We ended Day 1 at Lonesome Lake Hut. As is the tradition, on day 2 we were woken up by the croo at 6:30 AM. Breakfast is served at 7, and typically the croo wakes everyone up at 6:30. After breakfast, we gathered up our stuff for our day 2 hike, Cannon Mountain.

And once again, if you think we look tired, mind ya business. For the record the night before day 1, Awestruck and Thoreau were apparently so excited it was like Christmas Eve and they couldn’t sleep. Then we were all up at 5AM or earlier to get ready. After a hard day of hiking, and then trying to sleep in a bunk room, on a stiff bunk in the cold, we look less than fresh. I mean we all look lovely, but yeah, maybe a little tired.

The hut croo provided a weather update (there’s no cell phone reception, so the croo gets weather updates radio’d up every morning). We knew this would be the “less good” of the two days. Before we had left for our trip, the forecast was cool, less wind than the day before, but chance of rain or snow in the afternoon. The current croo-provided forecast sounded worse. Higher chance of precipitation and increased winds. We had a quick chat to discuss our options. I suggested, we could start out and see how it goes. If it started getting ugly before the steep ascent, we could just bail. If it started getting ugly near the summit, worst-case, we could take the tram down. Either way, we felt we were good to go, and we’d keep an eye on things. We were prepared for rain and cold. The only thing I was concerned with was ice, we did not have microspikes, but it didn’t sound like it would be an issue, so onward and upward.

Quick photo shoot by the lake before we head out. (Photo of me, credit: Awestruck)

Photo of me, credit: Awestruck

I love the trails around the lake. The bog bridges are always so cool looking. In addition to learning hiking etiquette rules, the ladies learned a “Kathy rule”: wait until I’m off the board before you step on it. In a way (in my head), the bog bridges are like little tiny water crossings, and I do get a little nervous about falling off, so when someone steps on the board you’re on and you feel it move, little tiny heart attack.

As I was going through the photos for this post, I realize I take a lot of trail sign photos. And while they’re nice photos to have for knowing what part of the hike you were in at what time, I also just really like them. And I don’t know if I just objectively like them or because when you’re hiking and you see once, it’s generally a very exciting site to see because it means progress or a milestone.

After the boggy bit around the lake, the trail begins to ascend. One of the ladies said something like “oh this isn’t too bad” and I laughed and said “just wait”. I’d done this hike in 2019 and I knew what was ahead.

Upper left photo taken by Awestruck, the rest of these were taken by Thoreau. Pretty sure Thoreau had the unfortunate view of my butt most of the way up the mountain.

Suddenly, there was a group of kids acting obnoxious. Awestruck was confused. I explained that we had come to the summit area and these were tourists that had taken the tram up. Cannon Mountain has an aerial tramway that takes people from the parking lot to the summit in ten minutes. There is a “rim trail”, which is a gravel path circling the summit. There is an observation deck. And there is a “cafe”, more on that in a moment.

We headed straight for the observation deck to get our summit photos. Along with tons of tourists, and a few other hikers. We hikers definitely stand out, probably partly on smell alone, but also in our dress and gear.

It is such a weird feeling to spend so much time in the woods, mostly seeing no one, to suddenly be surrounded by hoards of tourists. It’s the same on Mt. Washington. To be just the three of you for hours, then surrounded by people. It’s disconcerting.

Anyway. Summit photos!

I totally didn’t at all photo shop the pic of the three of us to get one where we all looked nice and not weird.

Awestruck brought her real camera and we took our senior photos. Ha! I think these turned out lovely, but they also totally look like we’re taking our senior photos.

Mixing it up in pairs.

The best “trail” sign of all. I may have gotten fed up with people on the observation deck and RUN off towards the cafe. While I knew there would be more tourists in there, I also knew there would be beer! and a bathroom! and french fries! Had to do the same beer photo I did last time, too.

After a beer, and some french fries, lunch, and a bathroom stop, it was time to descend.

Photo credit: Awestruck

On an earlier hike, I had given the ladies rain ponchos. As we were descending, it began to SNOW! The ladies were VERY excited to pull out their ponchos. It was just a brief flurry, then a little bit of rain. The perfect amount to be able to use new gear, but not be miserable.

I had been hoping to skip the hut on our way back. It would cut a 1/2 mile off of our trek back to the car. However, Thoreau had run out of water. We had another discussion. Awestruck and I both had water. There were copious amounts of filterable water all around us. We decided we were good to skip the hut, and we’d just grab and filter water once we came upon a water source. Literally 20 yards later we crossed a stream, so I grabbed a liter of water. We figured we’d filter it if she needed it, but we’d keep going for now. We didn’t want to take too long in case the weather decided to get worse. She didn’t need the water, and we made it back to Lafayette Place no problem.

Hike technically done at this point, but we still needed to cross under the highway to the hiker shuttle pick up. Luckily, there was a shuttle waiting. Thoreau took the opportunity to become best buddies with our driver, Jeremy. Even suggesting he join us for our post-hike burgers. Shame he had to work. Ha

Back to the car and we were done! The ladies got two more 4000-footers (bringing them to 5 each) and stayed in a high hut in the mountains.

• Total day 2 distance: 5.4 miles
• Total day 2 elevation gain: 1,400 feet (with 2,400 descent since we started at the hut)
• Total day 2 time: 8 hours 43 minutes
• Total day 2 moving time: 4 hours 53 minutes

• TOTAL distance: 12 miles
• TOTAL elevation gain: 4,121 feet (equivalent of climbing the Empire State Building 2.8 times)
• TOTAL time: 33 hours
• TOTAL moving time: 11 hours, 25 minutes