:55, freshly made, and mixed in cold water so I could down it real quick. I ate my breakfast sandwich in the van as we drove, and Legion gave us some last pieces of guidance and advice for the Whites coming up.
My mind drifted as we drove, and I realized I had been thinking about Tika a lot yesterday. She was another cockatiel that I had for several years. I’d had a dream about her the night before, that she’d flown away and I hadn’t been able to get her back.
I woke up and remembered she is home and safe, but it still left a lingering feeling with me. I’d spent so much time thinking about Frankie on this trip, that I hadn’t thought about her as much in a little while.
After Frankie passed, and Tika was still very young, her and I lived together by ourselves for just over a year. She spent a lot of time in her cage, alone, because I was always working a lot.
I limited my social life quite a bit to try to spend as much time with her as I possibly could, but she really needed to be around other birds. Cockatiels are flock animals, but I couldn’t give that to her.
I had ended up with birds due to circumstances out of my control. I loved them dearly, and they helped me get my life together and learn how to take care of myself. Birds are difficult pets to have, though, and I didn’t want to continue the cycle of always having them. It really limited my options on what I could do in life.
If it was the best thing for Tika, I would have kept her forever, but I had an amazing opportunity for my avian vet to adopt her. She could live in a house with many other birds, and always be taken care of by an actual bird vet.
It was such a hard decision, though, and something I realize I haven’t fully felt my feelings about. I spent some time last night before bed just thinking about her and reminiscing. It felt like a lead weight on my chest at first, but it loosened up after a while.
It is an open adoption, and I can visit her anytime. She is clearly super happy there, and I know in my heart I made the right decision. Being around Sunshine with what she is going through with her dog helped me unlock those feelings I was holding in.
We got to the same trailhead as the day before at 6:45. I said bye to Legion, and thanked him for everything. We turned right instead of left at the trail sign, and were hiking northbound once more, this time with our full packs, minus a little food.
When we got to the first road crossing, just a couple minutes in, I saw a lot of tall grass and stopped to put on bug spray. Sunshine wanted to hike ahead, since I was a little faster, and she disappeared into the woods.
I hadn’t even noticed there was a steep uphill out of the notch to start, and I hiked slowly as I warmed up. I saw poison ivy all over the place, and tried to avoid it. The original poison ivy on my leg was getting better, but it kept spreading with new spots appearing.
After the steep initial incline was over, things got easier for a couple miles before the mile climb up to Wolf Mountain. I stopped for a quick break on the way when I saw I had cell service, and saw another hiker named Shepard.
Shepard and I leapfrogged each other a few times, when one or the other of us was breaking. At Wolf, there was a sign to an overlook, but someone had written “if you can see over trees”, so I skipped that one.
The trail had lots of rocks and roots, so it required keeping my eyes focused on where I was walking. A little after the summit descent, I found Shepard standing on the side of the trail.
He’d just slipped on a rock traversing a large, muddy area, and had sunk into mud up to his knees. I lamented with him, and took the long way around the mud pits.
I let him go ahead again and, after a 3 mile downhill, I arrived at Eliza Brook Shelter, where Shepard already was taking a break.
There was no sign of Sunshine, and I sat down to get ready for the assault on Kinsman. I had been warned it was rough and rugged, but knew I’d done it before. I just didn’t remember this climb specifically.
I ate cherry pop tarts, sour gummy worms, and drank propel and crystal light. I was going to power myself up the mountain with sugar and caffeine.
I chatted with Shepard for a bit. He was in the Wild Hawgs, which was also Grndr’s trail family. I found it really interesting I’d run into Grndr right before the Whites, when the last time I saw him, just into NJ, we had spoken about the spiritual energy of the White Mountains.
Another interesting coincidence is that Shepard had met Wizard, Quarter Tank’s friend and the flip flopper we’d hiked with in CT/MA. He’d met him on the Amtrak train while Shepard was making a side trip from the trail.
I took off after 20 minutes, and started making my way up the less steep part of the climb. I crossed Eliza Brook, and stopped at the first waterfall. I collected two liters of water, since I’d be having lunch on the mountain and wasn’t sure about the quality of the next source.
It was a 3 mile climb, and I put on Razia’s Shadow, a musical album I used to listen to years ago, but Mountain Goat had reminded me of the other day. It kept my mind entertained as the trail became steeper and more rugged.
After Harrington Pond, about halfway up the mountain, things became more challenging. One mile to where the top of the mountain flattened out, there was 1000 feet of elevation gain, and several rock scrambles and hand over hand climbing for most of the time.
My trekking poles were getting in the way, but I could see views through the trees as I reached higher elevation. It was hot, intense work and definitely slowed me down. However, I made my way by just putting my head down and going.
I scraped the poison ivy on my leg several times on rocks and tree branches. There were pointy and sharp pine branches sticking into the trail, and I nearly hit my head on downed trees several times while I was climbing, which had happened to Halfway a day or two before.
Finally, I reached the place where the trail leveled off. I knew Sunshine was ahead by then because we were texting. I thought she was another 1.2 further at a view, but was happy to see she was taking in the view from South Kinsman Mountain as I crested the ridge.
We were a little before the summit still, but I didn’t care. The 2 mile or so climb had taken an hour and a half, which I was happy with, considering how much climbing had been involved.
It was 12:30, and we hung out on the exposed rock eating lunch and talking about things. We’d both been going through a very therapeutic experience the last couple days, and I stand by my statement that the Whites have a particular spiritual energy to them.
