Chocolatier and Just Mike are on the trail again… this time six days on the Appalachian Trail from Kinsman Notch to Crawford Notch.
A cloudy day on the peak of South Kinsman–a difficult and technical climb. Weather threatened, but didn’t arrive until after we’d set up camp, dined, nipped a bit of Palette de Bine Guatemalan chocolate and slipped into our hammocks. Thunder, lightning, torrential deluge, the works, and I enjoyed every minute of it!
Day 4—top of Haystack. Gorgeous day… Been enjoying Valrhona Ghana feves all the way up. We climbed up the taller one–Mt. Lincoln–next, and then the taller one–Lafayette–behind that, where we encountered a bunch of day hikers thoroughly unprepared when it dropped 20 degrees F in the next 10 minutes with visibility near zero. Take care when you’re hiking in the Whites, folks, the weather can get nasty fast!
Camped on Garfield Ridge just below Lafayette. Beautiful evening.
We wrapped up at Crawford Notch three days early, as Just Mike’s knees were pretty unhappy at the climb off Zealand. Still, a most excellent hike.
The pack shown above is my venerable GoLite Litespeed--a trim 40 litre model that I stuff to the gills at 25 pounds fully laden with gear, food, and water.