Date: 2009-08-27
From: Elixa Brook Shelter

To: Franconia Notch Bike Path
Miles today: 8.9
Weather: broken clouds

Holy cow! Another perfect day on the Appalchian trail. It was pretty chilly last night, but I have my winter gear back and was able to stay toasty warm! Woke up at 6 am with the sun. Laid there until 6:30 .... packed up and out at 7:30. I did wear a long sleeve capilene under my short sleeve hiking shirt, and winter hat, to start the day.The hike up Mt Kinsman was just plain fun. I felt like a 12-year-old again. I really feel at home climbing .... especially on rocks .... and that's what it was.I have a theory on this too! I think it has to do with youthful imprinting. I think I mentioned this before that my parents used to take us kids to a place simply called "The Rocks" back in PA. There was also a rock wall that students used to climb to get up to the high school football field at Miller Sibley Field. And me and my friends used to try to scale a rock face along the railroad tracks across the river from the elementary school. I like climbing! The trail was climbing and rock scrambling where you had to use your hands, your feet, your poles, your knees, and whatever else worked to get you up the mountain. Just plain fun .... as long as you're not in a hurry.Along the way up, the trail opened up to cross a field by a pond. Instant verification at that moment that I was the luckiest guy on Earth to be there, and on this journey. Perfectly sunny day, beautiful pond, and right ahead of me - perfectly visible - rock cliffs on Mt Kinsman .... my destination. Just before reaching the summit of the South Peak, Start Trek, another thru-hiker, had caught up to me .... as I was in a precarious position trying to get up a rock .... he said he waited until I got up on the rock before saying anything as he didn't want to be the cause of my mishap by breaking my concentration. Glad he waited! We hiked the rest of the day together. We had met a couple of weeks ago.So we get to the South Peak Summit and take pictures of each other, with each other's camera. I have a snack and hang out a bit. It's 9:30 and it's still chilly and there's a good breeze blowing. So I decide to move on after about 20 minutes. On to the North Peak.There is a spectacular outlook rock on the North Summit. Perfect view of all the mountains we'll be climbing here shortly. Very cool. Start Trek looks up and sees a rainbow in the middle of the sky .... got a good picture.I can not begin to describe the beauty of the mountainscape I've hiked through over the last couple of days .... huge mountain chains, cascading water features, gorgeous forests.I could have stayed up on the North Peak for weeks. Wind more calm and much warmer now. Nice spot!! On the way back down the mountain, I came to my first hut, the Lonesome Lake Hut. Star Trek and I stopped in to see what the Huts are like. We had a couple of bowls of soup for lunch, and a couple of brownies! Each hut usually serves soup and has baked goods for sale during the day. The cool feature of this hut location was Lonesome Lake, located about 50 yards down the A.T. from the Hut. Absolutely beautiful place.I have been running into hiking groups from several universities: Univeristy of New Hampshire, Harvard, and Yale. I ran into the Yale group again today at the hut. A lot of day hikers out today .... busy trail .... but fun busy.Star Trek was heading into a hostel tonight. I was not planning to stay there tonight, but I did need to get some supplies at some point to be able to make it to Gorham .... remember my "hybrid" plan. So, I stopped a couple of miles short of my originally planned destination and went into the hostel. Bonus ..... I got a shower, did laundry, and got the food I'll need to get to Gorham! I'm set now. Oh yeah, pizza for dinner. The last 3 days have been simply awesome! Looking forward to the next 6! Perfect day on the Appalachian Trail. Oh yeah, over 1800 miles today.