M. Cannonball & NW Cannon

Jim C and I will be hiking these two peaks Thursday. These peaks are on the most obscure list of all, the list of delisted peaks! Rumor has it (thanks Roy) that M. Cannonball actually has one of Ray Chaput's signs on the summit. That alone makes it worth the trip! We will then travel over to Mittersill to do NW Cannon. Along the way we will actually go over two "official" peaks, NE Cannonball (where is the true summit?) and Cannon. Anyone interested let me know. Sorry, meant to put this under Trips and Events!

Cannon

Thank's for postin that...I would like to investigate that in the future!!

It was one of those "special" days in the woods today! Jim C and I are doing the list of "delisted" 3k peaks, and our recent two trips doing these peaks have been more enjoyable than we ever could have imagined. A couple of weeks ago we explored Green Mountain and WW Tecumseh. Today we were visiting M. Cannonball and NW Cannon. Our route took us up the Lonesome Lake Trail to it's junction with the Kinsman Ridge Trail. From there we trudged up to NE Cannonball. I say trudged because everyone, and I mean everyone, passed us on the way up. I said to Jim that one of the few "benefits" of being an aging tramper is that I no longer give a damn about being the "slow" hiker who constantly has to move to the side of the trail as the younger and faster folks go speeding by. It's nice to really go at a moderate pace, and just "smell the flowers". At any rate once we reached the summit area of NE Cannonball we decided to really spend some time taking in the views and exploring for what we felt was the true highpoint of the peak. After an "exhaustive" search we really felt we had found the highest point, we think it's a boulder about 30 feet to the north of the trail towards the east end of the summit plateau. From NE Cannonball we headed over to M. Cannonball, because there was the possibility of a Ray Chaput summit sign there we decided to explore the entire summit area from west to east to make sure we wouldn't miss it. It was a short, but steep wack from the Kinsman Ridge Trail to the west end of the summit plateau. We then headed east carefully searching every single bump along the way. It is a very flat area however we found several possible summit bumps, but none had the elusive sign. The highest bumps were at the east end of the plateau. We spent at least 45 minutes carefully looking around and we were totally convinced that we had found the highpoint of the peak, but alas no sign was found. We tied some surveyors tape to what we believed to be the summit tree and headed back down to the trail. It was disappointing not to find a sign, so maybe some later explorers will find that which we could not. From here we went up to Cannon, where we didn't hang around very long, crowds of tram riders were all over the summit area. We then took a ski trail over towards NW Cannon the views to the east, north, and west were truly spectacular. The weather had improved all day to the point were the sky was a beautiful cobalt blue and the foliage was highlighted by the bright sun. On the way up NW Cannon there were ledges that we could soak in the views of all the Cannonballs and the Kinsmans as well as almost all of N. VT, the Jays were very prominent. NW Cannon has a trail/road over the summit heading towards the former Mittersill ski area. We just really didn't want the day to end so we had our lunch on the summit ledges before heading down. Some of these unknown peaks provide a wonderful experience far from the crowds of the more popular destinations. Today was one of those days of total peace, a day to be happy to be alive and in the mountains. I will try to get pics up tomorrow.

dms said:

Rumor has it (thanks Roy) that M. Cannonball actually has one of Ray Chaput's signs on the summit.

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This is how rumors get started

If I remember correctly (which is becoming increasingly doubtful with age), Gene Daniell told me that Paul Bernier left a register or sign in a tree

I think I just told you "a sign"

Anyway I didn't find it in 1975 so I'm relieved you didn't find it either, or I would have to go back

dms said:

NW Cannon has a trail/road over the summit heading towards the former Mittersill ski area.

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I believe this is the historic Taft Ski Trail, maybe DM will comment.

Earlier this year I went over from Cannon, followed the overgrown ski trail down to near the base, and then cut back to the Tramway on service roads. I thought this was a unique idea until I got home and discovered I'd done the exact same hike in a previous century.

Another GREAT Hike!

