Cannon Mountain, White Mountains, NH
August 15, 2001
The idea of a week of beautiful weather in New Hampshire without climbing some large mountain seemed just plain wrong. Thus Amy and I set out early in the morning from the Tramway parking lot and headed up the Kinsman Ridge trail up the north slope of Cannon Mountain. At 4180 feet, it's hardly amongst the giants of the area, but it promisses spectacular views and a good workout. We huffed and puffed up a mile and a half of steep trail being worked on by the AMC crew. Echo lake and the view to the north could be seen partially obscured by tall trees. Every now and then, the tramway cars would hum past on their towers a few hundred yards away. Aside from a few other hikers, we had the trail essentially to ourselves.
The spectacular view from the false summit of Cannon Mountain. The Eagle Cliffs and many steep avalanche tracks rim the lofty Mt. Laffayette (5260') looming across the valley.
Just as we started to feel a bit winded, the slope slackened off and we emerged into low evergreens. A side trail lead off to the east summit ledges where we had scheduled a lunch break. The view greating us was spectacular with Mts Lafayette, Lincoln and so so forth laid out in front of us in the noon-time sun. Through binoculars the popular Franconia Ridge could be seen to be crawling with other hikers. Those miniscule crowds and the fact that it was 1000' feet higher up made me glad to be sitting on the other side of the Notch. We scampered around a bit on the rocks and descended far enough to see the edge of the precipitous cliff below. Somewhere down there lurked the Old Man of the Mountain seen by millions of tourists a year, though the exact location is a closely guarded secret.
We continued the half mile through the swale of small trees and exposed rocks to the true summit where the Tramway cars let out. On such a beautiful day, even in mid-week, the place was swarming with flatlanders complaining about climbing stairs and generally bumbling around destroying the view. The observation tower showed much the same view as we'd gotten before, plus a nice view to the west. Fortunately, the crowds dropped off rapidly as soon was we continued on the Kinsman Ridge trail across the southern shoulder of the mountain.
A very quick four tenths of a mile from the summit, we started down the steep Hi-Cannon trail headed for the valley again. This is a very exciting trail featuring lots of steep rocks to friction down, some challenging hands-and-feet terrain, a wooden ladder in one spot, and some spectacular views of Lonesome Lake from small ledges. At length, we reached the Dodge Cutoff and traversed through easy, pleasent forest to the mobbed, sunny lake. Several groups were occupying the near side swimming and hanging out. The opposite shore near the AMC hut was mobbed as well.
Amy on one of the many ledges along the spectacular Hi-Cannon Trail. Lonesome Lake can be seen below. Click for a larger image.
Since time was pressing, we headed down the Lonesome Lake trail to the valley and back the 2 miles of easy Pemi trail through the valley to the car. An excellant hike with very rewarding views. Total milage, 7.5 miles.
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