October 16, 2010
I had three hikes planned for today. Normally I break my hikes into separate entries but I decided to list them all together today. My plan was to knock out Jackson, then Hale, and then the Kinsmans to finish my October Grid. It would tough to do especially since the days are getting shorter. The weather forecast wasn't great ~ 60% chance of shower. To add to the difficult I was pretty sure the mountains had the first snowfall of the season. I've taken pictures of these mountains so many times I decided to leave my camera home.
Hike #1 - Mount Jackson
Madison and I hit the trail at 7:15. At an elevation of about 3000' feet I started seeing traces of snow. As I neared the summit there was perhaps half an inch of snow. The final tenth of a mile was a bit tricky being quite slippery. I reached the summit and it felt like the middle of January with fresh snow on the ground and the wind blowing like crazy. Needless to say, this was a tag and run day. I quickly headed down to the safety of the trees. I got back to my car about 10:15.
Hike #2 - Mount Hale
Another quick hike. I got to the trailhead about 10:30. I went up and tagged the top. I had similar conditions to my Mount Jackson hike accept the trees shielded me from the wind. The terrain isn't nearly as steep so the light snow was not an issue. I returned to my car about 12:30. This finished my 11th round of the White Mountains 4,000 footers.
Hike #3 - North and South Kinsman
I got to the trailhead at Lafayette Place about 1:00 p.m. I did some reorganizing of my pack including throwing in my Stabilicers. The Fishin' Jimmy Trail has some difficult sections and with the new snow I knew it would be helpful to have them. I started about 1:15. As I headed up to Lonesome Lake Hut I took a slightly different route. There was a .8 mile section of the Hi-Cannon Trail that I had never done. I hiked up the steep trail and then took the Dodge Cut-off over to Lonesome Lake. Then I began the climb up the Fishin' Jimmy Trail. There was 1-2 inches of fresh snow. Once on the steep sections I put on my Stabilicers. Boy did that help.
Up I went to the top of North Kinsman. Most of the fresh footprints stopped there. Although there were signs that one or two adventuresome people had headed over to South Kinsman. I emerged above treeline at the false summit. The tracks stopped there so whoever had hiked this earlier may have thought this was the summit. I dropped down slightly into the trees before coming out near the true summit. I tagged the cairn and immediately turned around. The conditions were not nearly as windy as when I had been on Jackson earlier in the day. I got back to my car without having to take out my headlamp, but just barely. It was about 6:40 p.m. Well, that was my last trip to the Kinsmans for my Grid and it finished my October Grid. I can take a long break from the Grid now especially since I don't need any peaks in November.
Grid Peaks to go: 12
| 
