This past weekend I attended my fifth Fool Scouts' Ball. I was originally going to hike on Sunday, as usual, but then I received an invitation from Pam to join her hiking the Kinsmen on Saturday, so that's what I did.
There were four of us. Besides Pam and myself there were Carrie and Chris, neither of whom I'd met before.
We started up Lonesome Lake Trail from Lafayette Campground. The trail was very packed down; I think we were all on microspikes. About half way up we met Princess Buttercup (ne Mad River) hauling up his eighth pulkfull of supplies for the ball. Chris took over and hauled it the rest of the way to the hut.
We crossed the lake, where the snow was not as solid and the wind made it chilly. At the hut we claimed bunks and unloaded some stuff, and then headed up Fishin' Jimmy Trail. I think the others all wore snowshoes from the start; I began with spikes and switched to shoes when it started getting televatorworthy. The snow was packed with a thin layer of loose snow on top. It was also maybe the deepest I've seen it on those trails, judging by how often I had to duck beneath branches.
The day started out underneath stratus clouds, so the views at first were limited, but the trees were frosted with snow, so it was very pretty on the trail.
The North Kinsman rock was buried so deep in the trail I would have walked by it without noticing if Chris hadn't pointed it out. When we got to the viewpoint we couldn't see very far.
Soon after leaving the viewpoint I noticed that by bottle cozy was missing, so I went back to the viewpoint to find it. There I met a francophone couple we'd seen before who informed me that they'd found it at the Fishin' Jimmy / Kinsman Trail intersection and had left it on the sign. I thanked them and continued on towards South Kinsman, since I had enough water in my pack to last me.
Just before getting to the South Kinsman treeline we met Diamond Ridge and her new wife Heather, who were also attending the Fool Scouts' Ball. This was the first time I'd seen DR in a while, and the first time I'd met Heather ever.
The South Kinsman area was beautiful in that stark white way a winter alpine region in a cloud can get, but it was cold, so we didn't stay long.
On the way back the clouds started dissipating, so we started to have views, eventually seeing Cannon and Franconia Ridge. My cozy was right where that couple had said it would be. Once back in Fishin' Jimmy there was a fair amount of glissading.
Back at the hut we donned our leis and Hawaiian shirts and were foolish for a while. Chris returned to the land of the serious that evening, but the rest of us avoided that until the morning, when I recrossed the lake and hiked down into the notch under a crystal clear sky.
North and South Kinsman were numbers 12 and 13 for redoing the Northeast 111 in my 60's.
Here are the pictures.
--
Cumulus
NE111 in my 50s: 115/115 (67/67, 46/46, 2/2)
NE111 in my 60s: 13/115 (11/67, 2/46, 0/2)
NEFF: 43/50; Cat35: 33/39; WNH4K: 36/48; NEHH 81/100
LT NB 2009
"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
There were four of us. Besides Pam and myself there were Carrie and Chris, neither of whom I'd met before.
We started up Lonesome Lake Trail from Lafayette Campground. The trail was very packed down; I think we were all on microspikes. About half way up we met Princess Buttercup (ne Mad River) hauling up his eighth pulkfull of supplies for the ball. Chris took over and hauled it the rest of the way to the hut.
We crossed the lake, where the snow was not as solid and the wind made it chilly. At the hut we claimed bunks and unloaded some stuff, and then headed up Fishin' Jimmy Trail. I think the others all wore snowshoes from the start; I began with spikes and switched to shoes when it started getting televatorworthy. The snow was packed with a thin layer of loose snow on top. It was also maybe the deepest I've seen it on those trails, judging by how often I had to duck beneath branches.
The day started out underneath stratus clouds, so the views at first were limited, but the trees were frosted with snow, so it was very pretty on the trail.
The North Kinsman rock was buried so deep in the trail I would have walked by it without noticing if Chris hadn't pointed it out. When we got to the viewpoint we couldn't see very far.
Soon after leaving the viewpoint I noticed that by bottle cozy was missing, so I went back to the viewpoint to find it. There I met a francophone couple we'd seen before who informed me that they'd found it at the Fishin' Jimmy / Kinsman Trail intersection and had left it on the sign. I thanked them and continued on towards South Kinsman, since I had enough water in my pack to last me.
Just before getting to the South Kinsman treeline we met Diamond Ridge and her new wife Heather, who were also attending the Fool Scouts' Ball. This was the first time I'd seen DR in a while, and the first time I'd met Heather ever.
The South Kinsman area was beautiful in that stark white way a winter alpine region in a cloud can get, but it was cold, so we didn't stay long.
On the way back the clouds started dissipating, so we started to have views, eventually seeing Cannon and Franconia Ridge. My cozy was right where that couple had said it would be. Once back in Fishin' Jimmy there was a fair amount of glissading.
Back at the hut we donned our leis and Hawaiian shirts and were foolish for a while. Chris returned to the land of the serious that evening, but the rest of us avoided that until the morning, when I recrossed the lake and hiked down into the notch under a crystal clear sky.
North and South Kinsman were numbers 12 and 13 for redoing the Northeast 111 in my 60's.
Here are the pictures.
--
Cumulus
NE111 in my 50s: 115/115 (67/67, 46/46, 2/2)
NE111 in my 60s: 13/115 (11/67, 2/46, 0/2)
NEFF: 43/50; Cat35: 33/39; WNH4K: 36/48; NEHH 81/100
LT NB 2009
"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
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