A group hike back up the Kinsmans!

On Saturday, October 12th, I headed back up to hike the Kinsmans again and enjoy the beautiful fall colors by Lonesome Lake.  Paloma was away for her Bachelorette party so I didn't want to continue knocking mountains off of our list without her, so I decided to do the Kinsmans again since I enjoyed this hike a few months back.  This time I was joined by my buddies - Eric, John, and Elwood, as well as Joe, Julie, and a couple of their friends - and a dog named Max!

Lonesome Lake

The night before us gentlemen had engorged ourselves with pounds of Chinese food and beer, so needless to say it was difficult to get up in the morning.  Regardless, we were up and on the road at 6:00AM, meeting up with Joe and Julie along the way. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and soon enough we were on the trails wearing nothing but shorts and short sleeve shirts.  I was quickly reminded of how much I hate the beginning part of this trail - too much traffic from people hiking just up to Lonesome Lake.  Once we passed the lake, however, the traffic lessened quite a bit.  We kept quite a fast pace going up and stopped to have lunch on the ledges and take in the views.  We headed over to South Kinsman, had a snack at the summit, and began the descent down to the car. The weather was absolutely gorgeous the entire hike - hard to believe it was the middle of October.