I think we were meant to meet so we could both process and heal from the pain of loving animals that aren’t meant to be in our lives forever. I hadn’t realized I’d been shoving my feelings down that I had about Tika, and I was glad to be able to start processing them.
We had a fantastic view of Mt Moosilauke just ahead, we could see into Lincoln, and over to Franconia Ridge and the other Whites. We could also see the huge storm clouds over the horizon, hulking menacingly over the mountains I wanted to climb tomorrow.
Sunshine headed out a little after 1:00, to stay ahead of me, the same strategy Shrek and I had used except this time I was the slightly faster one, which did feel nice.
I left a bit after her, and put on a podcast to hike to. We had 4-6 hours left of hiking for the day, which was 6 miles, including climbing down and up to the north peak, then a rather steep descent of 1.5 miles to a stream.
The trail stayed rocky with lots of climbs both up and down the mountains. I saw various day hikers on the other side, climbing the north peak, since there were two popular spots to stay on that side, and it was a Sunday.
The rocky climbs down had the benefit of me being able to throw my trekking poles down the ledge and get them out of the way. I had to slide on my butt sometimes to get down some steep sections.
After the stream, things got easier. I called Baked Potato and chatted with him for a mile when I reached the flat section before Lonesome Lake.
The call dropped at the hut, the first of the AMC huts that were scattered around the Whites. They are very expensive, but do offer work for stay options for thru hikers, depending on what time of day it is.
Pockets and I did a couple WFS last time, but we were very late in the season, and a lot of the huts had actually already closed for the year by then.
Lonesome Lake Hut is right on the trail, so I popped in and spent $4 to get a bowl of bean soup, a slice of homemade bread, and a cup of coffee. There is always hot food at the huts, which is the other big benefit.
I scarfed everything down and headed down to the lake, where I saw Sunshine and Catchup hanging out on the dock. It was only 3:40, and I asked her if we were going swimming
Catchup had already gone in, and there were lots of people around as well. I had been thinking about swimming in that lake for a while, and we only had 3 easy looking miles to go.
I stripped down to my bra and underwear, and we got in the water. It was amazing, a pristine mountain lake, water not too cold, and a gorgeous view of Franconia Ridge backdropping the scene.
After a lovely swim, we sat on the dock in the sun to dry off, and contemplated the following day. The weather was looking awful, with storms all day and possibly the next day.
The problem was we were trying to hike Franconia Ridge, which was miles of hiking above tree line, totally exposed and dangerous in the wrong weather.
I had been planning on just toughing it out and hiking through the rain, but it was looking less feasible as the hourly forecast kept rolling in for the next day. I started to get upset, but we hiked out at 4:30 before I could dwell on it too much.
The original plan had been to get to the road between 5:30 to 7:30, but I thought we could make it by 5:30, even with an extra hour long break. Catchup led, and I followed behind Sunshine, listening to music and letting them talk.
Catchup wanted to get in on our shuttle to town, so none of us was leaving till we all got to the road, so we just hiked together. It was my first time hiking with more than one person at a time since the Cult.
It was nice, and basically a stroll through the park after the rest of the day. A nice, gentle downhill that was rocky, but got easier as we went along.
At one part we had to jump several feet across two rocks going over a brook. I was scared of falling or hurting myself, but I made it fine. We got to the road at 5:33, and I called the shuttle.
We did have to walk off the exit ramp to the highway, and wait a while to get picked up. I started ruminating on how much time I’d taken off so far this month, and how I just wanted to hike at this point, but the weather wasn’t cooperating.
I tried to pull myself out of that, and talked tattoos with the other two while we sat on the side of the road. Our ride showed up, and we did the now extremely familiar drive to North Woodstock to drop off Catchup, and back to Lincoln.
Chet was there to greet us at his house with the hostel attached. It is a modest setup, and just as I remembered. There was another couple there, Paddington and Rocco, that we’d seen at Hikers Welcome a day or two ago.
We said hi to Chet, a truly sweet man, and talked with him for a few minutes before walking over to El Charro Mexican restaurant, right near the Riverwalk Resort.
Catchup got a ride over and joined us for margaritas and food. El Charro was delicious, but it felt like I didn’t have my hiker hunger anymore, so I didn’t eat that much.
I talked it out with the others, about how I was feeling upset that I’d basically taken half of July off and now had to take more time off due to the weather. I felt like I wasted perfect hiking days taking zeros, and was feeling discouraged.
I’d had perfect weather all trip until I got to the Whites. I was mad at myself for the decisions I’d made, and indulging in self pity.
Eventually, I moved through the emotions and knew I couldn’t change the past I could only make the best of things from here. For whatever reason, life just wanted me to rest this month.
I still had plenty of time, and was ahead of schedule for when a flip flopper is “supposed” to flip down to Harpers Ferry. The other consideration is that is part of the positive of a flip flop, a wider window to complete the hike.
I always have trouble when things don’t go my way, that is a bad habit of mine. However, we were going to make the best of our unplanned zero day, or days. We were going to play mini golf before the rain, go to the movies, and maybe I’d even get a pedicure.
The trail is honestly about a lot more than hiking and, as Chet mentioned, experiencing the towns along the way is a big part of the community aspect of the hike, and supports local economies.
I was still a very strong hiker, I could feel it in what I’d done yesterday. I’ve never been very good at slowing down. I’m always very intense and trying to do more than I should. Maybe I should take this lesson about doing less and enjoy it for what it is.