Kinsman Ridge

November 23, 2025

After a cold night in the snow at Lafayette Campground, we started our hike from the foot of our tent just as dawn was breaking. Crisp snow crunched under foot and clear skies gave us hopeful thoughts of some nice views from up high as we scampered up the trail towards Lonesome Lake. After checking out the stunning view from the lake, we went up to the hut to check it out amongst the delicious smell of french toast and bacon. The place was packed with people though, so after peeping in the window, we decided to just continue on our journey.

Leaving our camp at dawn

Franconia Ridge from Lonesome Lake

We ascended the Fishin' Jimmy trail up to Kinsman pond and took the short side trail to check out the campsite. A quick hike from here brought us to the top of North Kinsman and a great lookout of the Franconia Ridge. It was at this point it finally dawned on me that my NE111 journey was about to end. We just needed to get over to the next summit, which in this winter wonderland, looked much farther away than the 0.9 miles claimed by the map. The hike over however went easily and we arrived at a clearing in the trees on top of the mountain with a bit of a truncated view if you stood on tiptoes to gaze over the trees. Paul produced some scotch and we celebrated with a dram or two as I wandered around the top trying to find a better view of our surroundings. Looking through a tiny hole in the trees seemed to show a mountain to the south of us, which was a bit confusing. I studied the map and could not place it and began wondering if we were actually on the summit of South Kinsman. Paul finally pulled out his phone and the GPS showed us standing on top, but it began to bug me, since what the heck was that mystery peak to the south? Finishing my scotch, I decided to take a quick stroll down the trail in that direction and once the trees opened up saw that the mystery mountain was another summit, probably not more than 50m away. And it looked higher than the one we were on, by at least a meter or two. Dang! We celebrated in the wrong place! Sixty seconds later we found a cairn on top of this next bump and the correct summit of South Kinsman. This place had a nicer view too. Now I could confidently claim to be a NE111 finisher!

Exploring a wintery wonderland

South Kinsman from the summit of North Kinsman

Premature celebration on the false summit of South Kinsman

As we still had more hiking to do, we forgo a second celebration of whisky for the time being. The day was still young, Paul was keen on getting another peak ticked off his list, and I had a bone to pick with some cannonballs, so we struck out back over North Kinsman and onward towards Cannon. The cannonball trail had not been travelled so we used our snowshoes for this gruelling adventure. Up, down, up, and down repeatedly over the three (or is it four?) bumps along this poorly maintained trail. The closed in tree limbs kept dropping piles of snow down our backs as we slowly got more and more damp. Though none of the cannonball summits had any views, occasionally on the trail we would catch a glimpse of the Cannon lookout tower and our hearts would sink seeing it so far away. Finally though, after about a two hour slog we reached the main trail and our spirits lifted as the travel eased, even if our bodies were quite exhausted at this point.

Looking back at North Kinsman

Cannonball ridge

Fog sets in as we descend the final cannonball

The next 0.4, 0.5, or 0.6 mile (depending on which signpost or trail map you decide to believe) went straight up the mountain. The scramble would have been a lot more fun earlier in the day, but at this point it just felt like a lot of work. Fortunately, once we reached the top of this, the last bit of trail to the summit tower was just an easy stroll. Unfortunately, the weather had moved in and we could see nothing from the top of the tower except for fog and blowing snow.

Summit of Cannon

After a break to re-energize we started to head down. Initially we had thoughts about going back down to Lonesome lake and getting a coffee and treat at the hut, but given the late hour, we figured we might run into the dinner crowd. Instead, we decided to take the direct route down the mountain to the campsite. This was very steep, though steep meant that the altimeter clicked down at a very encouraging rate. Each 100m brought us closer to dry socks, cold beer, and hot food. The headlamps came out just as we got off the main steep section, and the last thirty minutes was spent walking down a steady incline until finally we arrived back at Lafayette campground, ten hours after our departure.

Changed into our dry socks, before finding those cold beers and a delicious hot meal at the Common Man pub in Lincoln. 115 peaks of the NE-111... done!

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