Date: 2011-07-01
From: High St, NH

To: NH112, Kinsman Notch,NH
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: light rain

Start High St, NH, mile 1783.9Stop NH 112, Kinsman Notch, NH, mile 1791.9Hiked 8 miles NorthboundSleep motelOld Goat's notes:Todays hike started with a major climb we hiked up 3500 feet in 3.9 miles. It felt like it would last forever but actually 2.5 hours to go up. We were shocked at how well we had done. The trail levels off near the top and our progress got even better. Also near the top the vegetation became non existent, we were above tree line. This is the first time northbound AT hikers do this. The lack of trees give a view in all directions.Unfortunately for us it was foggy and there wasn't any view. It was also windy and cold up there so we took a quick picture of each other and headed for the other side. Once you've reached the top there is only one place to go and that is down. Usually going down is easier than going up, not on this mountain. Mount Moosilauke's north side is very steep and difficult. I'll let C6 tell you about it you'll get a better perspective from her than me. Check 6's notes:Going up the mountain did go well. We got to the top much more quickly than I expected us to. What a nice surprise. Going down the North side of the mountain took a LOT longer. It's quite the descent! Steep, rocky, everything is wet, and a lot of the surfaces (rocks, trees) are slick with algae or moss because they are wet so much of the time. There are some interesting parts of the descent...wood blocks (approx 2 feet wide and 7-7" deep) are attached to the rock face as steps. There is no visible source that shows how they're attached, but they are securely attached the rock face, so they can be trusted to hold your weight. I took lots of pictures, so at some point I'll put some of the photos into our trail journal. I often wonder how people make things like those steps in difficult places. The majority of the descent is along side Beaver Brook. It starts out modest in size at the top. Water from side streams keep joining it, so it eventually becomes a descent waterfall as it cascades down rock faces. It's loud, too, so it was a relief to get away from the loud waterfall noise when we finally reached the bottom of the mountain. It took us much much longer to get down the mountain because of how steep and risky it is. I had to scoot down on my butt over a few large boulders...ended up with a wet butt. I held onto tree roots and boulders more than OG did on the way down. My next to last face first fall at the end of our thru-hike was because my foot slipped off a wet rock and I ended on my face in a mud puddle. I'm finding myself very cautious about wet rocks and frequently remembering that fall. The result is that I'm very slow when we have to traverse wet rocks. Even though the descent was very slow and quite challenging, it was very rewarding to have done it. A highlight of the day was enjoying the company of a group of thru-hikers we met a couple days ago. They had stopped at the Beaver Brook Shelter to eat lunch and were still there for a while after we stopped there to eat our lunch, too. We've bumped into them at least 3-4 times now. They're a nice group. We have decided to not hike over the next 2 days. We'll resume on July 4th when we start hiking the Whites. We have reservations in many of the Huts that start at the AMC lodge on July 3rd. We'll have to come back to do Kinsman Notch to Franconia Ridge after we get to the North end of The Whites. We won't be sending updates for these next 2 non-hiking days. Sent from my iPhone