Cannon Mtn. 1/25/15

A cold winter hike with Julie.  Trailhead is Lafayette Campground in Franconia Notch. Trail led past Lonesome Lake. This was a surprise to Julie. It appears there are several ways up Cannon and we didn’t quite go the way Julie had intended.  I was out of shape and in mild pain from what feels like a bruised or maybe broken rib.  I wasn’t dressed warmly enough for the exposed heights near the top of the mountain.  At some point, maybe half a mile from the summit, my microSpikes ran out of traction, and it was already too steep to sit and change into crampons.  There was a dearth of flat ground. I told Julie to go on ahead, that I would back down a ways and wait for her.  I did just that.  Put on crampons, had a smoke, got bored, started uphill again and met Julie coming down.  I was wearing my brown down puffy top.  It wasn’t really meant to be worn while hiking, and shouldn’t be.  I need better coverage for my head, face and hands and something other than that brown puffy as a coat or jacket. The Hillsound crampons served me well from there back down to Lonesome Lake but when we stopped there I noticed one of the straps on the Hillsounds had broken.  In spite of all that, a good hike; no injuries or frostbite.  Got off the mountain safely with daylight to spare.  Julie and I celebrated her birthday (today — Happy Birthday, Julie!) with a round at The Common Man in Concord.  That right there is a “first.”