Lady of the Wild Woods

I hit the trail on Saturday with Huiyeng after a leisurely morning and a fairly late start. We were lucky to find a parking space at all at the Camp Lafayette parking lot, and yet somehow a space opened for us. The air was still crisp, but the wind was calm, and we warmed up as we moved. Most of the people we ran into on the trail were on their way out, but that will happen when you start a nearly ten mile hike just before noon! The first part of the trail to Lonesome Lake and the Lonesome Lake AMC Hut was well-packed. There are many touristy types that hike the 1.5 miles to the hut just to see it, which I admit, it is worth seeing if you can after only 1.5 miles. Along the way I ran into my friend, John and his girlfriend, Mary. John is an accomplished hiker, having completed the AT and the Long Trail most recently. His girlfriend was new to hiking, and it was so sweet to see him introducing her to this world, like Huiyeng introduced it to me. The trail was a bit busy, so the snow was packed, and my Hillsounds were just fine for the trek to the Lonesome lake.

We stopped inside the hut to fill our water bottles and have a snack. There were a lot of people in there, including a Boy Scout troop. We use the facilities, finished our snack, and headed to the Fishin’ Jimmy trail, a section of the AT, toward Kinsman Ridge. Huiyeng said she’d never done Fishin’ Jimmy in the winter, but in the summer is a was a mud pit and affectionately referred to as Fuckin’ Jimmy.

Most of the elevation gain was along the Effin’ Jimmy Trail, and we found it less packed that the previous trail, but we did not switch to snowshoes. In retrospect we probably should have. The conditions were okay for either, but snowshoes would have made floating much easier. The spikes made maneuvering easier, especially on some of the icy parts. The televators on the snowshoes would have been nice for the super steep sections, we nevertheless made it along the Kinsman Ridge Trail to the summit of Kinsman.

We continued on to South Kinsman. It only took about half an hour to get there, and we were alone. It was so quiet, pristine, and beautiful!

At the peaceful summit of South Kinsman, there were little chickadees singing and playing in the short trees.

The little patch of snow toward the bottom of the image is Lonesome Lake where I was standing in previous pictures.

The remainder of the hike back went quick and was easy, minus the up and downs that earned Effin’ Jimmy its name. My legs were about done by the time we reached Lonesome Lake again. We didn’t bother to stop in the hut, as it looked crazy busy in there being that it was about dinner time. The light was turning dusk, and we just wanted to get food at Thai 9 in Lincoln.

Two peaks, a trek through winter’s art gallery, and an experience to bookmark in this this chapter of my life.