I had originally planned to do the loop hike of Mt. Liberty and Mt. Flume which was directly across (a mile or so) the Notch from Cannon Mt. I thought that would be an easy hike, but after looking into it further, I realized it would be very challenging with a mile up the Flume Slide being some of the steepest terrain (with large boulders) that you would see. It had rained the previous couple days, so the trail and rocks would be damp and in addition there was wind from the front that passed the previous day and I didn’t want to be out on open rocks with high winds. It proved to be a good choice, as Cannon was all the hike that Jacob and I needed after our 20 mi. hike the previous week and it turned out to be a great hike to introduce Jennifer to hiking in the White Mountains and the challenges of steep uneven terrain on a descent.

Cannon (4100′)  was hiked with Jen Cancio and Jacob. This was a 6.5 mi  loop hike with a side trip to Lonesome Lake and Lonesome Lake Hut on the way back down. We took Lonesome Lake Tr. to Hi-Cannon Tr to Kinsman Ridge Tr and then back down Kinsman Ridge to Lonesome Lake Tr.  Rain the previous days made this a challenging hike. The trail was uneven and steep at times on way up, but was even more challenging on the way down.

Ran into couple on way up who was coming down the trail we were ascending. They said they turned around after starting down the Kinsman Ridge Tr toward Lonesome Lake Hut, because it was too steep and slippery. This had me worried that it would be problematic for Jen as I was already hoping that trail would be less challenging than the one we were coming up because I didn’t want to descend the same trail we were ascending.

We packed pretty light for this trip because I knew there would be water at the top and on the way down. Turned out we packed even more than we needed with a full service restaurant at the top.

We parked at the Lafayette Campground parking area and got on the trail at 9:30 am. It was forecast to be sunny today with highs to 80 degrees. It wouldn’t be that hot hiking. The rain previous days had cause some of the trail to get washed out in places and there were bugs in the beginning that required some OFF wipes. Jacob borrowed Jennifer’s walking sticks because he had been trying to get me to buy him a pair. He would quickly find out they are useless on hiking terrain like that we do with the 4000 footers. They are just in the way ascending and on the way down the terrain is so steep, uneven, and much of hard granite, that the sticks can be a liability tying up your hands. Much of the descent requires using your arms to squat down and even get on your butt. I ended up carrying those sticks on my pack up and back.

Took Lonesome Lake Tr and then cutoff with High-Cannon Tr for steepest climb to top.

Jacob was pretty tired and seemed to be wore out after the first half hour though he kept pace well ahead of us.

We got to the Kinsman Ridge Tr at 11:30 for a two hour hike to that point.

Could see Lonesome Lake in distance from High-Cannon on way up. We would descend to the lake and hut on way down.

 

We got to top of observation tower at 11:45 for a 2:15 hike from beginning. The 360 degree views were spectacular.

There were a large number of people at the top of Cannon. They had a restaurant with a very nice selection of sandwiches, soups, and other foods for sale. In addition they had a bar area with craft beers and wine. I even talked to some hiker who had come up the lift line trail who were drinking beers. Most of the people were tourists who had paid the money to ride the gondola up and they brought picnics and were sitting out on the ground or picnic benches enjoying the beautiful afternoon. If you are going to hike, a day hike to the top where you don’t need to carry anything and can get a great sandwich and drink is the way to go…of course most rode the gondola. At the top of the viewing tower (above), there was a group of about 20 teens with their guide. I don’t think they hiked up, they appeared to be on a day trip and the guide was telling them they couldn’t swim in echo lake because the drought had caused high levels of bacteria.

We started back down from the top at 12:40 and got over to the Kinsman Ridge Tr at 12:50 pm. It was 1.0 mile to junction of Lonesome Lake Tr and that would take us 45 minutes.

 

We got here at 1:35 pm.

We made it past the steepest part of the hike coming down the Kinsman Ridge Tr to the Lonesome Lake Tr, though the rest of the hike to hut was still difficult.

There was some very interesting lichen and moss that I didn’t take a picture of, saw many mushrooms so I decided to start taking pictures of the unique fauna on our hikes. Beautiful.

 

It took us 45 minutes to come down the Lonesome Lake Tr to the hut loop tr. and then another 10 minutes to walk around Lonesome Lake to the hut. We got to hut at 2:30 pm. The hut was similar to the Carter Notch hut we stayed the previous week except in addition to bunkhouses with 2 double bunks there were also large bunkhouses with a dozen beds. Hope we don’t end up in one of these in the future. We said Hi to the crew in the kitchen and looked around the grounds. There were a lot of people milling around. We left the hut at 2:50 pm.

Jen showed us how foreshadowing works by framing the hill in the background properly. Pretty cool! It took us 50 minutes to get back to the car arriving at 3:40 with the parking lot very full. As we got to the bottom and were walking through the campground a family was making the decision to hike up to the Lonesome lake hut. It was late in afternoon and three of the teens looked overweight and had flip flops on. Very unlikely they made it to the hut.