We wanted to go camping in a place with interesting hiking. Sara’s mom suggested Franconia Notch in New Hampshire, and it looked great online!
We booked a campsite at Lafayette Campground, near Lincoln, NH, a few weeks prior. Because we were booking on such short notice, there wasn’t any weekend availability (i.e. Friday Night to Sunday Morning). We settled for Sunday night to Tuesday morning, and requested the time off work.
In the week run-in, I planned some hikes in the nearby hills on alltrails. I was aiming for hikes that would take a good chunk of the day (5-6 hours), and would be challenging but not continuously-torturous. I came up with three to choose from.
The night before, Sara, Alice[^1] and I gathered to discuss these options. We decided that we’d take our time getting there Sunday, hike Monday, and play the Tuesday hike by ear.
It can get pretty frisky in New Hampshire this time of year. Since we were camping, it was important to bring adequately-warm sleeping bags and clothing.
The planned hikes were quite rocky and involved steep ascents and descents, so we wore sturdy hiking boots, to protect our feet.
The planned hikes were quite long, so we brought sizable water bottles and plenty of snacks to ensure we’d be adequately fueled for our journey(s).
We were on the road by around 9am, and made good on time on the road up north.
We stopped for lunch at a cute restaurant overlooking the Pemigewasset River. The food was pretty decent. Didn’t beat Portland, though!
We continued our drive up north, and entered Franconia Notch State Park on the highway. The views from the highway are beautiful, with the sheer mountains closing in on the road.
We pulled in to the campsite right around checkout time, picked out some wood for the campfire later that night, assembled our tent and sleeping situations, and took a moment to breathe.
We wanted a small hike to pass the time, and opted for the nearby Flume Gorge. The drive there was short.
They charge you big bucks ($15 a head!) just to walk the trail, but it was at least meticulously maintained: the trail runs wide and gravelled, when it isn’t a wooden footpath carved into the gorge, or a covered bridge over the gorge’s tributaries.
It was a nice warm-up for the coming day, although it was hard to keep ourselves moving when there were such nice views every 20 feet!
At the end, we waltzed through the gift shop without getting any souvenirs, which was a mistake we’d regret the next day… There really aren’t a lot of gift shops around!
We settled back at the campsite, made a fire, and chowed down on fire-roasted food, in preparation for the next day’s grueling hike. We decided to do the “Lonesome Loop”, because of its proximity to the campsite, and its ability to be shortened if we found the full loop too challenging.
We retired pretty early, and slept pretty well!
I woke up around 7:30ish, and prepared bagels and tea for breakfast. Once everyone was up and ready to go, we began our hike at around 10:00.
The hike began with a steep and consistent ascent of about 1.5 miles and nearly 1000 feet. This took us to a plateau centered around Lonesome Lake, which is home to the westernmost hut , of the 8 maintained by the AMT.
The hut was open, and we stopped in to say hello and top-off our water supply, before trekking on west, along the Appalachian Trail. This part of the trail was sparsely- populated.
We stopped about 2/3 of the way to Kinsman Ridge, to chow down on some energy bars and trail mix, before continuing on. At Kinsman Pond Campsite, we took the trail towards the Cannon Balls and Cannon Mountain. At this point, looking at the clock and our fitness levels, we decided to truncate our loop by skipping Cannon Mountain.
In retrospect, we really ought to have stopped by Kinsman Pond, and we should have gone to the summit of North Kinsman, which would have offered a great view of the wilderness.
From Kinsman, we hiked north along the ridge through the Cannon Balls.
This part of the trail was the most quiet, distant as it was from the highway. The landscapes were incredible, although there weren’t any particularly noteworthy views.
Several of the hills’ pine groves were dead and breezy, a dangerous combination: several large trees hung, forebodingly, over the trail. Much of the floor was covered in several inches of moss and lichen. It was quite an impressive sight, even for tired eyes!
At the top of one of the cannons, while looking up to watch the frightening trees, we spotted a military-esque drone gliding along noiselessly. Spooky! It was quite close, maybe 500 yards to the west. No pictures were taken, we couldn’t snap one quickly enough.
On the descent from the North Cannonball, there were some particularly steep segments, which offered impressive, albeit narrow, views of Cannon Mountain to the northeast.
From the valley between the North Cannonball and Cannon Mountain, we took the path south to Lonesome Lake along a dry creek, traced the northeastern perimeter of the lake, and then retraced our path from this morning, down into the valley of the campground.
By this point, our feet were quite sore and swollen, and we were looking forward to the glow of the campfire.
We were really tired after a long day of hiking. At this point, we had hiked 10 miles! Unfortunately, due to a combination of poor planning and poor decision-making in the moments, we never came to a peak that had impressive views of the valleys we straddled.
Lesson #1: Intense hikes demand proportionally-breathtaking views.
Lesson #2: alltrails is garbage at estimating distances with large elevation changes.
We started a fire, and chowed down on the standard fare: sausages, trail mix, etc. We all turned in pretty early, totally pooped from a long day. There was no way we were going hiking on Day 3!
We rose pretty early, packed everything up, and were ready to go by 10:00. I duelled with a chipmunk to defend our trash scraps, while Sara and Alice were taking a final bathroom break. (It ended with an armistice)
We stopped by a dinky gift shop on the way back, to grab a goofy souvenir to commemorate our journey.
From there, it was a straight shot to the Tilt’n Diner in Tilton, NH. For a diner, we were pleasantly surprised! Food and service were great.
Our bellies full, and our feet ready for a good soaking, we went straight to Holliston.