Mt. Kinsman (North) - 4293' Mt. Kinsman (South) - 4358' & Cannon Mt. - 4100' (20/48)

Lonesome Lake Trail-Head

What better way to welcome Paloma back from her two-week business trip in Brazil than by tackling a monster hike?  Nothing.  Paloma got back to the U.S. on Friday afternoon, and I had planned a nice long hike for Saturday - three four-thousand footers, 13 miles, and over 4700' of vertical.  I had been looking to do this hike for quite some time and was very much looking forward to it.  Our plan was to hike to the summit of Mt. Kinsman (North) via the Lonesome Lake, Fishin' Jimmy, and Kinsman Ridge trail, continue for an out-and-back over to the summit of Mt. Kinsman (South), then head the opposite direction on the Kinsman Ridge trail over the Cannonballs to the summit of Cannon Mt.  Our original plan was to then head back down to the junction with the Lonesome Lake trail and take that to the trail head, but we ended up changing plans and taking the Hi-Cannon trail down to the base from Cannon.

Lonesome Lake

My parents wanted to join us, so we all left our place at 6:00AM in order to get a nice early start for this lengthy hike.  The ride was relatively uneventful - but one thing we did notice on the ride was just how beautiful the weather was.  Perfect 70 degree temperatures, blue-bird skies, and absolutely no humidity.  We got to the trail-head at the Lafayette Place Campground at 8:20AM on the dot - and took the last (official) parking spot in the lot.  Things were looking quite busy up here - can't blame everyone for getting out to enjoy the gorgeous day.  The trail began literally fifty feet from our car and we were on our way at 8:33AM.  The first part of the Lonesome Lake trail is anything but lonesome, as it takes you through the Lafayette Campground where people had just begun waking up and cooking delicious smelling breakfasts on the open fires in their campsites.

Wipeout

The interesting thing about the Lonesome Lake trail is that many of the people who use the trail are only using it to get to Lonesome Lake - which is a fairly moderate, sub two-mile hike.  While this doesn't really bother me, it was interesting to see some of the outfits and attire that people were wearing.  Typically when hiking the majority of people are decked out in proper hiking gear with large backpacks, rugged boots, and all of the gear that is sometimes required up in the Whites.  There were people hiking on this section in Birkenstocks, dress pants, and safari hats....interesting bunch.  Luckily once we reached Lonesome Lake the real hikers were quickly separated from those who were just out for a quick morning walk in the woods, and I was happy to leave them behind at the lake.  We took a few photos of the beautiful lake and stopped to use the facilities at the AMC Lonesome Lake hut (where it smelled like they were cooking some sort of delicious soup) before veering off onto the Fishin' Jimmy trail towards the summit of Mt. Kinsman (North).

Summit of Mt. Kinsman (North)

The Fishin' Jimmy trail was nice, a bit steep in some parts and extremely muddy and wet.  Paloma seemed to be making a point of stomping in every mud puddle she could, and her boots and legs were quickly covered in mud.  Given how crowded the parking lot was, this section of the trail was surprisingly void of many people - just how I like it.  At many points the ground was very soft, and my mom - and even more-so her hiking pole, felt the brunt of it when her hiking pole stuck deep into the ground, bent in half, and sent her down, scraping both of her knees and jamming her finger.  Rough start to the long hike ahead, but she was a trooper and brushed it off and carried on.

View over to Mt. Kinsman (South)

We reached the summit of Mt. Kinsman (North) at 11:42AM, a bit behind schedule but still a reasonable time.  We decided to head immediately over to Mt. Kinsman (South) without taking a break at the summit of Mt. Kinsman (North) as we would be coming back to the summit of Mt. Kinsman (North) to head over to Cannon.  My mother decided to hang out on the ledge lookout at the summit of Mt. Kinsman (North) while Paloma, my father, and I headed over to South.  Score, this meant that we could slack-pack over there.  What is slack-packing you might ask?  Slack-packing is the art of ditching your backpack so that you can hike a portion of your trail carrying nothing.  We left our bags with my mother and headed quickly over to the summit of Mt. Kinsman (South).

Summit of Mt. Kinsman (South)

Despite the fact that to the eye, the distance from the summit of Mt. Kinsman (North) to the summit of Mt. Kinsman (South) looks enormous, the going was pretty easy and we made it to the summit at 12:20PM.  This summit was fairly crowded so we quickly took the obligatory summit photos, enjoyed watching some glider-planes flying over the mountains, and headed back to Mt. Kinsman (North) to meet up with my mother for lunch.  We made it back to Mt. Kinsman (North) at 1:00PM and sat down on the ledge to eat our lunches.  The view from the ledge off of the summit of Kinsman (North) is incredible, and it was neat to be able to look over at Mt. Liberty & Mt. Flume - a hike that Paloma and I had done a few weeks ago.  We refueled quickly with PB&J's, almonds, triscuits, and carrots, and decided to head right on over to Cannon Mt. via the Kinsman Ridge Trail (opposite direction this time) at 1:18PM.

