Date: 2015-07-15
From: Stealth camp past Mt Wolf

To: North Woodstock, NH
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I hadn't realized it yesterday evening, but we have set our tent near a pond. The frogs croaked throughout the night, making sounds akin to a taut elastic covering being sprung.It was still raining. We continued through the steep rock climbs and descents until we arrived at the shelter to gather water. Then, we had Kinsman Mountain to summit. It seemed like such a tame climb - it wasn't.While it was shorter than Moosilauke, the hike up was extremely challenging. I had to ditch my hiking poles and use my hands to hoist myself up every single boulder and rocky wall. There were many several-feet-high-and-almost-vertical rock obstacles. The surfaces were all slick and I slipped forward a couple of times, and narrowly avoided smashing my face against the rocks. We arrived at the summit. The rain had stopped but there was a dense, gray fog blocking our view.The wind was sharp and freezing, though at least it dried our wet clothes moderately well. The sun tried to pierce through the barrage of fog and we occasionally felt its heat. We took refuge behind some rocks and ate a snack. I noticed that we finally had reception so I took the opportunity to update the journal and send out a few texts and emails. My teeth were clattering after a while so we headed back down.The profile elevation shows a steep and continuous descent. However, in real life, the terrain was seemingly flat, then would drop like a cliff, then flat again, then the drop, and so on; the line drawn in the guidebook is only the average of these variations. I don't enjoy butt-blazing along slimy, cold rocks, especially when gangs of slugs decide to hang out there. The backside of my pants was caked in mud and debris.We arrived luckily at the Lonesome Lake Hut. The huts in the Whites, unlike the shelters and campsites, are staffed with a crew. For a price, you can sleep in the huts and receive dinner and breakfast. Thru-hikers generally do no want to pay for this service (it's really expensive), but crew members may give out chores to complete in exchange for a floor space to sleep on and leftovers ("work-for-stay"). The required work varies. I have heard of hikers having to scrub dishes for two hours and I have heard of some who only had to tell a story of their thru-hike to the paying hut users (cheap entertainement!) Work-for-stay is at the discretion of the crew and is generally only available for 2-3 thru-hikers per day, making it a competitive position. I don't know if Shrugs and I will try to work-for-stay, but, in the meantime, we did visit today's hut to buy some homemade cake and hot chocolate. They also serve soup!It was a nice break. The hut was really cool: solar panels, running water, a fully functional kitchen and it was all very clean. There is also lots of information about the national park's wildlife and plantlife and other pertinent subjects.We hiked the final 3 miles with ease as the terrain was very mild. We arrived at Franconia Notch parking and the road was deserted. It took a few minutes for only two cars to pass. We were starting to despair when a car suddenly pulled over. The young couple who very kindly picked us up dropped us off at the motel. We did our resupply, laundry (which was useless as our clothes still smell horrible) and the journal updates.- Axon