22OCT18 - Doublehead Mountain (North and South peaks)

Well i've got a bit of a backlog of hiking to blog about... not that anyone is really reading this.
A crisp fall morning with Buenos Tardes to get Doublehead Mountain's two peaks for some 52WAV action before wrapping up for the year.
History: Used to be a ski hill of some kind. Cabin at the top.

Peak Elevation: 3053 ft (North Peak), 2939 ft (South peak)
Elevation Gain: ~1500 ft
Trail: Doublehead Ski Trail, Old Path, New Path, some bushwacking
Length: 3.3mi

Parking was roadside at this point but i think there is a lot that was being built at that time. We got a fairly early start, not sure on timing of any of this hike to be honest, and we crushed a fairly easy hike on the crisp fall morning. The old ski trail was a nice way to go all the way to the North peak, where the cabin was, and then we went to the South peak and had some lunch on the little ledge there. I'd like to say i recall more than this about this hike but I mostly remember ending up losign trail on the way down and having to bushwack our way to the road towards the end, where we were only a few hundred yards off. Afterwards we got some really great apple cider donuts from a nearby place that Mr Tardes knew about.

Photos:
https://imgur.com/gallery/ise6X6Q

13SEP18 - Baxter State Park, Attempt on Katahdin, summit of Paloma Peak

I had some time to burn and thought i could train my way up to being in shape enough to do Katahdin's Baxter and Hamlin peaks, and the knife's edge in September. Here's how it went.

History: Katahdin is part of Baxter state park, which was donated by a former Governor of Maine after buying 6000 acres of land including Katahdin for preservation purposes. Over time, more land was purchased and gifted to the state to what is now over 200,000 acres of state park. Katahdin has 2 main peaks and a number of other features in the area. Baxter peak is the last of the Appalachain Trail at it's northern terminus. Nearby Hamlin peak is another NE67 peak on the mountain.

Peak Elevation: Paloma peak (4919 ft)
Trail: Helon Taylor Trail
Length: 6.4mi


My intentions with this trip was to bag Katahdin's Baxter and Hamlin peaks, and maybe taking the knife's edge trail. Never was able to scrounge up a hiking buddy for the trip but met some cool people along the way. The result was me getting to the top of Paloma, where the knife's edge ridge goes to Baxter peak. I was running low on water and energy, and did not feel safe trying for Baxter on the knife's edge given my lack of physical conditioning for the hike in the first place. Also there's a bunch of open trail above treeline there and I was dehydrating fast. I don't recall why i decided to try and get the knife's edge out of the way first but that was probably a mistake. I had camped the night before and was a bit cold when I woke. I hope they gave my site to an AT hiker or something. I gave what firewood i had purchased to some other campers and a few of my beers i had with me.

Photos:
https://imgur.com/gallery/Jin8YnK

Next time I'm going up and bagging Baxter/Hamlin and probably passing on Knife's edge unless I am in better shape.

27 July 2018: Kinsman Mountain, North peak

This hike was the first of the year and i hadn't really conditioned myself for it. I knew what to expect but still forgto some essentail day-of prep work like popping Advil in the morning to help control the swelling I have after I'm done. This trip was with BishopX and we intended to grab both Kinsman peaks. The Forecast had some possible rain in the morning and a big storm system coming up in the afternoon. Expecting to be able to get both peaks we proceeded with this plan.

History: Kinsman Mountain is named after an early resident of the area, Nathan Kinsman. The Fishin’ Jimmy trail is named after James Whitcher, a man who once lived in Franconia. I imagine he tried fishing once.

Peak Elevation: 4293 ft
Elevation Gain: 2526 ft
Trails: Lonesome Lake Tr., Cascade Brook Tr., Fishin' Jimmy Tr., Kinsman Ridge Tr.
Length: 8.8 mi
Time on Trail : 0920
Time off Trail: 1640

As previously stated in this post, the intent was get both Kinsman peaks. We got a bit later of a start than planned, but once going it got warm and humid fast, which did not help my poor conditioning. On the way up, the terrain up to the Lonesome Lake Hut was pretty steady and easy going. We took a moment for photos but kept moving on because of the forecast. The Fishin' Jimmy trail, as advised by BishopX, had lots of pointless up and downs for a good portion of it. On the return hike we tried to go from memory for how many there were and laughed when wrong. Once we made it to the Kinsman Ridge trail, my trail pains had subsided and we plowed onward to the north peak in spite of the ominous clouds to our southwest. Not long after we found the high point, we visited the viewpoint not far from there and began hearing thunder booms at increasing succession and perceived closeness. We opted to skip the South Peak, 0.9 miles away, in anticipation of potential lightning strikes. By the time we made it to the junction where you can go to the Kinsman Pond area, it had started misting a bit. We spoke to the caretaker and she kindly pointed us to the shelter, where we had lunch and chatted up 3 other hikers and the caretaker while the storm downpouring went on. we lost about an hour waiting that out but i'm glad we did so we could stay dry at that point. Navigating the trail went well after that in spite of the rain. Not long after we saw some hikers from Europe going up who marveled at our dryness, it started raining some more and we just kept pressing onwards so we could get home and dry. Intermittent downpours later and we were back at Lafayette Campground. For losing time to a storm our time was not terrible.

Photos:
https://imgur.com/a/q2ePmMF

I plan to go get the South Peak this year, probably will take another route, maybe the Mt Kinsman Trail.

2018 goals and plans

So over the past few months i have been backdating entries as my time allows - i usually do it in marathon sessions which involves some research that i do not have up front, which occupies about half the time spent. Given that this blog was started in 2017, as my season was crawling to its close, I didn't do anything like this before. So bear with me if it seems scatterbrained. My goals for hiking this year are as follows: 15 peaks from 52 WAV list, 12 peaks from NH48, and 3 or 4 from the NE67 that reside outside of NH. Here's an early projection of what my approximate plan is:

52 WAV hikes:
- Mt Crawford, Mt Resolution, Stairs Mountain 11.2 mi
- Magalloway Mountain
- Mt Hayes
- Sugarloaf Mountain (Nash Stream Forest) 4.2 mi
- Mt Shelburne Moriah
- Mt Success
- Three Sisters
- Shaw
- North and South Baldface
- Eastman
- North Doublehead
- Smarts
- West Royce


NH48 Hikes:
- West Bond, Mt Bond, Bondcliff, Zealand 19ish mi
- North and South Twin 11ish mi.
- Wildcat D, Wildcat A
- Madison and Adams 10.1 mi
- North and South Kinsman

Non-NH28 peaks from NE67:
- Katahdin (ME14) looking to do this around Septemberish
- Killington (VT5)
- Mt. Abraham (VT5)
- Mt. Ellen (VT5)

To date, i have 30/48, 30/67 and 20/52.


I hope to continue hiking with BTLG, Bishop X and some old and new work friends this year, but will never back down from doing any of these as a solo venture.

I'll probably make some edits to this with mileages and intended trails for my own tracking purposes.