North and South Kinsman (#5 & #6)

Date of Hike: 12/31/09

Lonesome Lake & Around Lonesome Lake Trail: 1.5 miles
Fishin' Jimmy Trail: 2.0 miles
Kinsman Ridge Trail: 3.0 miles
Fishin' Jimmy Trail: 2.0 miles
Lonesome Lake Trail & Around Lonesome Lake: 1.5 miles
Total Miles: around 10 miles (elevation gain 3,800 feet)

Trip Report:
- Left RI at 5am, stopped at the Old Bridle Path trailhead to see if the pole I left behind was still there but it wasn't, hopefully it found a nice home!
- When I pulled into the Lafayette Campground parking lot I accidently tried pulling into the left side of the lot, not so smart, eventhough I have 4 wheel drive my car sunk into the packed snow and got jammed and stuck.  Dug out around my tires with my Ice Axe, put in reverse, drive, reverse, drive, slammed it one last time in reverse and got the hell out of there and parked where I was supposed to be!
- On Trail at 8:15am finished around 1:15pm, Temperature 15-20 degrees, no wind!  Decent views of Franconia Ridge, Mount Moosilauke, and into Vermont
- Stopped in at Lonesome Lake Shelter to change into warm clothes.  A few of the Hut caretakers were there along with a family with two kids
- Wore snowshoes the whole day on a very well packed trail, the Tubbs Flex Alp 24's are money, so far they haven't come loose and take a beating and keep on getting better!
- Ran into two people at South Kinsman summit, I changed into dry clothes again and took a bunch of pictures, froze my fingers up pretty good until I put my mitts on and I warmed up in a few minutes!
- Started to snow as soon as I descended, ran into two ladies and their cool dogs who were very happy to be hiking and playing in the snowy trail
- Lots of people hiking up to spend New Year's at Lonesome Lake hut
- On way back down Lonesome Lake trail I spotted an old snowshoe bushwack and decided to re-break it.  Tons of fun sliding down through two feet of snow until my glove got caught on a tree branck and sent me 360 into a white-wash!
- Back down at the trailhead there were another 2 cars stuck in the snow for a few minutes...WMNF really should put up a large sign saying NO CARS! Not a little florescent pink laminated 8.5 by 11 sign that says "no higway vehicles"...what the hell does that really mean!!!

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South Kinsman Summit Looking back toward North Kinsman

South Kinsman Summit with Franconia Ridge to the East

Mount Liberty and Mount Flume

Franconia Ridge (Lafayette, Truman, Lincoln, Little Haystack)

Kinsman Ridge Trail (AT)

Lonesome Lake Hut

Mount Lafayette and Mount Lincoln (#3 & #4)

Date of Hike: 12/24/09

Old Bridle Path: 2.9 miles
Greenleaf Trail: 1.1 miles
Franconia Ridge Trail: 1.7 miles
Falling Waters Trail: 3.0 miles
Total Miles: 8.9 (3,9000 elevation gain)

Trip Report
- On trail at 7:45am, finished at 1:15pm.  Weather at trailhead was 20 degrees, stayed in the 20's for most of the hike with wind chills in the teens above treeline.  Winds were out of the North at 30-40 MPH.  Temps rose to mid 30's near the end of hike
- Excellent views to the north, east, and south.  Views to the west had an undercast at about 3,000 to 3,500 feet creating a wave of clouds crashing into Cannon Mountain
- Used snow shoes until greenleaf hut, then switched to microspikes, then put crampons and ice axe for last half mile to summit. Kept crampons on until Little Haystack which was an overkill, they weren't needed at all
- My fingers got chilly from hut to summit until I switched over to my mitts which for the second strait day worked wonders!
- Views on ridge were ridiculously awesome, Pemi was snow frosted over above 3,500 feet. View of presidential range rising above the South and North Twin were crystal clear
- Passed three hikers on ridge doing the loop from the opposite direction, one of them (Rocket21) gave me a card for the website New England Trail Conditions (click link to view!) which has trail conditions and much more!
- Descended Falling Waters Trail very qucikly as snow covers all the rocks on the trail that slow you down in the summer
- Forgot one of my mom's old hiking poles at Lafayette summit, not to bummed about it as they always seem to get in the way!

