Killkenny Loop Backpacking in New Hampshire

October is the best season for fall color backpacking in New Hampshire. First weekend of October, it was luckily sunny both Saturday and Sunday. So we went backpacking in Northern part of White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. Because fall colors start in north then go south, the northern part of Whites is good to check out in early October. 

According to the book of New England backpacking, the area we went this weekend, Killkenny loop, is the first portion in the Whites to get fall colors. 

First we parked at the Berlin fish hatchery. Then we walked to the another parking lot where we would finish the loop. There were two options: road walk at the beginning or the end. This time we did at the beginning, because it is kind of tiring to do at the end. We had done several times finishing backpacking by road walking. It was tiring to walk on asphalt after long walk. This one was not bad, because it was unpaved road in the forest. 

Besides, there was a pond along the road and already we saw fall colors, which was a plus. Especially fall colors along the shore was very pretty. After 2 miles of road walking, we started hiking on a trail. The forest is in yellow. It was really pleasant to be in the cheerful color.

Soon four backpackers passed as. They had a cute excited dog. 

They asked where we were going to stay. We said Unknown pond (this is the real name. Not meaning I don't know the name!) or Rogers Ledge campground. They were going to stay at the cabin near the Mount Cabot. The cabin is free and there are some bunks. Nothing is fancy, but small pad is attached on the bunks. There is no need to bring a tent if you stay there, and of course it is protected by rain or snow. They asked where we would stay, probably because they were concerned if they could get bunks, since there is no reservation system but first-come first-served. It was only 4 miles from the trailhead, but they started early enough to get there by 2 p.m. The cabin looked nice and it would be good to stay there in the winter for snowshoeing hike trips. 

View from the Horn

After we chatted with them we continued to the viewpoint just before the summit of Mount Cabot. The view from there was really nice. At the viewpoint, we saw a nice guy who lived down the Mount Cabot. Wow. It should be nice to live near mountains. He said going down after view point without going to the top. Soon we knew the reason. The summit is in the forest with zero view. The guy recommend going to the Horn. A 0.3 mile side trip on the way to Unknown pond. The Horn was.....nice, but the view was blocked by trees. There were two side trips and this one is "recommended" in the hiking book, the other is "highly recommended". So I hoped to see a better view the other one. 

We passed a group who was going to camp at Unknown campsite. They seemed surprised when we said we were going to the next campsite which was 2 mile more walk. 

Campsite

Campfire

We deserved! The next campsite was exclusively ours! There are four official tent site in the Rogers Ledge campsite, but nobody was there. There is a square portion to pitch a tent (see the picture). The campsite is surrounded by yellow and red trees. It was completely silent. It was lucky to be only us. 

 

 

There is only one fire ring to share, but all for us. I was so excited about having fire. Tons of trees were on the ground, so it was easy to forage for the fire. To start the fire, paper birch is excellent, because it burns super good. Birch trees were everywhere in the region, so fire was easily started. 

Mountains in NH in October is really cold. This Saturday night, it was below freezing point. At that cold night the warm fire was quite nice. 

The next morning, we did another short side trip to Rogers ledge. The view was marvelous. Red, yellow, orange were all down there! It looked like really someone painted one by one with paint brushes. We are lucky to go hiking in the right time to see fall colors.

Rogers Ledge

fish

After we hiked out we came back to the fish hatchery where we parked. We checked out fish there. They expand trout. Wow. Each section had small, medium, and large trout. It was impressive. However, I don't and will never understand why the plural form of trout is trout!! 

 

The weekend was nice.