kltilton
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- Nov 22, 2004
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Cannon Mt. Snowshoe Run 3/4/05
It all started with seeing As Fast As playing on Thursday night at Plymouth State. Albee and I were going up to Plymouth anyways, so we decided bagging a 4000 footer was in order. Thanks to our gracious host, my girlfriend Jess, we had a place to stay and a short drive to Franconia Notch on Friday morning.
7 AM comes pretty quick when you stay up eating pizza until midnight. We threw down some breakfast and headed out the door to the Lafayette Place campground. An AMC van and one other hiker were all that we saw at the trailhead. We hit the trail around 8:45 AM and started running up the Lonesome Lake Trail. The snow had drifted quite a bit in the campground, but once we got in the trees the trail was well packed out.
Running up the switchbacks was a slow process, but rewarding once we hit the flat stretch before Lonesome Lake. This was Albee’s first trip to Lonesome Lake, and only his second time going up Cannon. The first time he rode up the tramway as a wee lad with his parents.
We skipped a trip to Lonesome Lake Hut on the way up so we could make sure we had enough time to get to the summit of Cannon. The Lonesome Lake Trail headed to the Kinsman Ridge Trail was also well broken out. It looked like we wouldn’t have to break any trail today. The inclines on the last part of the LLT were pretty steep, and required speed hiking as opposed to running. We hit the intersection of the KRT in about 45 minutes.
Looking to the south on the KRT I was happy that we were heading to Cannon and not one of the Cannonballs or the Kinsmans. The trail wasn’t broken out at all and had at least a foot to two feet of new snow on it. That one particular section was pretty steep, making me happy that I was headed north.
After about 200 yards on the KRT we found that whoever broke trail decided to stop. So much for an easy run up to the summit. I took the lead most of the way using trees to help pull me up as Albee tried to get traction on the hard packed snow underneath. Albee took trail braking duties as we met up with the Dodge Cutoff. The snow drifts were 3-4 feet high in spots, but nothing that we couldn’t handle. We took some pictures near the Rim Trail junction down into the notch and over to the Franconia Ridge. The ridge was clouded in, but beautiful nonetheless.
We took a small break on the summit observation tower as one guy checked the precipitation can on the weather tower. The trip up took us 1:27, the longest 5k of my life. We spotted RoboHiker on the observation deck, but he seemed rather icy.
The trip down was an absolute blast. Albee took the lead as we ran / slid / glissaded down the way we came up. We managed to fall more times that we could count, and Al even managed to lose a snowshoe and a glove at two separate points. From Lonesome Lake junction to the Cannon summit took us about 1:07 up. It took us 26 minutes to get down. We made a side trip to the hut on our way back and checked out the inside and signed the guestbook. The caretaker wasn’t there at the time. The rest of the trip was like going down a bobsled run. We weaved in and out of the trees, and finally met some other hikers near the Hi-Cannon Trail.
The run ended back at the parking lot, 2:25 after we started. The great thing about running on snowshoes is that you can cover so much ground in such a short time. Being able to be in the mountains and summit a peak is a great feeling when you only have a couple of hours after work or have plans for the afternoon. Speed isn’t always a bad thing.
It all started with seeing As Fast As playing on Thursday night at Plymouth State. Albee and I were going up to Plymouth anyways, so we decided bagging a 4000 footer was in order. Thanks to our gracious host, my girlfriend Jess, we had a place to stay and a short drive to Franconia Notch on Friday morning.
7 AM comes pretty quick when you stay up eating pizza until midnight. We threw down some breakfast and headed out the door to the Lafayette Place campground. An AMC van and one other hiker were all that we saw at the trailhead. We hit the trail around 8:45 AM and started running up the Lonesome Lake Trail. The snow had drifted quite a bit in the campground, but once we got in the trees the trail was well packed out.
Running up the switchbacks was a slow process, but rewarding once we hit the flat stretch before Lonesome Lake. This was Albee’s first trip to Lonesome Lake, and only his second time going up Cannon. The first time he rode up the tramway as a wee lad with his parents.
We skipped a trip to Lonesome Lake Hut on the way up so we could make sure we had enough time to get to the summit of Cannon. The Lonesome Lake Trail headed to the Kinsman Ridge Trail was also well broken out. It looked like we wouldn’t have to break any trail today. The inclines on the last part of the LLT were pretty steep, and required speed hiking as opposed to running. We hit the intersection of the KRT in about 45 minutes.
Looking to the south on the KRT I was happy that we were heading to Cannon and not one of the Cannonballs or the Kinsmans. The trail wasn’t broken out at all and had at least a foot to two feet of new snow on it. That one particular section was pretty steep, making me happy that I was headed north.
After about 200 yards on the KRT we found that whoever broke trail decided to stop. So much for an easy run up to the summit. I took the lead most of the way using trees to help pull me up as Albee tried to get traction on the hard packed snow underneath. Albee took trail braking duties as we met up with the Dodge Cutoff. The snow drifts were 3-4 feet high in spots, but nothing that we couldn’t handle. We took some pictures near the Rim Trail junction down into the notch and over to the Franconia Ridge. The ridge was clouded in, but beautiful nonetheless.
We took a small break on the summit observation tower as one guy checked the precipitation can on the weather tower. The trip up took us 1:27, the longest 5k of my life. We spotted RoboHiker on the observation deck, but he seemed rather icy.
The trip down was an absolute blast. Albee took the lead as we ran / slid / glissaded down the way we came up. We managed to fall more times that we could count, and Al even managed to lose a snowshoe and a glove at two separate points. From Lonesome Lake junction to the Cannon summit took us about 1:07 up. It took us 26 minutes to get down. We made a side trip to the hut on our way back and checked out the inside and signed the guestbook. The caretaker wasn’t there at the time. The rest of the trip was like going down a bobsled run. We weaved in and out of the trees, and finally met some other hikers near the Hi-Cannon Trail.
The run ended back at the parking lot, 2:25 after we started. The great thing about running on snowshoes is that you can cover so much ground in such a short time. Being able to be in the mountains and summit a peak is a great feeling when you only have a couple of hours after work or have plans for the afternoon. Speed isn’t always a bad thing.
We easily averaged under 10 minute miles on the way back. The Hut was really impressive. I couldn't believe how well it retains heat. I wondered how they got those huge stuffed snakes packed in there.