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View from Old Bridle Path

Lonsome Lake, North and South Kinsman

Greenleaf Hut and Mount Lafayette

Undercast wave of clouds crashing into Cannon Mountain

View of Galehead, Twin Mountains, & Presidential Range

Franconia Ridge

Mount Washington

Owl's Head and the Bonds

West Bond, Bond, and Bondcliff

Presidential Range from Little Haystack Mountain

Greenleaf Hut

Mount Lincoln from Little Haystack

Mount Hancock and South Hancock (#1 & #2)

Date of Hike: 12/23/09

Hancock Notch Trail: 1.8 miles
Cedar Brook Trail: .7 miles
Hancock Loop Trail: 4.8 miles
Cedar Brook Trail: .7 miles
Hancock Notch Trail: 1.8 miles
Total Miles: 9.8 (2,650 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- Left RI at 4:30am, on trail at 7:30am, finsihed at 11:45am
- Weather at trailhead was 5 degrees, and stayed around 5 degrees for much of hike, back at car it was a balmy 12 degrees!  There was no wind to speak of for all of the hike. Cloud cover swamped higher summits.  Decent view of the backside of the Bonds and the Scar Ridge
- Trail conditons had a hard-packed snow shoe trail that I barebooted with no post-holeing for all of hike
- Descending South Hancock the trail is to smooth making for perfect butt sliding conditions if careful! Crampons and microspikes could have been used here to be on safe side
- All water crossing on the Cedar Brook trail are 90% snow bridged

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Mount Hancock Summit

Hancock Loop Trail

Frozen over water crossing on Cedar Brook Trail

Osceola's from Hancock Trailhead

48 - 4,000 Footers in 2009

On September 6th I completed my first round of the AMC 48 White Mountain Four-Thousand footers. I next thought about trying to hike all of them in the upcoming fall season, but I had a few weekends with other plans that would keep me from accomplishing that goal, plus living 3 plus hours away, and hiking mostly on weekends made me realize this would have to wait until fall 2010. However looking at my list I noticed I had bagged 23 new summits this year alone since May to complete the list, also I had done my usual Presidential Traverse which knocked off an additional 7 and a few other hikes I had done also knocked off a few more. So in-between revisiting my favorite trails and exploring new trails in the Presidential and Pemigewasset Wildernesses I decided to just do the remaining mountains to complete the 48 in one year. It's not my second time completing the list but I thought it would be interesting to do it.

Breakdown of 48 - 4,000 footers in 2009

Date of Hikes : May 25th through December 6th

May 25 - Tecumseh (5.1 miles)
June 7 - North & Middle Tripyramid (11.1. miles)
June 13 - Bondcliff, Bond, West Bond, Zealand, South Twin, North Twin, Galehead (21.8 miles)
June 14 - Garfield, Lafayette, Lincoln, Liberty, Flume (17.2 miles)
July 3 - Mount Hanckock & South Hancock (9.8 miles)
July 18 - South Carter & Middle Carter (11.8 miles)
July19 - North Kinsman, South Kinsman, Cannon Mountain (14.0 miles)
August 8 - Jackson, Pierce, Eisenhower, Monroe, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison (23.0 miles)
August 16 - Isolation (20.7 miles, hiked up Great Gulf to Mount Washington, then down Davis Path to Isolation)
August 28 - Owl's Head (29.8 miles, hiked Owl's Head, then up to South Twin, Bond and Bondcliff)
September 6 - Waumbek, Moriah, Carrigain (26.2 miles)
October 6 - East Osceola & Osceola (15 miles, also hiked East Pond Trail to make a loop)
October 17 - Mount Hale (25.7, Started from the Kanc, also hiked Mount Zealand)
November 21 - Mount Field, Willey, Tom (17.1 miles, Including Ethan Pond trail through Zealand Notch)
November 22 - Cater Dome, Wildcat A Peak, Wildcat D Peak (14.7 miles, hiked Mount Height and walked on Route 16 back to car)
November 29 - Mount Moosilauke (7.5 miles)
December 5 - Mount Whiteface & Passaconaway (11.5 miles)
December 6 - Mount Cabot (10 miles)

Total Miles (292, elevation gain around 90,000)
Averages (16.2 miles per hike, 5,000 elevation gain per hike)

