Lonesome Lake Hut (1/14-15/23)
It used to be a tradition for my friend Sylvia and I to do a backpacking trip into the White Mountains, usually to Lonesome Lake Hut, over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. I don't get to see her much anymore, so I was excited when we decided to bring the tradition back for this year. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Sylvia realized that she had double booked herself against her grandson's first birthday, so she had to cancel.
However, I didn't want to cancel the trip. I got in contact with Dragonfly's brother-in-law, Parched, who keeps up a crazy hiking schedule these days. I asked if he wanted to join me for the trip. He was interested, but he had a conflict and couldn't start until around 2 PM on Saturday. Lonesome Lake is a short, easy hike, so I wasn't concerned about that. We decided to go for it, and so we agreed to meet in Lincoln and then drive to the trailhead.
I was running late, so I didn't get a chance to stop at Big Dave's Bagels in North Conway for food along the way, which was sad. On the plus side, I made up time along the way, and so ended up getting to Lincoln ahead of schedule, at 1:40. Parched had still beaten me there, and I met him in the White Mountains Visitor Center. I was hoping to leave one car there, but they don't allow overnight parking. Thus, we had to take both cars. We decided to park in the parking lot for Franconia Ridge, as they have a large, easy to use parking lot, and then take the tunnel under I-93 to get to the trailhead.
I remembered most of how to navigate the route from when I used to travel with Sylvia. In fact, my first real winter hiking experience was when Sylvia and I hiked to Lonesome Lake Hut in January of 2015. Back then, I didn't have any real winter hiking equipment or experience, and Sylvia's equipment was either old or broken, so I attempted to get to the hut without poles or spikes. It didn't go well. I made it, but I was exhausted.
Speaking of poles, Parched had forgotten his, so I loaned him one of mine for the ascent, and we both just used one pole. Parched was very concerned that he was struggling and slowing me down, but I tried to tell him that I wasn't in a hurry. I knew it was a pretty short and easy ascent, so I wasn't worried about setting any kind of speed records. After we took a five minute snack break, he seemed to get his feet under him a little better. It was also better to let him lead, so we weren't trying to keep my pace.
When we got to the top of the climb, we looked out over Lonesome Lake itself. In previous years, Syvia and I had walked directly across the lake, but there's no way that I was doing that given recent temperatures, and Parched was in complete agreement with me. Also, the wind was howling pretty well, so going across the lake with no tree cover would have been unpleasant as well as dangerous.
Parched and I made good time on the trek around the lake, and before long we were at Lonesome Lake Hut. Parched had only stayed in the Zealand Hut in winter before, and Zealand is nice in that the bunk rooms are attached to the main hut. Not so at Lonesome Lake. It took us a little while to find the caretaker, Elliot, and get checked in, but we eventually managed it.
We would be sharing a bunk room with two other guys, Tim and his son Chris. Tim had an interesting story about how he had won millions of dollars in a lottery, but he was part of a work pool, so after taxes and splitting, he only got to take home $28,000. There were a ton of Boy Scouts at the Hut for this weekend (there seem to always be over MLK Day weekend), so it was a noisy place.
Parched and I decided to head out for a little hike before dark. I dropped the giant Osprey Xenith 105 pack I was carrying in the bunk room, and I brought out a little daypack for our hike. We went roughly half a mile or so up the Fishin' Jimmy Trail, and then turned around. I have always wondered why that trail has such a unique name.
When we got back to the hut, Parched wasn't hungry, but I started getting my food together. I had Irish Shepherd's Pie from Nomad Nutrition. The good news is that the meal was delicious. The bad news is that the water I used to heat it wasn't quite hot enough, and so it didn't rehydrate fully, and it was a bit rough and chewy. I also brought desserts from Packit Gourmet for Parched and I. Parched never ended up eating his meals, because he got two chicken quesadillas from one of the other groups staying there. Sometimes dietary restrictions make me sad.
We ended up settling down to play some board games with three other hikers: Ben, Diane, and Sarah. First we played Bananagrams, which Parched showed that he was a master of. Scrabble-type games are definitely not my forte, so I was happy to not totally embarrass myself. Afterwards, we played Codenames. I did a little better there, but Ben and I lost twice against Parched, Diane, and Sarah.
Once that was done, it was time to settle in for a long winter's nap. I was excited to have my Western Mountaineering Kodiak sleeping bag. It's warm, roomy, and extremely comfortable. I fell asleep more easily than I expected, but unfortunately I was woken up around midnight by nature's call. After that, I had a hard time going back to sleep. I realized that my head was cold, so I eventually put my hat on, and that helped a bit. Also, my watch had a weird malfunction that caused me to misunderstand the time.
Overall, I got decent sleep, and I woke up relatively refreshed in the morning. Parched, unfortunately, didn't fare so well. He couldn't sleep all night, and so finally took a sleep supplement around 4 AM to help him sleep. However, that put him on two days of little sleep.
Unlike the previous day, which was gray, cloudy, and dreary, Sunday started off bright and blue.
I also got treated to a great view of Franconia Ridge from right outside the bunk house.
I went in to have breakfast while Parched was putting himself together. Unfortunately, that meant dealing with hordes of Boy Scouts, but that was sort of unavoidable. Once they cleared out, Parched got to have his breakfast, and I chatted with Ben and Sarah about hiking stories. I think they were from New York, and so they were interested in the hiking traditions of the White Mountains, especially the 48 four thousand footers. I think they planned to go hike the Kinsmans that day.
For our part, Parched and I were headed down the mountain and out. We decided to take a different route, so we used the Dodge Cutoff to cross from Lonesome Lake over to the Hi-Cannon Trail. I assume that the cutoff is probably named after Joe Dodge, like so many other things in the White Mountains. The cutoff was actually very pretty, and I got a nice trail picture.
Parched decided to use the hike to try out his new crampons. The Hi-Cannon Trail was steeper and icier than the Lonesome Lake Trail had been, so I think the crampons served him well without having poles. The trail was busy, and we passed a lot of people.
Still, it was an easy hike out, and we made it back to our cars without any difficulty. It was a successful weekend, and I had a good time hanging out with Parched and getting to do my second hut stay of the winter. Heck, all I have to do now is stay at Zealand, and I will have completed the winter trifecta of White Mountain Huts. As always, remember that you can't take flight until you spread your wings!
Comments
Post a Comment