Liberty Spring Tentsite
This morning the rain broke to everyone's relief.
Like last night the summer camp group at Eliza Brook Shelter had extra food from breakfast from which I scored two onion bagels and a package of cream chesse.
The trail was still wet and mucky so though our shirts stayed dry our feet were still wet much of the day. Initally today was spent climbing up a mountain along a Eliza Brook. This resulted in great views of the cascading water and the lush life that grows in the humid air. After a while the trail changed suddenly. It became a rock scrambel for about 1000' feet of vertical. I spent almost and hour covering what normally takes less that 30 minutes using every rock climbing trick I knew to keep a grip on the rock face. I felt a great sense of acomplishment from making it all the way up. At the top I was treated to a view of Harrington pond, another stunning mountain pond of which I can never seem to tire of.
The trail resumed it's poorly maintained status from yesterday as it climbed the last bit of distance to the top of South Kinsman. At the top the sun was shining warming me. I reacted to it like a man lost in the artic taking off my pack and trying to soaking in every bit of dry warmth I could get. Unfortunately the sun didn't last long as misty clouds rolled in a few minutes later inspireing me to press on. Still, thankfully, it didn't rain. Between South and North Kinsman was a long saddle and in that part I started to run into about a dozen day hikers out from nearby road accesses and huts. The trail quality also improved dramtically and I made good time until I reached the Kinsman Shelter where I stopped for a lunch break. I enjoyed leftover cream chesse and avacodo on totillas.
Two miles past I came to my first AMC hut, Lost Pond, where all the NoBo hikers where enjoying bottomless bowels of black bean soup. I got one for myself and setteled in only to hear news of James. He had taken a bad fall a couple miles back and had broken his poles but I heard he was uninjured so I decided that I would wait until he arrived and see if he was still OK. That gave me time to chill and relax. Also while I was waiting it rained a little so I got to miss the bad wheather.
Finally James showed up to my relief as I worried he might have been injured. It turns out he had taken a lunch break at Kinsman Shelter too.
We set off together down the hill on an erroded but well maintained trail into Franconia Notch. From there we had a challenging but manageable uphill to Liberty Spring. As night was approaching I made a late sprint to the site before dark so I could string up my tarp on one of the tenting platforms in light, a trickly thing to do. James made it up just as I had finished cooking dinner and is setting up while I am snuggling into my bag away from the cold.
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