One of the advantages of working on the UTC account is that I get the whole week between Christmas and New Year's off. I've gotten into the habit of spending three days and two nights in the Whites, and for the fourth time in the past five years I spent it at Lonesome Lake Hut.
On Friday I hiked up on snowshoes from the Basin to the hut. It was snowing lightly all day. the trail was packed down with only about a half inch of fresh snow. The Basin-Cascade Trail was, as it is every winter, very beautiful. The Cascade Brook Trail, however, had a lot of blowdowns. I saw a few patches of blue sky on the way up, but mostly it was cloudy; I couldn't see Franconia Ridge from the hut. There were only six guests that night.
On Saturday I hiked from the hut to the Kinsmen and back. It was again snowing lightly all day, enough that on my way back there was an inch or so of fresh snow on top of my own tracks. There were no views at all that day, but the snow covered forest was beautiful. On my way up I took a side trip to the Kinsman Pond area on a surpisingly difficult but ultimately successful quest to locate the privy.
When I was on North Kinsman I met a group of four, one of whom recognized me. It was Tish, whom I'd met on the Hancock hike of Feb. 2008. Two of that group headed back down, but Tish and a guy named Steve came with me to South Kinsman. Conditions weren't terrible there, but there was a wind and it was cold enough that we didn't hang around. On the way back Tish and Steve split off at the Mt. Kinsman Trail intersection and I went down to the hut. Later the wind really picked up and I was very glad to be inside by the fire.
There were only three guests at the hut that night (all from Connecticut), and the caretaker let me sleep in the main room (i.e. the room with the wood stove). Thanks, Caretaker Dave! While lying there in the middle of the night I heard Dave go out and talk to someone outside. The next day he told me it was a couple guys who are doing the NH 4000 footers, in winter, at night. I guess we all have different points beyond which peakbagging looks insane.
The original plan for Sunday was to climb Cannon. However, there had been a lot of strong wind during the night, and snow continued to fall, so the trails had at least a foot of new and drifted snow over the hard pack. I started down Around Lonesome Lake Trail, and was breaking at least a foot of snow, more (as in up to waist high) where it had drifted. I was using my poles to find the trail, by poking the ground before me to see where the packed snow lay. After going about a quarter mile in about a half hour I decided that Cannon wasn't happening and returned to the hut. After some tea I started breaking trail down to the Basin. My worst moment came early on when I stepped off of a wooden bridge I hadn't realized I was on and a snowshoe got wedged under one of the bridge's wooden beams. Once I got away from the lake it was a little easier, but I didn't at all regret my decision to abort Cannon. When I got the the brook crossing on Basin-Cascade Trail I saw that some people had broken the trail up from the Basin to that point, so the rest was easy. It still took over three hours to do the 2.7 miles. Then all I had to do was dig my car out and drive from northern N.H. to Conn. on slippery roads.
So there were no views, and I had to abort a hike, but it was still a lot of fun. The temperatures were actually warmer than usual for this time of year, and there were a lot of beautiful winter scenes, as you can see in the pictures. I'll be back next year.
Here are the pictures--
Cumulus
"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get
somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
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