Trip Report: Lonesome Lake

Sunday was a splendid early fall day, and we decided to spend it outside.

There was a slight complication, in that I didn't propose this day of hiking until 9:30, which is when I woke up. (In my defense, I was at the hospital from 2 to 4 AM checking on a surgical patient I was called in to see.) So there was no good way to reconcile the hour plus drive up to Franconia Notch, and the hike and the drive back, with Brynna's normal 12ish to 3ish nap. We decided to go for it anyway.

And boy, was that a good decision!

While we ran around packing, Brynna entertained herself by trying on her new hats, just inherited from the little girls next door:

(No, she's not supposed to have a pacifier when she's out of her crib. But sometimes she finds one anyway, and then we have to find a suitable distraction so that we can take it away without setting off a huge screaming fit. So occasionally we turn a blind eye.)

We settled on a hike that Brynna has actually done before.


Jasper was much more comfortable with his saddlebags this time.


Brynna rode along with Alex, chattering all the way. "I like hiking! I hiking, Dada hiking, Mama hiking, Jasper hiking! We go up, up, up mountain! High, high!"

We then enjoyed a lovely lunch by the lake:



And then we set off back down the trail, deciding to let Brynna walk for a little way on her own. As expected, she was a huge fan of the bridges, big and small:







(No, Jasper hasn't turned into a zombie. The red-eye reducer doesn't work on doggie green-eye. Alex will try to Photoshop it at some point...)







As you can see, she is quite the trooper. She actually managed to hike/slide/stumble/jump her way down well more than half of the trail, though she did need frequent boosts from one of us over puddles or big rocks and logs. We kept trying to put a hand on her to make sure she wouldn't go catapaulting down the trail, but she would exclaim "No hand! All By My Self!" and then in the next breath, would stick out her arms with a "Help me!" Eventually she was tired enough that we wrangled her back into the backpack for the last half mile or so.

I think she was asleep before I had the car up to speed on the highway. She's been talking about her mountain experience ever since. Hurray for our tiny hiker!