NH Cohos Trail: Crossing the Kilkenny Part 3 and on to Devils Rest

All packed and ready to go at dawn

The Unknown Pond tentsite was beautiful, with views of the Presidential Range from some of the ridgetop sites like the one I chose, but during the night a brutal wind arose that blasted my tent and ripped out one of the stakes. The tent pad there was too small for my tent's foot print, so it wasn't staked in well. The unmoored tent wall kept smacking me, disturbing my sleep. Finally around 4:15 am decided to just get up and go. Taking down the camp was all by headlamp, but once I was all packed, the first pink light of the sun was appearing, and I had a front row seat. I hung out there for maybe twenty minutes, just watching the pink sky and the dark clouds racing by.

Unknown Pond. Sadly, no moose.

I had to stop at Unknown Pond for water. I was also hoping to see a moose. Seemed like the perfect time and place, but I struck out. There is so much moose poop on this ridge, you would think I'd get to see an actual moose while hiking. So that item is still on the bucket list.

Sunrise through the birch carcasses on the Kilkenny Ridge Trail

The Cohos guidebook talks about all the dead paper birch in the area. It was all over. According to the book, loggers clearcut the area, and then fires spread through the slash in 1903. Paper birch seeds blew into the burned areas, germinated easily on the bare ground, and proliferated. But pioneering birch don't live very long, and these have come to the end of their life cycle.

Cotton Grass

After descending the hill from Unknown Pond, the trail crosses a low boggy area with extensive bog walks, culminating in Kilback Pond. I loved this area. With every turn it seemed there might be a moose up ahead (there wasn't). The trail work was impressive. Looks like they had to make their own timber with nearby trees and axes, and then go stand in the water to construct the bog walks. Impressive.

A crib in deeper water holds up the bog walk

At one point there was a view of Rogers Ledge off in the distance, the place I had hoped to camp the night before. I never would have made it.

Rogers Ledge off in the distance

The bog walks continue

I have a lot of photos of this area because it was one of my favorites. Low sun, water, solitude. Gorgeous.

That's not good

Parts of the bogwalk are getting pretty old and rotten, and there was once section in particular that was far too gone to even attempt. Fortunately, this was right up against an old beaver dam that was so solid there were shrubs growing on it. What looked impossible at first turned out to be a couple easy steps to the side on the beaver dam. That was easy.

Kilback Pond

Kilback Pond capped off the beautiful bogwalk section. What a treat. Still no moose.

Evidence that Moose use bogwalks

There were a couple spots where it looked like the moose were making good use of some of the lower bog walks. And why not? It was good, firm footing.

Creeping Snowberry

I love running into something different (for a Connecticut hiker). Creeping Snowberry, with white berries, was something I'd never encountered. Loved it. White berries are unusual. I feel like they would be poisonous, but apparently people pick them and say they are minty. Now I regret not tasting them.

This is the trail

There was one last climb left while crossing the Kilkenny, and it was the steepest. There were even some stairs. But before too long, I reached to top of Rogers Ledge, named after Major Robert Roger of Roger's Rangers fame.  There was a beautiful wooded plateau on top perfect for setting up tents. And just beyond that was the ledge.

View to the east from Rogers Ledge

The wind was blasting and the clouds whipped by. A cold front was supposed to move through later in the day, but it was still warm and humid.

Rain clouds to the west

Looking off to the west, it almost looked like it might be misting a little. Hmmm. I sent a text letting my husband know where I was and asked what the weather forecast was. "Cloudy in the morning and thunderstorms later in the day." This was at 8:30 am. Twenty minutes later it started raining. And kept raining all the way down the Kilkenny. Seemed like it was going to rain all day, a repeated of Monday. It was disheartening.

South Pond

On the plus side, the trail going down the ridge got easier and easier and even though it was raining I could finally stretch my legs and not have to constantly worry about the footing. After about two hours I reached South Pond and the rain tapered off.

The Cohos Trail along South Pond

And then the sky started spitting again, so when I got to the deserted beach at the South Pond Recreation Area, I took refuge under the canopy of building there and cooked up some lunch. It was a great place to hang out for awhile. The rain stopped and started and after an hour or so it seemed to be all done with for the time being.

Lunch at the South Pond Recreation Area

So that was pretty much it for the Kilkenny. I went up in the rain and came down in the rain, and had some great hiking in between. Coming up was the Nash Stream section, which looked to be easier hiking. The trail headed down the park road for a good spell. The main route shown on the Cohos map shows the trail staying on the road all the way out to Rt 110, and that's what I did. There's alternate route on the map that's a bit longer but gets you off the road that some people take. It was raining again by that time and I just felt like walking on the road, so I skipped it.

View from Rt 110, Bald Mountain in foreground.

The next destination was the notch up behind Bald Mountain via the appropriately named Bald Mountain Notch Trail. Most of this was pretty easy, following snowmobile roads. It was a nice change to easily stroll up what was essentially a grassy road. The rain had stopped again.

Easy trail

Found some Lobster Mushrooms growing in the middle of the trail. These are weird because they are the product of a mold parasitizing a mushroom and covering the mushroom with a skin the vivid color of a cooked lobster. The mushrooms become misshapen during this process. It sounds disgusting but it's said that the mold improves the flavor of the attacked mushroom, which is usually a Lactarius mushroom. I have not tried it.

Lobster Mushroom

At some point I got a message about a severe thunderstorm warning until 9 pm, and something about a round of hail that had just missed me to the south. Bands of bad weather were racing across New England from the southwest. My husband said he though the next round might hit around 5:00 pm.

Check out the steel I-beam

So I started to pick up the pace, hoping to reach the Devil's Rest Shelter before the storms hit. I didn't actually even know if the shelter existed. It was shown on the trail maps as "planned 2017." But I made time and around 4 pm came to a sign pointing the way to the Devil's Rest Lean-To in 0.5 miles. Hurray! It exists!  The shelter was beautifully made. I parked my gear inside and went down the trail to eat some tuna fish. Didn't want to eat that smelly stuff inside the shelter. Then I went further down the trail to get water for the next day, and when I came back, three older guys were heading for the shelter and it was starting to rain.

Taking shelter from the storm

Joe, Luther, and Mike were a retired trio who had started out southbound from Dixville Notch on Monday, the same day I started, and were going to wrap things up the next day. One of them had previously thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail. It was fun having someone to chat with while waiting out the storms. The line of heavy rain and just one thunderboom passed over us and the Shelter kept us dry. But then the sun came out and it looked like it was all over.

Home sweet home

I had hoped there would be someplace to set up my tent near the shelter, but there was no flat spot for a tent.  I know a lot of people like sleeping in shelters, but wanted to be in my tent.  So I decided to head back up to the grassy path and set my tent up there. It was a perfect spot right there next to the Devil's Rest sign and I slept like a log.