albee
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This past Tuesday and Wednesday, I headed up to Lonesome Lake Hut in Franconia Notch, NH with 4 old and new friends from out-of-state. Since my friend Andrew from New Zealand was in the area for a few days, I decided to put a little overnight hike together for him and some of his friends that lived in Vermont and Massachusetts. The mountains in NH may not be as high, but Andrew was impressed by the views, by all of the snow below treeline, and by the concept of sliding down a mountain on one's butt.
We hit the trail around 11:00 on Tuesday morning and the sun was shining in full force. It didn't take much walking before we all decided to both put on the crampons and remove a layer of clothing. The trail is getting pretty slick and the initial uphill got the ole body temperature up in a hurry!
When we got to Lonesome Lake, two of us gingerly tested the ice while the others watched for a bit, unsure if today would be the day that the ice chose to give way. About 3/4ths of the way across, we heard some serious cracking underfoot and scooted to the side of the pond. A little later, the hut caretaker assured us that the ice is quite thick still and the lake isn't more than 10 feet deep max, so we didn't worry about that for the rest of our stay.
We arrived at the hut at lunchtime, so we all had something to eat and decided to just take advantage of the beautiful day and bask in the sun. It was warmer in the sun outside than in the hut, so we played some Scrabble on the porch, then moved our party down to the lake for some snowman building, a bit of a snowball fight, and some "modified poohsticks" - dropping snowballs into the outlet brook of the lake and watching them race down through the rocks... yeah, we definitely weren't acting our ages! (In fact, upon arrival, the caretaker thought we were an unruly bunch of Boy Scouts until she got close enough to see that we were all well into our 20's!)
We spent the rest of the evening eating well, drinking some Sam Adams, telling stories by the woodstove, and toasting s'mores with the caretaker, Emily, and her friend, Shannon. They made good company - y'all should visit them sometime!
On Wednesday morning, we arose to another gloriously sunny day, and headed up the Fishin' Jimmy trail towards North Kinsman. There was plenty of ice around, so once again the crampons came out quickly. A couple other interesting notes - one of the group wore Yaktrax and didn't have much difficulties, and another wore Chaco sandals with neoprene booties underneath (and crampons) and also had no difficulties! The latter had apparently hiked the last 700 miles of the AT Northbound last summer with Chacos on. I gotta get me a pair!
After an hour and a half of huffing and puffing up the hill, we got to the summit and sat on the rocks with amazing views of the Franconia Range spreading out before us. After a bite to eat and some extended photo-taking, the group headed down and I gave in to my OCD Peakbagger tendencies and ran over to South Kinsman and back. (I hadn't bagged it in March yet!) Stopped in at Kinsman Pond on the way down and it was beautiful - the best spot for some backcountry ice skating that I have ever seen!
I got back to the hut in no time due to the efficient use of my derriere on the downhills, and rejoined the party for more beer, snowballs, and poohsticks before heading back down to the cars. We stopped in for some pizza at the Pizza Cafe in Franconia before the long drive home. Their calzones are phenomenal!
All in all, it was a relaxing and fun trip with good friends and spectacular weather. I can't wait to do it again! So glad I don't have a full time job right now!
We hit the trail around 11:00 on Tuesday morning and the sun was shining in full force. It didn't take much walking before we all decided to both put on the crampons and remove a layer of clothing. The trail is getting pretty slick and the initial uphill got the ole body temperature up in a hurry!
When we got to Lonesome Lake, two of us gingerly tested the ice while the others watched for a bit, unsure if today would be the day that the ice chose to give way. About 3/4ths of the way across, we heard some serious cracking underfoot and scooted to the side of the pond. A little later, the hut caretaker assured us that the ice is quite thick still and the lake isn't more than 10 feet deep max, so we didn't worry about that for the rest of our stay.
We arrived at the hut at lunchtime, so we all had something to eat and decided to just take advantage of the beautiful day and bask in the sun. It was warmer in the sun outside than in the hut, so we played some Scrabble on the porch, then moved our party down to the lake for some snowman building, a bit of a snowball fight, and some "modified poohsticks" - dropping snowballs into the outlet brook of the lake and watching them race down through the rocks... yeah, we definitely weren't acting our ages! (In fact, upon arrival, the caretaker thought we were an unruly bunch of Boy Scouts until she got close enough to see that we were all well into our 20's!)
We spent the rest of the evening eating well, drinking some Sam Adams, telling stories by the woodstove, and toasting s'mores with the caretaker, Emily, and her friend, Shannon. They made good company - y'all should visit them sometime!
On Wednesday morning, we arose to another gloriously sunny day, and headed up the Fishin' Jimmy trail towards North Kinsman. There was plenty of ice around, so once again the crampons came out quickly. A couple other interesting notes - one of the group wore Yaktrax and didn't have much difficulties, and another wore Chaco sandals with neoprene booties underneath (and crampons) and also had no difficulties! The latter had apparently hiked the last 700 miles of the AT Northbound last summer with Chacos on. I gotta get me a pair!
After an hour and a half of huffing and puffing up the hill, we got to the summit and sat on the rocks with amazing views of the Franconia Range spreading out before us. After a bite to eat and some extended photo-taking, the group headed down and I gave in to my OCD Peakbagger tendencies and ran over to South Kinsman and back. (I hadn't bagged it in March yet!) Stopped in at Kinsman Pond on the way down and it was beautiful - the best spot for some backcountry ice skating that I have ever seen!
I got back to the hut in no time due to the efficient use of my derriere on the downhills, and rejoined the party for more beer, snowballs, and poohsticks before heading back down to the cars. We stopped in for some pizza at the Pizza Cafe in Franconia before the long drive home. Their calzones are phenomenal!
All in all, it was a relaxing and fun trip with good friends and spectacular weather. I can't wait to do it again! So glad I don't have a full time job right now!
