Cannon Mountain

Date: June 19, 2010
Trails: Lonesome Lake trail --> Lonesome Lake --> Kinsman Ridge trail --> Cannon Mountain --> Hi Cannon trail --> Lonesome Lake trail --> Trailhead

For our first 4000 footer of the year, we planned a stay at the Kinsman Lodge in Franconia, just around the corner from Franconia Notch. We drove up after work Friday night, stayed the night, and planned to hike Cannon Mountain on Saturday.  In the morning, we were treated to a delicious breakfast of fruit, eggs, and buckwheat pancakes by Chet and Sue, the innkeepers at the Kinsman Lodge.  After breakfast, we made our way over to Cannon Mountain.

Cannon Mountain is a popular ski mountain and the former site of the Old Man in the Mountain.  It's one of the most recognizable mountains in the White Mountains, standing tall over route 93 as you pull into Franconia Notch.  We were excited to do this hike as we had driven by Cannon many a time, and would now be able to say that we had been on top of it.

We started our hike from the Lafayette Campground, just off of route 93.  The hike started via the Lonesome Lake trail, which climbs at a moderate pace for just over a mile before reaching Lonesome Lake.  The lake is situated at 2,730 ft. above sea level, nestled in between Cannon Mountain and the Kinsmans.  We stopped for a quick break and a snack at the north east shore of the lake, then continued along the trail towards Kinsman Ridge.

Once we made it to the Kinsman Ridge trail, we started a quick and steady uphill climb.  Before long, we found ourselves at a very steep section, where we had to do some rock scrambling.  This section continued on for a while, for what seemed like forever, but as we kept going, the views started to open up behind us.  We could see the Kinsmans off in the distance, and the view was getting clearer and clearer as we ascended.  As we approached the summit, the trail mellowed out, and a bit later, we found ourselves at a clearing.  At this point, we walked along the outer ridge near the aerial tramway.

At the ridge, we were provided with a straight on view of Franconia Ridge (Mounts Lincoln, Lafayette, Haystack, Liberty, and Flume).  We also were able to see the tram and chat with some of the people who had come up via the tram.  It was kind of fun to see people's reactions to the fact that we had not taken the tram, but rather had hiked up the mountain.  After taking some time to enjoy the views of Franconia Ridge, we made our way over to the summit.

On top of Cannon's summit is a large tower that offers 360 degree views.  We walked up the tower and took in the views for a bit.  It was windy and a bit chilly at the top of the tower, so we made our way back down and over to the Summit Cafe.  As we rounded the corner to the Cafe, we were hit with a familiar smell - french fries, burgers, and chicken fingers.  We decided that it was in our best interest to skip the fried food since it would sit in our stomachs on the way down. 

After enjoying one last view from the top, we started to make our way down.  We descended via the Hi Cannon Trail, which is a more direct route to the bottom.  It turned out that this trail was less steep than the Kinsman Ridge trail and was easier going down.  About halfway down the trail, we were able to get a nice birds-eye view of Lonesome Lake from a small ridge just off the trail.

As we reached the bottom, we were tired but happy with our hike.  We had been lucky enough to have perfect weather, Lonesome Lake had been a great sight along the trail, and the views from Cannon were spectacular.  The good news - now we can justify taking the tram to the top in the future!