I had a bonus and unexpected free day, so of course, I hiked.  Met up with a couple of friends (including Right Turn) and we hit Cannon Mountain.

We took the Lonesome Lake Trail, which was nice since Right Turn and I had hiked to the Lonesome Lake Hut with a group in winter.  It’s always neat to see the same trail in a new season.

One nice thing about summer is that the campground at the trailhead is open, which means the bathroom is open!  When you hike, you really appreciate things like a flush toilet and running water to wash your hands.

The hike up to the lake is lovely.  Not too steep.  Not too rocky.  And of course, it levels out around the lake.

Then it all changes.

Allow me to provide a few snippets of trail descriptions from “The 4000-footers of the White Mountains” and the “White Mountain Guide”:

“At 1.6 trail begins to climb, easily at first, then at increasingly steep grade with rough and eroded footway.” (Emphasis mine)

“…then climbs a very steep and rough pitch among huge boulders, with several fairly difficult scrambles”

“climb very steeply up boulder-strewn west slope of Cannon. One pitch requires use of hands”

One pitch?  ONE?!  Truth be told, this was actually sort of fun, and I’ll take “fairly difficult scrambles” over ledges any day.

You then get to summit, only to find it mobbed with tourists!  There is a tramway that brings people up to the summit of Cannon Mountain (which is also a ski resort).  The benefit of this is THERE IS A BAR, and FOOD, and a BATHROOM.  I could get totally used to having a beer, a flush toilet, hot food, and cold ice cream at the summit.

Stats ~

6.4 miles
2,450 feet ascended
7 hours, 57 minutes total time (5 hours, 19 minutes moving time)