McRat
New member
I wonder why I have such a hard time dragging my ass out of bed on work days, yet spring up before the alarm on hike days. Even better, this one was a vacation day - all the adventure of a hike, with the sweet schadenfreude of knowing your coworkers are still in the office. 
My mission was to visit Lonesome Lake, and then possibly bag a peak from there. I quickly stuffed my pack, grabbed the traditional Dunkin Donuts bagel sandwich, and headed up to Franconia Notch.
I was a couple of minutes behind schedule when I saw MtnMagic and Ghostdog in the Lafayette campground parking lot. Unfortunately, there is just enough cellular signal strength in the parking lot for work to share their crisis-du-jour and tie me up for another 10 minutes of broken conversation. Sorry about the delays, Magic… you were more patient than I was with the situation.
And so, with print queues printing and firewalls selectively opened, business was set and hiking could begin.
The Lonesome Lake trail to the lake has three almost even sections. The first third starts off with a gentle grade, but soon hits a moderately steep section for the middle third, and winds up pretty level for the final approach. We bare booted the entire trip to the hut.
With 40 degree weather and a full winter pack, I warmed up pretty quick. MtnMagic had already switched to 3-season pack and lead the walk at a steady pace. He struck me as a very observant person who would frequently point out signs of beaver activity, pine marten tracks, various trees, and even pointed out the wee remains of snow fleas.
Part way up the trail we ran into Heidi, one of the two caretakers from the hut. I warned her of the dinner plans, but she had heard of them already.
“So you’re coming up with a bunch of Boy Scouts next weekend?” she asked.
“No, FOOL Scouts. Mostly adults with a merry zest for life, and a healthy disregard of consequences. We’re frying up a turkey and running it to the hut to celebrate our April 1st holiday”.
She just smiled. You really can’t surprise croo. They’ve seen just about everything. She recommended that I give the Hi Cannon trail and crampons a go.
The walk around Lonesome Lake was nice. The highway noise was gone, the grade level, and the place has a picturesque beauty.
Even though we took a few breaks on the way up, we reached the hut in book time. We took a brief tour of the facilities and tried looking for a match to light the stove for tea. We must have searched for about 5-10 minutes before MtnMagic thought of turning on the stove. Turns out matches weren’t necessary.
Before you know it, MtnMagic and I were sipping tea and playing chess. A fun game - we took turns making mistakes and handing victory to each other, but I made the final error and Magic won the game.
I put on crampons, and headed back around the lake to the Dodge cutoff. MtnMagic followed me partway up the trail, before hitting his turnaround time. Before cries of abandonment ensue, I will point out that this was planned.
I continued up to the Hi Cannon trail alone. The trail was gorgeous, with a fresh coat of snow, and several ice flows. While the trail looks fairly straight on the map, it seems to twist and turn quite a bit, with some nice views along the way. The clouds seemed to be hanging at a little over 4,000 feet and it was easy imagining Lincoln and Lafayette as one giant mountain extending into the heavens.
There were a couple of cautious moments on ice, but the ladder was a bit spooky. The rungs covered with ice weren’t too bad, what worried me were the exposed ones. The grivel termites had done a number on some of them, and while they held up fine, I wondered how much weight they can support.
Just when I was about to complain about the steepness, the trail leveled off through some scrub pines and soon I could see the observation deck. The summit kind of sneaks up on you.
I climbed the deck for NH48 #25. There were clearing skies to the south, and though Lafayette was still shrouded in the clouds the views were nicer than my last several hikes. I wandered down to the tram building, and could smell fried food. I ordered a bowl of chili and soaked in the view.
It was surreal. After two hours of complete quiet and virtually no sign of anyone on the trail in days, I was surrounded by dozens of skiers, in a restaurant. “I just bagged another NH48, and now I’m indoors eating chili” My mind reeled. I looked at my phone – full signal. I called home to inform my wife of this, hoping that by repeating this info, I could believe it.
As soon as I was done, I put my crampons on and headed down. It took the same time to get down as I took to get up from Lonesome Lake. Two hours. I guess I didn’t want my vacation day walk in the woods to end.
