A while back I was advised to slack the 16.3 mile section from Kinsman to Franconia because of some very steep climbs up S Kinsman. For us, 16 miles is a long day even on an easy trail. To manage 16 miles on a steep rocky beastly trail will require some preparation/conditioning. I expect we'll be doing this hike in August/Sept of 2020, so we have time to work on it, but that's still going to be a long long day.

There is the Eliza Brook Shelter about halfway in this section. If we backpack, we could stay there and break it up into two 8-mile days. But of course, we'd have to carry our full packs up that steep rocky beastly trail.

Seems like either way is going to be tough. Is one option clearly better?