| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Cannon Mountain, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Hi Cannon Trail, Kinsman Ridge Trail, Lonesome Lake Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Friday, May 3, 2024 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
There was plenty of parking at the Lonesome Lake trailhead. The camping area is not yet open so there are no bathroom options. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Ice - Blue, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Snow/Ice - Monorail (Stable), Snow/Ice - Monorail (Unstable), Snow/Ice - Postholes |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Light Traction, Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
N/A |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
There are two sign problems, and multiple blowdowns, on Hi Cannon and Lonesome Lake Trail from KRT to the lake. Below there Lonesome Lake is good to go, and KRT does not have any issues. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
Not quite yet. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
We had a hilarious time in absolutely terrible trail conditions! Hi Cannon was free of ice and snow and only had minimal mud up to the Dodge CutOff junction, but above there the shenanigans began! There is some monorail and it is sometimes stable, except when it’s not. There are some bare ledgy areas and so we did the on-off traction thing many times. The ladders are entirely free of ice and snow. Hi Cannon above the ledges gets a lot of sun and we realized that we didn’t want to go back down this way as the unstable monorail was really (horribly!) consistent!!
We had the obs tower to ourselves and though Franconia Ridge was socked in at that point, it was beautiful.
Our descent via KRT was truly hilarious as the ice flows dominate this section. Once we got to the Lonesome Lake Trail we made better time as it was still in the shade and definitely more stable than Hi Cannon was. We made the long loop around the lake and it was once we were descending Lonesome Lake below the lake that we finally saw other people. The majority of them were headed to the lake or the hut. We were able to remove our traction for the last time at about 0.1 miles below the lake and after that it was smooth sailing.
One of us had real spikes and one had beater rock spikes. We considered our full traction and K10s but I don’t know how much they would have helped.
If you don’t absolutely need this I would wait a week or two for melt. We were planning also the Kinsmans today but the trail conditions were so tediously slow that we abandoned that plan!! We both had other plans for later and for tomorrow and we would probably have been out there until the wee hours if we had hiked the whole loop!! |
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 | Name: |
Bikecamphikegirl |
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 | E-Mail: |
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| Date Submitted: |
2024-05-03 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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