I’m looking forward to visiting Lonesome Lake again this weekend.
My mission was to visit Lonesome Lake, and then possibly bag a peak from there. I quickly stuffed my pack, grabbed the traditional Dunkin Donuts bagel sandwich, and headed up to Franconia Notch.
I was a couple of minutes behind schedule when I saw MtnMagic and Ghostdog in the Lafayette campground parking lot. Unfortunately, there is just enough cellular signal strength in the parking lot for work to share their crisis-du-jour and tie me up for another 10 minutes of broken conversation. Sorry about the delays, Magic… you were more patient than I was with the situation.
And so, with print queues printing and firewalls selectively opened, business was set and hiking could begin.
The Lonesome Lake trail to the lake has three almost even sections. The first third starts off with a gentle grade, but soon hits a moderately steep section for the middle third, and winds up pretty level for the final approach. We bare booted the entire trip to the hut.
With 40 degree weather and a full winter pack, I warmed up pretty quick. MtnMagic had already switched to 3-season pack and lead the walk at a steady pace. He struck me as a very observant person who would frequently point out signs of beaver activity, pine marten tracks, various trees, and even pointed out the wee remains of snow fleas.
Part way up the trail we ran into Heidi, one of the two caretakers from the hut. I warned her of the dinner plans, but she had heard of them already.
“So you’re coming up with a bunch of Boy Scouts next weekend?” she asked.
“No, FOOL Scouts. Mostly adults with a merry zest for life, and a healthy disregard of consequences. We’re frying up a turkey and running it to the hut to celebrate our April 1st holiday”.
She just smiled. You really can’t surprise croo. They’ve seen just about everything. She recommended that I give the Hi Cannon trail and crampons a go.
The walk around Lonesome Lake was nice. The highway noise was gone, the grade level, and the place has a picturesque beauty.
Even though we took a few breaks on the way up, we reached the hut in book time. We took a brief tour of the facilities and tried looking for a match to light the stove for tea. We must have searched for about 5-10 minutes before MtnMagic thought of turning on the stove. Turns out matches weren’t necessary.
Before you know it, MtnMagic and I were sipping tea and playing chess. A fun game - we took turns making mistakes and handing victory to each other, but I made the final error and Magic won the game.
I put on crampons, and headed back around the lake to the Dodge cutoff. MtnMagic followed me partway up the trail, before hitting his turnaround time. Before cries of abandonment ensue, I will point out that this was planned.
I continued up to the Hi Cannon trail alone. The trail was gorgeous, with a fresh coat of snow, and several ice flows. While the trail looks fairly straight on the map, it seems to twist and turn quite a bit, with some nice views along the way. The clouds seemed to be hanging at a little over 4,000 feet and it was easy imagining Lincoln and Lafayette as one giant mountain extending into the heavens.
There were a couple of cautious moments on ice, but the ladder was a bit spooky. The rungs covered with ice weren’t too bad, what worried me were the exposed ones. The grivel termites had done a number on some of them, and while they held up fine, I wondered how much weight they can support.
Just when I was about to complain about the steepness, the trail leveled off through some scrub pines and soon I could see the observation deck. The summit kind of sneaks up on you.
I climbed the deck for NH48 #25. There were clearing skies to the south, and though Lafayette was still shrouded in the clouds the views were nicer than my last several hikes. I wandered down to the tram building, and could smell fried food. I ordered a bowl of chili and soaked in the view.
It was surreal. After two hours of complete quiet and virtually no sign of anyone on the trail in days, I was surrounded by dozens of skiers, in a restaurant. “I just bagged another NH48, and now I’m indoors eating chili” My mind reeled. I looked at my phone – full signal. I called home to inform my wife of this, hoping that by repeating this info, I could believe it.
As soon as I was done, I put my crampons on and headed down. It took the same time to get down as I took to get up from Lonesome Lake. Two hours. I guess I didn’t want my vacation day walk in the woods to end.
I’m looking forward to visiting Lonesome Lake again this weekend.
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