I prefer my AT on the rocks - June 25/26

 1800 Miles Officially Hiked!

The past two days were pretty difficult for Team Nano, but also quite rewarding.  In two days, we hiked a little over 16 miles, which doesn't sound like much, but felt like quite the accomplishment to us.  We worked for every step of this section.  We hit a pretty significant milestone during this outing - we have officially hiked 1,800 miles of Appalachian Trail.  That's a lot of AT under Nano's feet.  On our first day of hiking we went a little over 7 miles.  It was very slow going.  The trail was extremely soggy (standing water along most of it) and we struggled to find any dirt free of rocks and roots to step on.  It's the kind of trail that seems like it's just waiting for you to lose focus and break a hiking pole or an ankle.      You have to watch every single step you take, and plan two steps in advance.  We were going at about 1mph, and we weren't sure how far we would get.  In the middle of the afternoon, we got to a shelter by a river. Since camping is only allowed in the vicinity of shelters in the White Mountains, we had a choice to make.  We could either stay there or hike 4 more miles up and over one of the taller Whites to the next shelter.  The weather forecast was calling for storms, and we thought hiking the wet rocks up a mountain in the rain was probably a bad idea.  So we set up camp by the river and called it an early day.  I think we made the right call, because after a quick dip in the river and starting dinner, the storm found us.  It rained pretty heavily and we were glad to have a good spot to wait it out. 

 Camp Nano by the river in the rain

The next day, the rain had stopped but the fog was thick and the trail was still very wet.  We got a bit of a treat though, because the first mile of hiking followed the river up the steep south side of Kinsman Mountain.  That meant we were hiking next to waterfalls for about an hour. 

 Trail Waterfall

We had about 3 miles to hike to the summit of Kinsman Mountain.  I am starting to discover a pattern that seems to describe 90% of the trails here in the White Mountains - steep rocks.  These trails would be tough even in perfect conditions.  After a heavy rain, when the steep rocks are covered in about a quarter inch of running water, they are even tougher.  Hooter discovered the key to hiking the Whites though - "Stay Focused."  Better advice could not be had. Climbing Kinsman was quite the task.  It was almost as steep as the north side of Moosilake, and just as rocky.  Often, we were crawling on our hands and knees and pulling ourselves up using tree limbs.  We had seen some hikers traveling with dogs along the trail, and all I could think was, if I was struggling up the rocks, how did the pups manage?  Every now and then, the trees would clear and we would get a glimpse of the summit through the fog.    

Our destination

It took up about 3 hours to get to the top of Kinsman.  1mph once again.  I think that's as fast as you are guaranteed to go here in the Whites.  When we reached the summit, it was completely fogged in.  It looked like something out of a horror movie, but getting there meant we had made it up and we thought it was beautiful. 

Foggy Summit of Mt Kinsman

The descent of Kinsman was just as steep and rocky.  It didn't really occur to me while I was hiking (probably because I was so focused on where I was going to put my feet from step to step), but looking back on it now, this kind of trail is legitimately dangerous.  Any pictures I could post would not really do justice to the steepness of the trail.  And with rocks and roots dominating the path, stable places to step are a rarity.  I'm glad that we were careful and took our time.  It's not hard to see how someone could fall and get hurt out here.  Tough going though it was, it was still beautiful.  And very rewarding when you complete it. 

The steep, wet rocks are our favorite...

 Treacherous River Crossing 

There was a very special treat waiting for us with three miles left to go in our hike.  For 125 years, the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) has maintained a series of "huts" here in the White Mountains for adventurers to use.  They have evolved over the years from nothing more than walls to the current wilderness palaces they are, complete with bunk houses, bathrooms, a full kitchen and a full time staff that maintains the hut, cooks meals, packs all the supplies up the mountain and offers talks and programs on the local habitats and mountain survivial (what a great summer job that would have been when I was in college).  To top it all off, the huts are largely powered by sustainable energy sources.  Unless you are one of the first two thru-hikers at the hut for the day and can get a work-for-stay deal, there is a (rather substantial by Trail standards) fee to stay at the Huts, but from what I saw they are worth every penny. The hut on our hike today was the Lonesome Lake Hut, one of the newer and more popular huts, since the 3 mile hike to it is relatively forgiving.  It was like Disney World for hikers and we thought we were in heaven.  It had started to rain on our way down Kinsman, so we stopped in to dry off and eat our lunch.  We were so temped to stay (lentil soup, salad, potato rolls, pork chop with homemade applesauce, bow tie pasta, broccoli and homemade dessert were on the menu), but we had to press on. 

 

Lonesome Lake Hut

Lonesome Lake Bunkrooms.  Real Mattresses and all.

Hut Kitchen

It rained for the rest of our hike down Kinsman, but we were in the woods so all we felt was a sprinkle.  As the Hut staff had promised us, the Trail south of the Hut was much more forgiving than the Trail we had put behind us, and we made much better time.  By the time we found Trail Angel at the bottom of the mountain, we were wet as drowned rats and probably just as smelly.  But we were happy to have explored another of the famous Whites.

Team Nano after 2 tough days