Cannon Mountain, 5-21-2016
Cannon Mountain 5-21-2016
Cannon was our 13th summit on our list of 4000 footers, and was not unlucky, minus some scrapes, and sprained wrists and a lost water bottle it was a success. On the road at 5:45 AM from Connecticut, we started hiking at 10 AM up Lonesome Lake Trail. We have climbed this trail several times in the past, relatively easy, weather was good, Sky and Peyton went on their own, Savannah and I met them at the Lonesome Lake Hut at 11 AM about 20 minutes behind them. We took a 30 minute break at the hut and continued to Kinsman ridge trail, reaching the junction at 11 AM. The trail was rocky and steep in some sections and due to the time of year it was icy and wet. We took a break to enjoy the view to the north on top of a fairly large rock when two of our packs slid down off the rock into a crevice. Skylar somehow went into the crevice upside down hanging by nothing but the toes of his boot and was able to retrieve the packs emerging with snow and ice on his back. He wanted to go back in to get the water bottle but we decided against it – too dangerous.
We arrived at the summit of Cannon at 2 PM, weather cooperated and we had great views of the Franconia Ridge and views west were visible for 80 miles. We ate lunch, were able to call home and start our descent.
We continued north on Kinsman Ridge trail to the parking area of Cannon Mountain. This route was icy, steep and dangerous. Climbing was slow and you had to grab onto the trees to keep from falling. There were occasional views to the north, weather continued to cooperate and we eventually reached the trail head. We took the cement path back to Lafayette Campground, were able to take showers, patch up our scrapes, ice our sprains and head home.
(Rt: 6.2 miles, 2,300 feet, 4:15)
