While Awestruck and Thoreau are pursuing their NH48 4000-footers, we’ve discussed backpacking. Thoreau is fully sold on it, Awestruck not so much. So I thought a hut stay might be the “gateway drug” into backpacking. Not at all thinking about the fact that it was a holiday weekend, and solely going with our availability and the fact that the huts stop full service on October 19th, I planned for us to stay at Lonesome Lake Hut on October 12.

The three day weekend for Indigenous People’s Day/Columbus Day, is one of, if not THE, busiest weekend in the Whites. We are known for our spectacular foliage and people come from all over to see it. Luckily/sadly, most people go to only a few spots: Artists Bluff, the Franconia Ridge, and the Kancamangus highway. Very unfortunately for us, we’d need to get to the trailhead directly across from Franconia Ridge, and only a few exits away from Artists Bluff and the Kanc.

The original plan (and if you’ve read my blog at all, you know how often I type that and how often that’s not what ends up happening) was to enjoy a later start from home, park at the trailhead, hike into the hut, and do a short hike from there, return to the hut for the night. Then on Sunday, do a much longer hike, getting the ladies two more 4000-footers. As we got closer, the weather forecast started to show that Saturday would be significantly better than Sunday and I began to panic about the traffic as I realized it was a holiday weekend.

So plan B was to depart home at 6AM, get to the trailhead (potentially have to park at the hiker shuttle), hike to the hut, drop our overnight stuff, do the longer two-peak hike, return to the hut and Sunday do the shorter hike. The ladies would get three 4000-footers and their first overnight hut stay.

Raise your hand if you think either of these plans were exactly what happened. Again, if you’ve read my blog before, you know.

We started off better than I thought. We left home at 6AM. We arrived to see the hiker lots were full, so went ahead to the hiker shuttle parking. It was COLD and windy, which we had packed for, but I’m not sure we were actually mentally prepared for. Hiker shuttle tickets purchased, and we waited a little bit for a shuttle. Got to chatting in line and nearly everyone was going to hike the Franconia Ridge loop. People hadn’t even heard of the Kinsmans (where we were headed), which was fine by me! The shuttle dropped us off at Lafayette Place campground, the location of the trailhead to Lonesome Lake.

We started at 9AM.

As you can see, we were very bundled up. That’s wild for me, as I’m usually HOT. I did quickly take off layers, but that start was definitely chilly.

Yep, there we go, an hour later and I’m in a sleeveless shirt. That’s more like it.

At the trailhead, we chatted to some hikers. The inevitable “Where ya headed” question was asked, and “the lake” was mentioned. Cue Awestruck exclaiming, “There’s a lake!?”.

Junction sign and Lonesome Lake with a great view of the Kinsmans.

A selfie on the lake shore and a quick photo shoot. Notice I’ve layered up some, the wind was definitely coming in off the lake.

The trail winds around the west side of the lake, crosses Cascade Brook, and then arrives at the hut.

We arrived at the hut at 11AM. The hike to the hut is 1.6 miles and 1000 feet of elevation gain. We checked in, went to our shared bunk room, dropped off our overnight stuff, and had an early lunch.

We left the hut at 11:40. We knew sunset at 6:08 and dinner is served at the huts at 6. I knew that Fishin’ Jimmy, the trail we’d be taking, is not an easy trail, so I really wanted to be sure we were back by 6. Fishin’ Jimmy, or as it’s known “F’in Jimmy” is not a trail I’d like to hike in the dark. So leaving the hut at 11:30 and needing to be back by 6, meant turnaround time was 2:30.

Fishin’ Jimmy gave me the opportunity to teach the ladies the term “PUD” or Pointless Up and Down. As seen in the photo above, we are DESCENDING despite trying to ASCEND a mountain. Fishin’ Jimmy has plenty of PUDs.

These photos taken by Thoreau. I think she has more time to take photos while she waits for me to navigate tricky spots. Speaking of photos (and videos), as hikers are prone to do, and as I’ve mentioned in earlier posts with these same ladies, we seem to always be talking about the most TMI things when another hiker crosses our path. It happened this time, too. And before I took some video of a stream, I had to say “nobody talk about poop, I’m recording”. Things you never thought you’d say.

