Don’t hike 18 miles in the Whites, carrying a 30 lb pack and expect to feel good afterward! Especially don’t do it over the Kinsman Mountains. Youch!

Rockhound and I started down Moosilauke @ 7:30 in the morning. The descent was beautiful with a continuous waterfall running down the left side of the trail the whole way. It was also a 1800 ft. drop in 1.5 miles. The rest of the morning walk took some energy, but it wasn’t bad at all. The Whites are beautiful and it is just a pleasure to have cool stuff to look at the entire way!

We lunched with Skyline & Sundance at Eliza Brook Shelter before attacking South Kinsman. What a trail! I have been using my hiking poles for 1800+ miles and today was the first time they hampered me as much as helped me. We scrambled up the rocks, pulling ourselves up on roots, trees & rocks. Near the summit, the mist came in and the wind buffeted us with 40+ mph gusts. There was a fun ½ mile stretch across the top, then we started down.

The Kinsman Trail uses wood steps anchored to metal bars driven into the rocks. There must be over 100 of these steps and the are all necessary. The rocks are grippy granite, but 10 foot long, 30-degree rock faces are common. Want a challenge? Try this trail!

By the time we reached Lonesome Lake Hut, we were done. Our energy was gone, we were broken, bruised, and beaten. Good thing Lonesome Lake is beautiful! I bought a handful of fresh cookies for a dollar and we hung out for 15 minutes before heading down the AT to meet Heather. She was only 5 minutes from the top, coming up fast, but rather than turn around and enjoy the lake together we headed for the car.

We hiked for almost 4 miles to the car, then Heather drove us across the state to Jackson/North Conway NH where we cleaned up and got some good food & drink at the Moat Brewpub. Rockhound then drove us to our B&B, Inn at Ellis River, dropped us off, and kept the car for his own adventures.

Wednesday is a much needed and desired zero day. 1800 miles down, 4 months of beard on face, and less than a month of walking to go.