Dennis, we are on a roll.

To Heck with the normal stuff.

De-listed peaks, slides and abandoned trails are our hiking future!

RoySwkr said:

I believe this is the historic Taft Ski Trail, maybe DM will comment.

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Roy, the Taft trail takes you down from Cannon to the col, from there up Mittersill, it's called Baron's Trail There's a nice picture of it here. www.nelsap.org/nh/mittersill.html

Are you talking about this trail because I was wondering what it was...

MichaelJ said:

Are you talking about this trail because I was wondering what it was...

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That's the one! It's really got great views over towards the Cannonballs, Kinsmans, VT and Franconia, just a "short" walk from the top of Cannon. I'll try to put up some pics later. BTW, great photo!

MichaelJ said:

Are you talking about this trail because I was wondering what it was...

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Bring your skis...a short boot pack up this trail leads to all kinds of fun...including the 13 turns and Tucker Brook just to mention a few.

Okay, Skiguy, as long as you can point me to the trail that takes me back to the Cannon base area before going too low!

Thanks, DMS!

dms said:

Roy, the Taft trail takes you down from Cannon to the col, from there up Mittersill, it's called Baron's Trail There's a nice picture of it here. www.nelsap.org/nh/mittersill.html

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And if you look at the old Mittersill map in that link, it becomes Taft again

I believe the whole thing was Taft before either ski area was built

And I've snowshoed up Tucker Brook, one of my favorite trips up Cannon

RoySwkr said:

And if you look at the old Mittersill map in that link, it becomes Taft again

I believe the whole thing was Taft before either ski area was built

And I've snowshoed up Tucker Brook, one of my favorite trips up Cannon

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Lot's of History involved with the Taft . The State of NH has been involved with futher developement of Cannon Mt. Ski Area and the Master Plan calls for buying and redeveloping Mittersill. This has been met with mixed emotions and the story of the progress is different every year as far as the exucution of the Master Plan. The first couple of phases have been completed but last year there was talk of the State selling Cannon Mt.

skiguy said:

Lot's of History involved with the Taft . The State of NH has been involved with futher developement of Cannon Mt. Ski Area and the Master Plan calls for buying and redeveloping Mittersill. This has been met with mixed emotions and the story of the progress is different every year as far as the exucution of the Master Plan. The first couple of phases have been completed but last year there was talk of the State selling Cannon Mt.

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Nice Link!!! BTW, where did the name Baron's Trail come from, it is mentioned in the nelsap description of Mittersill.

My pics are at http://picasaweb.google.com/dms12350/cannonballscannon

Dennis and Jim, regarding the true summit of Northeast Cannonball, is the boulder about the fifth one in the woods off to the left of the trail just before the trail begins its descent to the col with Cannon Mountain?

I remember climbing atop a boulder right next to the trail when I first popped up onto the summit plateau (in my case, coming over from Cannon), then spying a second boulder in the scrub and climbing onto it, where I saw a third boulder and crossed to it, where I saw a fourth and climbed onto it, then, I’m pretty sure, a fifth. And that’s where they ended.

There was a clearing farther along the trail with a ribbon tied around or onto a tree, but it didn’t look as high to me as the series of boulders.

Raymond said:

Dennis and Jim, regarding the true summit of Northeast Cannonball, is the boulder about the fifth one in the woods off to the left of the trail just before the trail begins its descent to the col with Cannon Mountain?

I remember climbing atop a boulder right next to the trail when I first popped up onto the summit plateau (in my case, coming over from Cannon), then spying a second boulder in the scrub and climbing onto it, where I saw a third boulder and crossed to it, where I saw a fourth and climbed onto it, then, I’m pretty sure, a fifth. And that’s where they ended.

There was a clearing farther along the trail with a ribbon tied around or onto a tree, but it didn’t look as high to me as the series of boulders.

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Raymond, we both feel that is the true summit. We spent a lot of time checking out every other possibility, but none were as high as that one.