Fishin’ Jimmy has it’s pretty moments, too, like this mossy little forest.

And then it kicks you right in the ass.

Awestruck climbing the steps, then Thoreau. Photo of me taken by Awestruck. Did Thoreau climb the steps and then come back down just to take photos of me? Yes, she did. Did I post them here? No, I used this one from Awestruck because my face sums up my feelings pretty well.

Apparently the light was amazing where I stopped to pee. So Awestruck took a great pic of Thoreau by this AT blaze…and of me returning from my pee. Side note, I don’t really believe in ghosts and that most things are explainable. Like people say they hear the ghosts of children laughing in the woods, which is just a fallen tree trunk rubbing against another tree trunk. HOWEVER, I was peeing and I SWEAR I heard a voice whisper just behind me. I did not look back. I did quickly return to the trail and my friends. Very, very quickly.

We made it to the junction of Fishin’ Jimmy and the Kinsman Ridge Trail. From here, I had taken the trail to North Kinsman and South Kinsman with Rainbow back in 2022. However, I remembered the trail a lot kinder than it actually was.

Also at some point, I let the ladies know that I didn’t think we’d be able to get South Kinsman. South Kinsman would be another 1.6 miles round trip. We were getting close to our turnaround time. Awestruck had warned me ahead of time that she would be mad about it. And she was. And I felt terrible being the bad guy. In her words, she threw a tantrum about it and then was fine. I understood, I’m the one who cried on a rock on Wildcat mountain before I had to bail.

Speaking of crying, I don’t love steep, slabby scrambles. And this hike had some. And we were rushing to get to the summits so we could get back before dark, which means we didn’t stop and eat as much as we should have. So yeah. I cried at one point.

As we continued to ascend, we did come across quite a few other hikers who were coming down and had chosen to only do North Kinsman for the same reasons of darkness and weather. It was getting windier and colder. One of the other hikers we saw was wearing JEANS. Thoreau asked him about them. It became a running gag that whenever we saw a guy, Thoreau would ask about his pants. Sort of a “you had to be there” thing.

Also note I said we came across a few hikers. As I said at the beginning of this post, it’s one of the busiest weekends, and the hiker shuttle showed that. However, we saw very few people once we left the hut. Just because the area is crowded, doesn’t mean all the trails are crowded. Peace and quiet can be found if you know where to look.

Awestruck took this great photo, showing off the foliage in Franconia Notch, and how cold Thoreau was.

North Kinsman! The view from the summit. I pointed out to the ladies several of the mountains they’d be hiking that were visible from here.

A small group of guys (and their adorable cockapoo) left the viewpoint as we arrived. We had a few moments to ourselves (bet no one said that on Lincoln and Lafayette). Then a gentleman arrived, who turned out to be from Kiev. He was nice enough to take some photos for us.

It was 2:30. So that meant, turnaround. The ladies wouldn’t be getting South Kinsman on this day. We hiked back to the hut the way we had come, which was again “F’in Jimmy”. A normally chatty bunch, I think we were a bit quiet.

Finish selfie. If we look tired, we don’t. That’s your imagination. We made it back at 5:40 PM. Just in time to drop our stuff and head to dinner. And before it got dark. While it was a bit disappointing to not get South Kinsman, it was the right decision. I think Thoreau and Awestruck agree.

The view of our bunkhouse and the view from the bunkhouse.

The ladies got to enjoy dinner and the croo silliness. Our room was a 4-person bunk room and our bunkmate didn’t appear until right before bedtime, aka hiker midnight, aka 9PM, when we were already in our bunks and lights out.

• Total distance: 6.5 miles
• Total elevation gain: 2,700 feet (the equivalent of climbing the Empire State Building roughly twice)
• Total time: 8 hours, 45 minutes
• Moving time: 6 hours, 32 minutes