grouseking
Well-known member
I succeeded on my 5th winter 4K yesterday, which was Cannon Mtn. Let me say, it was NOT easy. The route was the Lonesome Lake trail, with a little side trip to the hut, and then the Around the Lake trail, back to Lonesome Lake trail, to Kinsman Ridge trail up the summit, and down to the tram parking lot. Considering it was only a 6 to 6.5 mile hike, it was extremely tiring! Nevertheless, it was also very rewarding. Thankfully the weather was moderate enough to comfortably complete this hike. Here come some pics....
Starting out- The Pemi river, nice and small here, and refreezing.
I liked the trees in this pic.
Up at Lonesome Lake...it was an overcast day, but there were some interesting cloud formations, including some large lenticulars.
Around the Lake trail
I didn't take very many pics heading up the rest of the Lonesome Lake trail, and the Kinsman Ridge tr. It was just too darn steep! Luckily I bought some new snowshoes-Atlas Ascent. They are Atlas's take on the MSR's. Thankfully, they seemed to do the trick!
Looking back at a Cannon Ball
After what seemed like 10 years, we were near the summit! I have so many pics of Franconia Ridge, I didn't take too many pics up there.
Strongest wind gust I got on the tower. Not too bad. The wind chill on the other hand was zero. Still, it could have been way worse.
Kinsmans
And a parting shot of Franconia Ridge
The toughest part of the hike for me was going down. My snowshoes were just a bit too bad for the narrow sections of the trail, so I switched to microspikes. These didn't grip very well because there wasn't a ton of ice. So I butt slid down portions of the trail. This ended up being a great decision because it saved a lot of my energy. Still, I was running on fumes , and the mental game was killing my spirit because it didn't seem like we were going to ever get to the bottom. Finally, at around 5pm, 2 hours after we starting hiking down, we hit the parking lot! Success!
But there is more...Our car was parked at Lafayette Place, which means a couple mile walk back on the bike trail. I was not in the mood for this at all. I could have done it-we had headlamps and everything. But I would have been crawling by the end. Luckily, we came across a person who worked at the Cannon Mtn ski museum, and she gave us a ride back to Lafayette! She was quite possibly the nicest lady I have ever met. If you are reading this, thank you again!!
After a great dinner at the Lucky Dog in Plymouth, it was time to head back to Lebanon, and sleep for 10 hours straight....normal routine for a guy who works 2nd shift and had to get up at 6am the day of the hike.
No wonder why I was running on fumes!Anyways, here are the pics, hope you enjoy!
http://grouseking.smugmug.com/New-H...19-13/27639780_g2bHfF#!i=2327922425&k=KNwmDRG
