Lonesome Lake winter hike

Joe and I enjoyed having Fred join us on the Lonesome Lake hike today.   It was a beautiful day to be out, but the journey was more important than the destination as we didn't actually make it to Lonesome Lake.   The cascades along the Basin-Cascades trail were raging after the temperature hit 60 the day before (even though yesterday it was only in the 30s).   The first stream crossing was pretty much impossible to cross.  Joe was crossing first, but he unfortunately fell into the water while hopping onto a boulder, getting his legs immersed.  This was the same stream crossing where Fred lost a snowshoe when we were trying to cross one time when we led this 10-15 years ago.  I had posted that in the trip report back then, which led to somebody having read about it and finding the snowshoe a week later and it getting returned to Fred (note that Fred was using the same snowshoes today!)   After Joe's dunking, and also because Fred and I did not want to take our boots and socks off to cross the stream, we turned around, but Joe felt OK to walk 2 miles along the Franconia Notch Bike trail to Lafayette Campground, where we sat and ate our lunches and then turned around to head back.   Even though we didn't make it to the destination, the cascades were beautiful, and it was a nice easy walk along the bike trail.    It was so nice for Joe and me to be able to do this and talk with someone else (almost a normal social situation!), honestly we could have been walking around a parking lot and it would have been great to have company, but add in the beauty of the great outdoors, and it was wonderful.   Even with maintaining 6 feet social distance space it was easy enough to talk (Joe and I also live together, so it was mostly Fred social distancing from us, and vice versa).   :-)

Join us for this winter snowshoe hike to Lonesome Lake Hut. The whole hike is just over 6 miles with about 1200 feet of elevation gain. We will hike up the Basin-Cascades trail and Cascade Brook trail past cascades and waterfalls to the Lonesome Lake hut.  We will have to eat lunch outside since the hut will be closed.  There is a stream crossing on the Basin-Cascades trail that can be difficult in high water.  It might be good to be able to tie your snowshoes to your backpack (or just use snowshoes the whole trip), and bringin an extra dry pair of socks is probably a good idea.   We will then descend the more popular Lonesome Lake trail to Lafayette campground, and then take the Pemi trail back to the Basin parking lot where we're parked.  Microspikes could easily be used for most of the hike except for the last 2 miles on the Pemi trail, so it's best to have snowshoes, whether you use them for the whole hike or tie them to your backpack and just use them for the last 2 miles.