Favorite Pics

Mount Tecemseh (on far left) Osceola's

West Bond from Bondcliff Summit

Mount Monroe and the Cog from Mount Clay Loop

South Twin Summit

Owl's Head and the Franconia Ridge

Star Lake and Mount Madison

Lakes of the Clouds and Mount Washington

Lakes of the Clouds and Mount Monroe

Tuckerman and Huntington Ravine from Mount Height

Mount Jefferson Summit Cairn

Mount Jefferson, Adams, and Madison from Washington

Mount Cabot

Date of Hike: 12/6/09

Bunnell Notch Trail: 3.1 miles
Kilkenny Ridge Trail: 3.8 miles
Bunnell Notch Trail: 3.1 miles
Total Miles: 10 (elevation gain 3000 feet)

Trip Report:
- On trail at 9:15am, finished around 2pm
- Weather was mid twenty's at trailhead, falling to mid teens at summit.  Cloud cover above 3500 feet until later in the afternoon.  2-4 inches of fresh powder on lower elevations and covering week old half foot snow above 2500 feet.  No wind until approaching summit then it was going at a pretty good clip above the trees
- Trails had a few small blowdowns, moved a few out of the way, some to big and had to walk over or around.  Bunnell Notch trail has boot sucking mud hidden beneath fresh snow.  Brook crossing was running high (about a half foot over rock steps) had to cross on a fallen tree about 50 feet up stream
- Cabot Cabin is a pretty cool place, it has a tiny room with a bench table, and a tiny room with four bunks which do not look to comfortable!
- I wanted to do a loop over to Mount Horn back to the car via Unknown Pond Trail, but with limited views, a long ride back to RI ahead of me, and the gate being closed at 4pm I decided not to
- Ran into only two groups of people, a group of about six doing Waumbek and Cabot, and a group of three trying to bag Cabot but were running behind on time
- This hike completed all 48-4,000 footers in the past 6 months.  My goal in the future is to do single season completions, which I think I can do for Spring, definitely Summer and Fall, but probably not Winter because of the long drives from RI, short days, and of course expen$e$!
- First time hiking Mount Cabot since 1993, back then you COULD hike up the Mount Cabot Trail!!

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Kilkenny Ridge Trail Junction

Cabot Cabin

View from Bunnell Rock

Kilkenny Ridge from Route 110

Mount Whiteface and Passaconaway

Date of Hike: 12/5/09

Blueberry Ledge Trail: 3.9 miles
Rollins Trail: 2.4 miles
Mount Passaconaway Spur: 1.4 miles
Dicey's Mill Trail: 3.7 miles
Total Miles: 11.5 (elevation gain 3,900)

Trip Report:
- Left RI at 6:15am, on trail at 9:30am, finished at 2:15pm
- Weather was in the Low 20's to low 30's, no wind, pretty good views (50 miles) snow started above 3700 feet around noon
- Ran into only four people all day, passed one at beginning, then a couple on the one tough scramble on the ledges. and one guy doing the loop in the opposite direction near Whiteface summit.
- I enjoy the Blueberry Ledge trail, especially the steep ledges and the outlooks with the great views of Chocorua, Pasaconaway, and Mount Washington off in the distance. However the rest of this hike (Rollins trail to Mount Passaconaway) I find extremely boring!
- First mile descending Dicey's Mill trail I felt sluggish and weak. (maybe I was still a little off from the stomach bug I caught a few days before). I finally had enough of this and just started jogging down the mountain for a half mile until the water crossing and felt much better, except for the tiny few seconds of hallucinating of a black figure moving in front of me about 100 yard down trail.
- After hike the drive up to Gorham was pretty slow going. North Conway was mobbed with "Fat Tourists" and then Route 16 through Pinkham Notch had heavy snow falling, the car in front of me swerved off the road across the street from Pinkham Notch Visitor's Center right where the Lost Pond Trailhead is! I offered to help if there car couldn't get back up to the road but thankfully they were able to get back up to the road. Lucky for them they spun off the road at that exact spot, most places through this area have guard rails that they would have smashed into or worse, drop off's down into woods or cold, fast moving rivers.

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Trailhead sign from Ferncroft Parking Area

Mount Paugaus and Chocurua

Mount Passaconaway