Ledge on Mt. Kinsman (North)

I had read that this part of the trip was strenuous, and boy, that description was spot on.  The Kinsman Ridge trail from Mt. Kinsman (North) over to Cannon Mt. requires you to go over the Cannonballs.  The Cannonballs are a series of three peaks (each somewhere in the 3000' range) that you must climb over to get to Cannon Mt.  This adds quite a bit of elevation onto the trip as you are constantly hiking up and down, up and down.  By the time we reached the junction with the upper portion of the Lonesome Lake trail, my mother decided that due to her injuries sustained earlier on the hike and the blisters that were beginning to blanket her feet, she was going to forgo summitting Cannon and head down to the car (I don't blame her one bit!).  My father, being the chivalrous gentleman that he is, decided that he couldn't let his lady go alone, so he decided to head down with her.  After pilfering some of my mother's remaining water, Paloma and I began the extremely steep ascent up to the summit of Cannon Mt.

While the distance from this junction to the summit of Cannon was only 1 mile, it was virtually straight up.  Many parts of this section required me to give Paloma a two handed boost and required some sort of rock-climbing skills.  It was quite tiring but fun at the same time.  Given the aggressive elevation gain of this trail, we made it quite high very fast, and before we knew it the trail leveled out a bit and began the approach to the actual summit, reaching it at 4:45PM.  This is where my rant begins...don't say I didn't warn you.  

View to the summit of Cannon

Cannon is one of only a few mountain summits that tourists can access with little more effort than slapping down their credit card, waiting in line, and hopping on a tram.  This commercialization of Cannon Mt. is what draws much of its criticism.  As we began to approach the summit, suddenly the wet, muddy, root-laden trail turned into into a wide, flat, stone-dust covered sidewalk.  There were a few stone benches and trash receptacles, and many other signs of human interference.  We climbed up the lookout tower at the summit, only to have to fight for photo opportunities with women covered in make-up with high heels on and designer handbags, and guys who thought that they were the shit because they had their iPads out taking photos of the beautiful mountain vistas to prove to their friends how outdoorsy they are.  Dude, you took a damn TRAM up here, didn't expend one ounce of sweat, and you are acting like you own the place.

Tourist-trail

One guy, who I will admit - was nice enough to take our photo, made sure to warn me that the Tram was about to leave and I had to hurry up if I wanted to make it.  No bro, I am hiking down, thanks.  I overheard another woman stating that she wanted to take the "short trail" back to the tram.  As opposed to what, lady?  The longer trail that goes around the stone bench instead of in front of it?  What really got my blood boiling was when a fat, sloppy looking man walked by with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and cloud of smoke billowing behind him.  It took all of my power to restrain myself from forcefully removing the cigarette from his mouth and extinguishing it with his eye.  (Note: I have nothing against people who choose to smoke cigarettes, but please, leave it to the Wal-Mart parking lot, don't bring it up here).

Summit of Cannon Mt.

I know, I know - I probably sound like an entitled jerk right now, who thinks that I am "the shit" because I hiked over 12 miles to get here, but I honestly believe that there are some things in life that you should be required to work for to enjoy.  Regardless of my hatred towards these turds who paid for the views, the views from the summit of Cannon Mt. were absolutely stunning and I still enjoyed them quite a bit.  It was nice looking back across the entire Kinsman Ridge which we had hiked, and across to Mt. Lincoln and Lafayette which looked close enough that you could reach out and touch them.

View of Lonesome Lake from Hi-Cannon

As it was now approaching evening, Paloma and I decided to get on our way and began our descent to the parking lot at 4:53PM.  We decided on the Hi-Cannon trail, as it was the most direct route back to the lot.  Direct = Steep in the hiking world.  The trail took quite some time to descend as it was extremely steep and wet, and at some points there were man-made ladders to help you descend some of the cliffs.  The 2.2 mile trail seemed to drag on and on forever, and at this point we had run out of water and food and were beginning to feel the effects of the previous 12+ miles we had logged.  Needless to say when we finally broke back out of the woods into the campground, we were exhausted.  As we hiked through the campground down towards the car, I was tempted to ask one of the campers for a hot-dog or burger off of their grill, as the smells of dinner and my incredible hunger overpowered me.  We made it back to the car at 7:11PM - nearly 11 hours after we began the hike.

Ladder on Hi-Cannon

On the ride home we decided to stop for dinner in Plymouth, NH, and just as Paloma was on a call with the restaurant asking about reservations, a mother black bear and two cubs came sprinting across Rt. 93 about 200 feet in front of us.  I let out some questionable language as I have only seen a bear once before in my life (in the wild) which I am sure the hostess on the phone just loved.  I was pumped!  We ate dinner at the Lucky Dog restaurant in Plymouth, where I housed some delicious chicken fajitas and drank an ice-cold Smuttynose Old Brown Dog ale.  The remainder of the ride home I was passed out cold in the back seat of my parents car. What a day!






Hike Stats
Trails: Lonesome Lake, Fishin' Jimmy, Kinsman Ridge, Hi-Cannon
Total Time (Including Breaks): 10:42
Distance: 13.0 Miles
Elevation Gain: 4700'