Cannon

After our quick summit of Hale via Hale Brook (see here for Part 1), we headed for Lafayette Campground to bag Cannon — another round of hot and fast ascent for our sweaty selves. The parking lot was completely full so we had to do the runaround on 93 to get to the other side of the highway only to find a "full lot" sign there too. Doug lucked out into a spot and we stalked leaving hikers to find one ourselves. Nervous about the number of tourists here, I hoped that we could make it through the campground and have the trail to ourselves.

I was correct; indeed, we were in the few open to hiking in what felt like 100 degree heat. Once we reached Hi-Cannon, we saw next to no one on the way up and only passed a few other hikers on the way down until after Lonesome Lake.

The trail was incredibly steep. I was glad I brought my poles, but I found scrambling with my hands more effective after a certain point of the way up, and certainly so to get down the first section of Lonesome Lake Trail. Having only done this trail in the winter, I had forgotten about the ladder and we weren't really sure how to get Rye up it as the rungs were small (unlike those up Willey here). As Cody tried to lead her up and under and around them, she was shaking and I thought we'd have to carry her. Instead, she just put one paw over another and climbed her way up just like us! It was impressive.

When we suddenly reached the top of Cannon, we decided to head over to the rocky ledge short of the summit and enjoy the views of Franconia. The wind was blowing and it was so comfortable. Plus, we had it all to ourselves so we took our time enjoying snacks, taking silly photos and reminiscing on adventures past we'd had together.

We stopped at the lookout tour briefly (the views were nicer down below anyway) and then headed very slowly down the steep trail to Lonesome Lake. Rye took a quick swim but we had cooled off enough by then and the bottom looked a little too murkey to take the jump ourselves.

At the parking lot it felt sad not to head to our usual post-hike beer and pizza at Schilling, but we felt we had enough of a thrill in the midst of a pandemic to say farewell and hope to see each other soon. Doug and Irene would be adopting a puppy the next day and hopefully we could all get together when the cases are even fewer around here and get the dogs to meet. For Doug, 46 down, 2 to go!