Kinsman Pond Campsite Shelter

[Former Admin]

Info, questions, comments, experiences (good or bad) regarding -Kinsman Pond Campsite Shelter

Past/Present hikers - what can future hikers expect here? Have any good stories or memories from here?

Future hikers - any questions?

[DebW]

I camped there once in January 1975 on my first winter overnight. It was a small basic shelter then, but we slept in tents. Good views from the middle of the pond. The remains of a small plane that had crashed near the pond could be seen, but they were overgrown then. Probably impossible to find now. I remember the ups and downs of the Fishin' Jimmy Trail to be quite a challenge for a first time snowhoer on wooden shoes.

[Ann]

Nice spot, HORRIBLE WATER!!!!
Last time I was there was May of 2002 and the tent platfoms looked like they were in good shape.
There are three tent platforms and a large shelter.
(There is an unconfirmed story about WHY the water is so bad but as I said it is UNCONFIRMED.) I use a filter for water here, always. BTW, Eliza Brook is south of this site and has a shelter and two tent pads...and there is NO fee charged for that site...there IS a caretaker at this site June-October and there is a charge.

[Jumpstart]

The water is pretty much a stagnant pond here, but we've never had trouble with it when we filtered it, it always was tasty and clean. And in abundance

[Kerosene]

Underexposed winter pictures can be found at: http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/whites/k_pond_shelter.html

[cascader]

Nice spot, HORRIBLE WATER!!!!
Last time I was there was May of 2002 and the tent platfoms looked like they were in good shape.

(There is an unconfirmed story about WHY the water is so bad but as I said it is UNCONFIRMED.) I use a filter for water here, always.

Spent the night here a few weeks ago. Caretaker gave me the straight poop (you might say) on the water story.

Some years ago (1976) a septic tank from Lonesome Lake hut was dropped into the pond. Gross. But, the pond cleaned itself w/in a few years. Because of the accident, it gets tested every couple of years. comes out clean, considering it's a pond. So, yeah, treat the water, but it's not so different from any other pond water.

Beautiful spot. My only complaint was having to set up my tent on a platform--there are supposed to be some overflow campsites, wd have preferred sleeping on the ground. But, a lovely quarter moon over a pretty pond and a cool night for sleeping--not much to complain about!

[Spirit Walker]

That's where the bear was hanging out in 1992. He got our food and that of many other hikers that year. He was a pretty one - came right up while we were cooking dinner. We chased him away by throwing sticks, but he came back in the middle of the night and got two of our hung food bags and the food of some folks in the shelter. Came back the next day and got the food of some hikers right out of their pot. I don't know how long he was there, but it was several months, I think.

[Spirit Walker]

Oops - wrong shelter. It was Ethan Pond that had the bear, not Kinsman. I need to go back and hike again, I'm getting my places confused.

[heyman62]

Wow this is a great spot to camp for a night. We were there 6-25-2006 We did get nailed by black flies though. Hardly a mosquito to be seen. I think the black flies ate them. We filtered and treated the pond water and had no problem. Other than the pond there is very little water nearby unless you go down the mountain a long way.

[celt]

Demolition of the old shelter (1966) will start in late August 2007 and a new one will be built in September. The four tent platforms will remain available during shelter construction.

[Tin Man]

The new shelter appears to be completed. Construction materials remain on site, but the shelter was full with 14 hikers spending a rainy Saturday night (10/06/07). It appears to be roomy, but dark. It definitely looks like a prefab log home. If there was a fire pit, it is gone now. A bear box and wash pit are located between the shelter and the tent platforms. There are signs and rope everywhere to stay out of the woods, forest restoration in progress. Water source is the pond, so bring some drink mix to disguise the taste. Sorry, we did not take pictures. I wonder if the mice have moved in yet.

We tented on one of the platforms located a short distance away and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

[refreeman]

Tin Man,

Is the name of the shelter still Kinsman Pond Campsite Shelter? Or did they name it after anyone? Also, do you have a picture of the new shelter, log house sounds nice? How much money did they want to stay there?

[Tin Man]

Tin Man,

Is the name of the shelter still Kinsman Pond Campsite Shelter? Or did they name it after anyone? Also, do you have a picture of the new shelter, log house sounds nice? How much money did they want to stay there?

I think they are keeping the name. I believe the AMC fee is $8, but there was no one home at the caretaker site. Sorry, we did not take a picture of the shelter as we do not stay in shelters.

[Lemur]

its gorgeous

[Kerosene]

Wow, that looks like quite a front porch!

[Tin Man]

Wow, that looks like quite a front porch!

Yup. When I was there less than 2 weeks ago it had just rained and the new front porch was covered in mud from hikers boots even to the sides of the doorway where it is a natural place to want to cook out of the rain. Yuk.

[refreeman]

Yes, that looks like a great improvement over the previous shelter.

Lemure, please post your pictures in the Gallery so people find them when they search for them. You can upload larger versions too, so we can see better details. I really look forward to seeing this shelter. Thanks for sharing, I recently posted pictures of the NEW Mount Wilcox South Shelter in MA. Check my Gallery for them.
Also, Tin Man did you get any pics of the NEW Kinsman?

[Tin Man]

Also, Tin Man did you get any pics of the NEW Kinsman?

Unfortunately no, it was raining and we only stopped in to cook breakfast.

[Lemur]

I have lots of pics of the new shelter at Kinsman Pond and I'd love to share them- but I have never posted to the gallery before and seem to be having trouble doing so. After following the instructions on the upload page, I click submit and then get a completely blank page- and my photos don't subsequently show up. Any suggestions?

[refreeman]

Lemur,

What size are the pictures you are trying to upload? There is a max, 2560 x 1920, so the pictures' size may need to be reduced to be uploaded successfully. Most photo programs make resizing photos easy. I use photoshop and it works great. If you don't have the time to resize the pictures you can email them to me and I'll resize the pictiures and then email them back to you for you to upload.

So,
1. Check the dimensions of the size of the photos. (right click on one to get its properties and look for length and width.)

2. IF more than 2560 x 1920 reduce their size to 2560 x 1920 in a photo editing program.

If you need a program to convert the size of the photos here is a great full featured free program. Its called XnView. It is free for personal use but must be registered for professional use.

Website:
http://perso.orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enhome.html

Direct download link for XnView:
http://download2.xnview.com/XnView-win-en.exe

Open the picture in XnView and go to IMAGE in the pull down menu and then click on RESIZE. Put 2560 in the width box and then click on OK.
Then go to FILE in the pull down menu and then click on SAVE AS and save the file with a different name.

Then you can upload the picture if size was the problem.

IF you have any questions or need some help you can ask me here or PM me.

Refreeman