Cannon Mountain

Date: 6/22/2020

Elevation: 4,100’

Miles: 4.4 miles

Time: 4 hours, 12 minutes

Trails: Kinsman Ridge Trail

Calories: 1,875

Average HR: 131

Peak HR: 181

When you have not one, not two, but three friends who will wake up at 5am to go hiking with you, you really have to consider how lucky you are. Who knows where we would all be right now without the pandemic, but this is a really special time that we’ve gotten to spend (safely) together. High school friends are real ones.

Fresh back from Santa Barbara, Matti joined me, Sarah, and Emma to do an early hike of Cannon Mountain to beat the forecast of early-afternoon thunderstorms. We left Norwich just after 6am and, after driving aimlessly around Franconia, New Hampshire, for a bit, we made it to the Kinsman Ridge trailhead at the base of the Cannon Mountain Tram. For some reason, 260 Tramway Drive is the address of two separate parking lots and Google Maps takes you to the wrong one; just stay on I-93 South until you see the exit signs that point you directly to the Tram.

Once we got there, I brought out what I thought were my mom’s hiking boots for Emma, only to realize that they were my dad’s…These boots were fully an inch too big for her and that is unfortunately not where the problems ended with these bad boys (stay tuned). Nevertheless, and without any other sneakers available, Emma laced them up and we were ready to go.

Cannon Mountain does not mess around. Fifteen minutes in and we were all having a reality check with ourselves. The trail starts gaining elevation fast and it just doesn’t really stop. Some of the first sections are super washed out too, so the trailbed is all gravely and sandy without much traction. Luckily, there are some pretty views of Echo Lake from the trail so you can stop and catch your breath at these spots before going back to the grind. Seriously, this trail just goes up like a really intense stair master and we were all feeling it real quick.

Once you’re just about to break treeline, the trail forks without telling you which way is the actual trail—love that. Luckily, my trusty guidebook told us that to the left is just an unmarked side path that leads to a great view and to the right is the actual trail. So go to the right! We dipped back into the trees for a bit, before rising out to the last rocky switchbacks after just an hour and a half of hiking. This part was dope. Off to the left of the trail the clouds formed an endless blanket across the valley that broke on the crest of Cannon and left unobstructed views to the right.

There’s a bench on the trail with two inscriptions that I really liked:

“This bench is dedicated to the spirit of the mountain and to those souls who mirrored its beauty.”

“If you love someone tell them.

Most importantly, stay close to your friends.

Let it make a difference in your day and theirs.” —Jerry Warlop

How fitting to read that with three long-time friends :) And to my friends reading this, I love you all.

There are also a ton of ledges here that made for some really good photo ops. I love these pictures.

We took our time stopping for these photos but eventually we made our way up to the observation deck. Luckily we hiked on a Monday, because I could see this being packed on a weekend. Usually in non-COVID times the Tram would be running too, which would bring even more people up.

From the observation deck, you could really see the difference between the cloud side and the open side—so cool to have such different conditions right next to each other. We didn’t spend too long up there because there were a ton of flies, just ate our sandwiches and you know Sarah brought the cookies again (Girl Scout tagalongs this time). By this point I think the thunderstorm forecast had pushed back to late afternoon—so much for waking up so early.

The two sides compared...

We started to head down around 10:15am and by 10:50am we had our first shoe casualty. The rubber of one of the boots that I gave Emma decided to completely disintegrate and the sole just came right off. She kept on hiking with the plastic underneath until that came off too and then the boot was more like a slipper with no sole at all…And thennnn, the sole of the other boot came off too…RIP to those boots and it’s a miracle Emma made it off that mountain with no injuries from that. She won hike MVP for sure with such a good attitude about it all. I really failed her, but I will always bring the right boots in the future.

Altogether, this was a quick and steep hike that we wrapped up in just about four hours, including lots of stops for pictures :)