Kinsman Pond Shelter to Franconia Notch

We woke up at 9:30, a 12 hour sleep, a new record for me I think, how tired must we have been after a long yesterday. There was a heavy fog all around, so thick you couldn't see the lake well at all, so no pictures.

The trail starts off easily, then goes straight down, took us 30 mins to go a quarter of a mile, inching down the steep rocks. It does get easier but is basically a stream bed, wet wet and more wet, with occasional steep rocks to descend.

It's only supposed to be 2.7 miles to Lonesome Lake Hut, seems to take forever. Finally there and it's only staffed by the caretaker at the moment, its cutover time to being fully staffed for the summer and the crew is arriving, we sit around drinking tea and eating some cake before heading down the last few miles to Franconia Notch.

The summer crew is like a mule train, they carry huge supplies on their backs with some awkward looking arrangements, the first mule is worried about his performance, whether he'll be able to do it, the caretaker is re-assuring.

We head off down an easy trail, there are warning signs about the bridge over Cascade Brook being out, should we Yellow Blaze and go down the alternative, or chance being able to get across the stream?

The brook is definitely raging, more and more as we go down, and no at all of the bridge when we get to the crossing point, looks like it was completely swept away.

The recommended crossing point is just upstream, we pick up a likely spot with rocks to hold onto and plunge in, boots and all, they're soaked already so no point in keeping them dry.

There's a big rock right in the middle that's good for support, inching across with poles, trying not to trip on the rocks in the stream that we can't see, the water is cold and very wet, and up to our thighs, and getting packs all wet would not be great.

Our feet dry out a bit, then another stream pops up to re-wet them, no getting dry feet in NH, mission impossible.

Down to the bottom and under the freeway (I-93) and we come to a junction with a sealed footpath that shows the AT but no parking area. We go up and down a trail called the Whitehouse Trail, no parking area, up and down the AT, no parking area, more cursing of AMC for not putting up a sign, google maps is no help at all.

We decide to walk down the interstate for a bit toward the Flume Gorge exit, seen it before and it might help to orientate us, Matilda tries to flag down some exiting cars but of course they don't stop. As we walk down we see Route 3 and look at the map and it all clicks into place, dry clothes and shoes on and we head off for Littleton and the pub (Bailiwicks at Thayers) for burgers and beers, argghh.

We need some supplies but all the outfitters are closed, how does an outfitter close at 5pm? Oh well off to the town of Franconia and can't find the motel in such a little town, seems to be the day for getting lost. The guys is very helpful, he'll shuttle us on Saturday even though we aren't staying there that day, and does our laundry for us, all nice and dry and clean, but of course it won't last long. The place has a nice hot tub so we luxuriate for a while to free up tight legs.