Magic in the Mountains

August 7, 2021 (10 miles)

Eliza Brook Shelter – Notch Hostel

Low mileage but a BIG day! Woke up feeling pretty good everyone slept in because we were so beat from the previous day, and we thought it wouldn’t take long to do 10 miles… WRONG!

The beginning of the day was beautiful – the trail followed a creek for a while and I felt good. Once the trail started climbing, though, it got tough. It felt like the trail was climbing straight up the mountain! Lots of boulders to climb over. It wasn’t too bad and there was a pretty bog about 1.5 miles from the Kinsmans, but it looked right up t the summit and was crazy intimidating.

The climb up was the toughest yet – so much vertical climbing that required me to use my hands in order to push/pull myself up. It felt like it took hours and I was cranky and exhausted by the time I got to the top. The whole group was there and we hung out for a bit before pushing on to the North Kinsman summit (which thankfully was much easier to get to).

We had yet another never-ending steep descent to the Lonesome Lake Hut where we were treated to a free lunch before descending to the parking lot.

Thankfully we got a hitch into Lincoln and our group met up at McDonalds before resupply. We had zero plans for where to stay and everywhere was booked, but the trail provides! Odie (Hiker Yearbook) appeared and was able to get us in at the Notch Hostel and gave us a ride there.

The hostel was beautiful and the owner, Serena, was lovely. Another hostel owner, Teri, swung by for a bonfire. The evening wrapped up with the cops escorting a drunk guy off the property. What a day. Very happy where we ended up.