Elevation gain: 715 feet
Trails used: Three Ponds Trail, Mount Kineo Trail.
Highlight(s): woods walk, cascades along Brown Brook.
This would be my third annual New Year's Day hike to begin the New Years (2015 was Stinson Mountain with Desi, 2014 was Mount Osceola-East Peak and Mount Osceola with Brian.) Desi and I had discussed a few peaks to do that shouldn't be a problem with the somewhat fresh snow we had received a few days prior. After looking at the maps and guidebooks, we decided on Mount Kineo which we could do a bushwhack to reach the summit if conditions were good. While it was cold, and there was a fair bit of snow on the ground, the going wasn't bad at first.
We drove the CRV to the unplowed parking area off of Stinson Lake Road for the Mount Kineo Trail, which is also used by snowmobiles.
There was an old snowshoe track down on the beginning part of the Mount Kineo Trail but we decided to not use snowshoes for this hike, which Desi had debated.
We turned left onto the Mount Kineo Trail, which is also a snowmobile trail (which had no recent traffic).
The Mount Kineo Trail runs along Brown Brook, which despite the cold temperatures, was still flowing well and not frozen completely.
We came along this little cascade on Brown Brook, just before the snowmobile bridge crossing.
The snowmobile bridge over Brown Brook and the junction of the Mount Kineo Trail and Donkey Hill Cutoff.
The snow was the deciding factor of the day for Desi, who hasn't hike very much lately. I could have kept up a good pace of breaking trail but with still a mile and a half to go, plus a bushwhack to reach the summit of Mount Kineo, we decided to turn around and call it a day. We reversed course and made it back to the car in decent time. With more snow, and a decent snowmobile packed out trail, we will attempt this one again at some point this year.
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