KINSMAN NOTCH: 11/15/11
For various reasons, I've been pretty much off the trails for the last couple of weeks. Needing to get out in the woods, I headed up to Kinsman Notch, the "other" notch in the Lincoln area, for a brief outing.
First stop was the trailhead parking area for Beaver Brook Trail at the height-of-land in the notch, where you get a good view up to the Beaver Brook ravine, with Mt. Blue peering over in the back.
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At the edge of the parking lot is a display about the amazing survival and rescue story of the WWII bomber crash on the side of Mt. Waternomee in January 1942.
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I took a short hike up Beaver Brook Trail to the first cascade, which is reached in just 0.4 mile. Hard to beat for a quick waterfall jaunt, only 200 ft. of elevation gain.
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Then I drove a short distance north to the Beaver Pond Scenic Area, probably the prettiest spot in Kinsman Notch. Many years ago, before a small concrete dam was built, this was known as Beaver Meadow. The pond is fed by Beaver Brook.
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This wild crag rises to the west of the pond.
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I crossed the stream - the start of the Wild Ammonoosuc River - at a ledgy sluice below the dam.
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A maze of beaten paths is found behind the west shore. Here Beaver Pond lives up to its name.
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A shoreside ledge provided a closer look at the great whale-like outcrop that juts into the pond.
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This is one of the great pondside ledges in the Whites. It has the classic shape of a
roche moutonnee, sloping on the north side and plucked off by a glacier on the south.
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The view north to the parking area.
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The rock has a beautiful wide water view to the south, backed by Mt. Waternomee (L) and Mt. Jim (R).
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The view from the dam.
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I headed southeast back down the notch to the first roadside pulloff, where you can see the ragged cliffs that rise above Lost River.
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There is a cascade by this pulloff that I've driven by dozens of times. Today, I took a closer look.
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The distant view from this pulloff includes (L to R): Mt. Osceola, Breadtray Ridge, Middle & South Tripyramid and the Sleepers through Thornton Gap, and Mt. Tecumseh.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM0t2OngvKuYNgu3iuRCt0McGScxXAmDY4211oDcFVT9GNvDEM6aPL7gwxkaXNZRaOTq2FgX-yK-1ujfm0H6W92t0PpUUKYoZcga1Qk72VZ_PR1soq8tBFKVx_I_HrZpuZSoVCQDPqSH6Q/s320/kinsman+notch+076.JPG)
Across the road to the NE is a trailless ridge (2909 ft.) named "Lost River Mountain" on an old view panorama from North Woodstock. The rock face on the lower R is known to climbers as the "Monkey Cliffs."
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A closer look at the Monkey Cliffs. I once took my unsuspecting nephew Mike, then a teenager, on a steep snowshoe bushwhack up the hardwood slope on the L and out to the top of the cliff. He loved it!
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And now, a blast from the past...a few photos from a bushwhack to Lost River Mountain in July 2008.
First view down the valley to the SE.
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Some great fern whacking.
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Looking back from a Monkey Cliff ledge to the massive ridges of Moosilauke.
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A vista along the upper Monkey Cliffs - there are several sets of cliffs and ledges along this ridge.
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Hancocks in the distance.
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A perch with a look down at a lower knob, one of several labeled the "Hedgehog Peaks" on the old view panorama.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlMIUked6MT7CBu7aD5oKufDm9HiXcSKrGwWfuSmvYm6qhU4fZpjjeiCGyE0WvxPFvrOPSbDYe4CRKGcCJr7FmN9solDRzIutbPsqXwSgp7h61xwlFKr8_uVg-TLNHgme33l-aoVRxfSaC/s320/IMG_4852.JPG)
More open woods travel. Generally good going on this ridge, though there was the occasional thick stretch.
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Hazy view to the SE.
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From a ledge on a higher shoulder, my favorite view of Kinsman Notch. In the background, L to R: Waternomee, Jim, Moosilauke, and Blue.
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The summit of Lost River Mountain.
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On the way down, a ledge and cascade on a nameless brook, one of many hidden treasures in Kinsman Notch.