Tuesday, June 4 2019
Kinsman Notch to Eliza Brook Shelter
7.5 Miles
We thought long and hard about whether we should slackpack
the 16 miles between Kinsman Notch and Franconia Notch, but finally decided
that we would not try it. Instead, we
packed up our full backpack and will spend the night at Eliza Book Shelter in
the middle. We started at 6:30 and hiked
eight and half hours to get to the shelter.
We felt like we were doing calisthenics all day long. Pulling, stretching, crawling, and every
other thing you can imagine, traveling only about one mile per hour. There were lots of blow-downs to maneuver as
well as roots, rocks and muddy paths. Once
we came to a wide gap in the path that we had to cross. Wait-up stopped and said, “How do we do this?” I said, “Stretch!” A bird in a nearby tree must have heard me
because he immediately said, “Streeetch, streeetch, streeech!’ and flew off to
tell his buddies his new word. LOL
We got to Eliza Brook Shelter at 3:00 and met three
brothers-in-law who were section hiking together and staying at the shelter. It rained throughout the night.
