shamples
New member
Started up Lonesome Lake trail from Lafayette Campground at 6:20AM. Checking Lonesome Lake out was finally awesome as I had never been. Conditions were um, FOGGY and CLOUDY! Beyond the lake, could not even see any hills rising up. So we made our way up Fishin Jimmy which was very wet and not as bad as I had heard originally. I kinda liked the Jimmy! Some extra time and careful footing was needed here and there, but it was a cool trail. Hit North Kinsman just before 10AM and STILL could not see a thing. Total cloud white out. Was such a bummer and had figured the clouds would have broken by that time. So we trudged on to South Kinsman and my hopes were dashed for views, but surprisingly up atop South the clouds were finally at least giving quick clear views across to Franconia Ridge. It was actually pretty spectacular since we hadn't seen it all day! But then in a moment, it was gone! Then back, then gone. Was amusing at that point since I was satisfied just to have any views at all after thinking we were gonna get shut out. Saw a cool brown rabbit at the top too who was pretty friendly. From there, double-backed and had lunch on the North Kinsman ledge lookout which by that time (11:30) was decently clear with views across FINALLY!!! Back down the Jimmy was a totally different story for me - NOW I realized why people say they didn't like the Jimmy. Haha!! MUCH tougher going down the Jimmy than up. Especially wet!! Back down at the hut was sweet. Great place to chill in the summer sun next to the lake. Very cool vibe down there. Overall we really took our time up and down and was back at the car by 2:15PM. So total time for the 10.6 mile journey was just under 8 hours with quite a few stops and picture taking breaks. #'s 27 & 28 for me! Nice! Wish the weather had been better for views, but I ended up seeing an ok amount. Not perfect, but we can't always be lucky with picture perfect days.
