North and South Kinsman, #37 & 38 of round 2 of the NH48

There are a few ways to Hike the Kinsmans. Sitting across the street from the famous Franconia Ridge, "That" side of the mountain tends to see some pretty heavy traffic. (a popular route is from the Lafayette place campground, and follows the Basin-Cascade train to the infamous Fishin Jimmy.) Another pretty horrible route takes you over Cannon, and then over a rather horrendous stretch of trail and a couple sub peaks called the Cannon Balls. If you take that route, don't be like us and try it in a very hot day. It's really hard and not awesome when you are dying of heat and swatting at horse flies. 

Anyway, I digress. To take the road somewhat less travelled, simply drive to the "other" side and take the Mt Kinsman trail.

We did this hike on June 10th on a fairly decent weather day. When we did this hike last year it was completely socked in- just one big cloud. 

Honestly, with the exception of having to cross several streams (all of which were running high due to the previous days rain) the hike is pretty uneventful. 

A fairly easy start on what must have been a logging road eventually turns into a fairly long and steep grind. None of the shenanigans of Fishin Jimmy, just a long walk uphill in the (very pretty and mossy and flowery) woods. 

After about 3.75 miles you'll intersect with Kinsman Ridge Trail and find your first view. 

About a half mile later you'll come to the blink and you'll miss it summit of North peak. There is a little overlook right in the vicinity that we did not check out, as a few of the only other hikers of the day were out on it. 

Then, you walk another mile up some rocks and down some rocks (hahah)

And then you'll find your throne on the summit. (FYI) maybe 200 yards or so before the summit is an overlook that VERY easily could be mistaken for the summit if it is cloudy. The first time we did this mountain we almost stopped early because we could not see the slightly higher summit. 

If you're lucky, you'll see some gliders out taking a spin. 

We took a quick detour on the way down to check out Bald Peak which is DEFINITELY worth doing!

Anyway, after that we scooted right down.

To be honest, this hike was a low key mess because I ended up having enough cell service to deal in real time with a multi hour work emergency that took place when we were as far away as possible. Fortunately, all was resolved prior to us getting off the trail but it was not a great way to spend a couple hours!

This hike crossed this off the list for this round of the 48, for Spring and for June. 

Stats:

Miles: 10.6

Elevation: 3979

Time: 5:44:27

Fun: Sara: 4 (just a lame day)

Eric (7) unaffected by work crisis