What does one do after they spend 8 hours sitting at a trailhead talking to hundreds of people?  They go for a hike, of course!  It was peak foliage or damn near it this weekend, and it was busy.  I wanted to do Mt. Jo just to get a GPS track of it for the Lake Placid 9 and to see the new long trail.  I get down to Loj, and it's a mad house.  There were actually rangers ticketing people on Loj road for illegal parking.  I turn around and go down meadows lane to do Mt. VanHovenberg instead since I knew that the bobsled park was closed off due to a mountain bike race.  I barely find parking, and get on the 2 mile trail up.  It was a much needed hike where I barely saw anyone.  With the parking issues and bobsled park being closed off, I only saw a few people on the trail, and had the ledges all to myself!  And the views!!!  Nothing beats these lower peaks for foliage viewing.