Roxi
Active member
My ex, Larry, laughed out loud when he got Tim’s picture of Tim and I on the summit of Cabot on Friday that read, “My friend and my ex-wife hiked Mt Cabot and all I got was this lousy photo.” He then decided 6 weeks of not hiking was too long, so he came up. Having previously expressed that he didn’t care what he hiked, wasn’t interested in the list, didn’t even care if he hiked up a mountain as long as he was outside hiking somewhere, I expected him to be ok with any of the many options I offered. Instead he turned to me and said, “If I’m going to finish this list someday, I suppose I should do one of the ones I haven’t done yet.” I picked my jaw up off the floor and handed him the list. Now that Tim and I are “sharing” Larry and both helping him bag peaks, I have to be careful not to have Larry do any of the peaks with me that Tim has plans for both of them to do together. So Tom, Field, and Willey were out. Given the iffy weather forecast of partly cloudy skies with temps in mid 60s, the presidentials probably weren’t a good idea either. And I couldn’t bring myself to go up Cabot again only two days later! 
I vaguely recall Tim saying something about he’d do Cannon with his family, so we decided to have breakfast at Polly’s Pancakes in Sugar Hill, and check the skies afterward. Summits clear we’d do Cannon, clouded over we’d go for Hale. After a wonderful breakfast of apple cinnamon oatmeal pancakes (Yum!), only the tips of Cannon’s summit as well as those of Lafayette, Lincoln, and Little Haystack were in the clouds. We decided to risk Cannon on the chance that the weather would improve as the day went on.
Getting a late start of 10 am, we headed up the Kinsman Ridge Trail which does not offer a warm up, but gets right into gaining elevation. Two miles later of huffing and puffing we stopped into the tram station for bathrooms and hot chocolate before heading to the summit. Cannon’s summit had cleared at this point, so the views from the tower were 360 and awesome! Lafayette was still in the clouds, but Lincoln was trying to make an appearance. Liberty was in the clear. There was hope!
After summiting Cannon (Larry’s 20th), we continued on the Kinsman Ridge Trail down past the Hi Cannon trail, and past the Lonesome Lake trail, to where the trail starts to climb again. We went up and tagged the Northeast Cannonball for me. I’m not sure exactly where its summit is, but there are three rocky areas to the right of the trail on top that sit higher than the trail itself. We stood on all of them! We went further along the trail to where it starts going down again, and got a view of the other two cannonballs to the southwest and the Kinsmans. Very cool! Then we backtracked and took the Lonesome Lake trail down to the hut. At this point it was sunny! The best view of the whole trip was seeing Franconia Ridge, all of its summits clear, rising above Lonesome Lake. What a photo that would have made! Did either of us bring our cameras? Of course not! If we had, we would have also taken a picture of a handmade sign for Tim that read, “My friend and his ex-wife hiked Cannon mountain and all I got was this lousy photo.”
We stopped into the hut, bought some mushroom soup (which hit the spot), and ate lunch. Then it dawned on me that the loop we were doing was truly awesome in so many ways! In addition to two places where we could purchase food and drink, we also had access to 4 bathroom stops (tramway parking, tram station, lonesome lake hut, and lafayette campground). What more could a girl ask for? And the weather turned out to be fabulous, the hike offered wonderful views in addition to a great workout, and the whole day was just FUN! I LOVE that! After lunch, we made our way around the lake and headed down to the campground, and then along the bike path and Pemi trail back to the tramway parking lot. We were tired, but very, very content.
I vaguely recall Tim saying something about he’d do Cannon with his family, so we decided to have breakfast at Polly’s Pancakes in Sugar Hill, and check the skies afterward. Summits clear we’d do Cannon, clouded over we’d go for Hale. After a wonderful breakfast of apple cinnamon oatmeal pancakes (Yum!), only the tips of Cannon’s summit as well as those of Lafayette, Lincoln, and Little Haystack were in the clouds. We decided to risk Cannon on the chance that the weather would improve as the day went on. Getting a late start of 10 am, we headed up the Kinsman Ridge Trail which does not offer a warm up, but gets right into gaining elevation. Two miles later of huffing and puffing we stopped into the tram station for bathrooms and hot chocolate before heading to the summit. Cannon’s summit had cleared at this point, so the views from the tower were 360 and awesome! Lafayette was still in the clouds, but Lincoln was trying to make an appearance. Liberty was in the clear. There was hope!
After summiting Cannon (Larry’s 20th), we continued on the Kinsman Ridge Trail down past the Hi Cannon trail, and past the Lonesome Lake trail, to where the trail starts to climb again. We went up and tagged the Northeast Cannonball for me. I’m not sure exactly where its summit is, but there are three rocky areas to the right of the trail on top that sit higher than the trail itself. We stood on all of them!
We went further along the trail to where it starts going down again, and got a view of the other two cannonballs to the southwest and the Kinsmans. Very cool! Then we backtracked and took the Lonesome Lake trail down to the hut. At this point it was sunny! The best view of the whole trip was seeing Franconia Ridge, all of its summits clear, rising above Lonesome Lake. What a photo that would have made! Did either of us bring our cameras? Of course not! If we had, we would have also taken a picture of a handmade sign for Tim that read, “My friend and his ex-wife hiked Cannon mountain and all I got was this lousy photo.” We stopped into the hut, bought some mushroom soup (which hit the spot), and ate lunch. Then it dawned on me that the loop we were doing was truly awesome in so many ways! In addition to two places where we could purchase food and drink, we also had access to 4 bathroom stops (tramway parking, tram station, lonesome lake hut, and lafayette campground). What more could a girl ask for?
And the weather turned out to be fabulous, the hike offered wonderful views in addition to a great workout, and the whole day was just FUN! I LOVE that! After lunch, we made our way around the lake and headed down to the campground, and then along the bike path and Pemi trail back to the tramway parking lot. We were tired, but very, very content. 
