Day 98 - Lonesome Lake Hut

August 21 - Lincoln, NH to +Lonesome Lake Hut - 13.4 miles

Picked up a new pair of new shoes today! The Merrell NTR Seismic, my 6th pair of shoes. It's a good thing too since we had to climb Kinsman Mountain today. The ascent was pretty tough... it was extremely difficult to use trekking poles for about 50% of the climb.

We heard that a storm was brewing and would probably hit the mountains around 6:00pm so we made it our goal to hit the first hut before then. That didn't happen. It started pouring while we were making our final climb on South Kinsman. Ridge-walking in an intense lightning storm is not fun.

Samwise was able to secure us work for stay at Lonesome Lake Hut, partly due to the Jubilee effect and that the hut master loves Lord of the Rings. The employees of the hut are recent college graduates, like ourselves, who are in complete charge of running everything. Our work for stay consisted of cleaning the stove, scrubbing a drink dispenser and sweeping the spider webs. For the food we eventually received, it was probably not enough work but we did not say anything.

The Hut Crew of Ben, Brian and Mary were stellar! Brian told me about one of this feats of carrying 121 lbs from the road to the hut. They "brag" about how much they can carry, which is quite the opposite of our ultralight philosophy.

Had a gorgeous view of the lake!