What an amazing winter adventure! I booked an overnight at the AMC Lonesome Lake Hut in Franconia Notch State Park area. Hello, White Mountains of New Hampshire! Parking for this trip was in the Lafayette Place Campground.

I decided to add on a summit attempt of Cannon Mountain (you can see how that goes hahah!).

Conditions were very strange for early February: warm (low 40s F during the day, 30s F and high 20s F overnight), rainy before and after my trip. Snow had melted off a lot of the steep icy sections so traction was an issue without crampons. However, micro spikes worked for most of the trails overall.

I went up HiCannon Trail for the summit attempt, back down that trail to the Dodge Cutoff to meet up with the Lonesome Lake Trail. This time of year, the lake is safely frozen over (even in warmer temperatures), so I got to have the amazing experience of walking across to get to the hut. Views of: the Franconia Range, Mount Cannon and The Cannonballs, The Kinsmans. Wow. Just wow.

I thought that paying to stay at the hut bunkhouse was WELL WORTH IT. Potable water, warm water ready to go, tea and coffee all day. I mean, amazing. It's a step up in convenience from winter tent camping, for sure. It still requires planning for cold temperatures, though, so I highly recommend reading through AMC's off season packing list.


Thanks so much for coming along for the ride, it really means the world to me!


Lonesome Lake Hut
https://www.outdoors.org/destinations...

White Mountain Bagel Co
https://whitemtnbagel.com






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