Last Sunday Deb, Ziehl and I decided to head up north for a day hike, some cool temps and some fall foliage. Our specific plan: Hit the road at 7 am, arrive at Lafayette Place around 9 am, and start hiking. Really, the plan was to wing it. We had the vague notion that we should hike Kinsman, since none of us had done it before, but the details didn’t fully evolve until later, during the course of the hike.
As usual, our seemingly under-ambitious goal of leaving at 7am turned out to be just a bit beyond our reach. We stopped briefly for bagels and coffee, but the real problem was Boston – some crazy event was under way and they had apparently closed just about every major road between my house and the highway. After about an hour of meandering through downtown Boston, we finally made contact with I93 and the day began!
One of the strengths of the Kinsman neck of the woods, is that it ascends precipitously from the highway, but then levels off right around Lonesome Lake. Once you get up to the lake (about 1.5 miles) you are completely isolated from any highway sound, and really all other vestiges of civilization. It’s just one of those great hikes – it’s easy to get to, and it seemingly instantly transports you into the sticks. We just about flew up the first mile and a half, excited to get to the good part, after which we began to take our time, and take in the view.
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| Lonesome Lake |
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| Franconia Ridge, from Lonesome Lake |
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| Panorama at Lonesome Lake |
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| Lincoln |
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| Franconia Ridge from Kinsman |
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| Panorama of Franconia Ridge |
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As usual, I couldn’t resist the urge to
snag some ski beta…the season draws
near… |
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| More slides… |
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| Flume slides |
View Kinsman Ridge Hike in a larger map
You can see from the map, that we eventually settled on a short traverse of Kinsman Ridge, for the route back. There’s a good bit of up down along the way – great interval training for the ski season! We came back along the opposite side of the Lake, caught the sunset and went back down to the parking area by an alternative route. The whole thing ended up being about 10 miles, with no shortage of diversity in terrain or scenery. Plenty of mellow and flat areas intermixed with intense steeps made for an enjoyable, if not high output day.
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| Sunset over Lonesome Lake |
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| An idyllic autumn, New Hampshire scene. |
And on that, note Ziehl and I are packed and ready to for a multi-day, multi-mode (offroad, hike, and kayak) tour of the Bigelow Preserve.
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| Packing… |
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| Ready for action! |
