The Grid: Cabot

Saturday March 24, 2018
Miles: 14.93
New England Hundred Highest: North Weeks (attempt)
The Grid: Cabot
Elevation gained: 4086'
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I arrived at the trail head around 9:30am and was on trail by 9:45am. Before I left the parking lot, I looked around and tried to find where the Unknown Pond Trail exits, but couldn't locate it. I started up the Bunnell Notch Trail; at the intersection with the York Pond Trail, I saw that there was some mild packing down of that trail. I decided to go for it and try to get to North Weeks and South Weeks.

After 0.7 miles, the tracks left the trail. I headed upward, breaking trail in 2-3 feet of snow. It took me an hour and a half to snowshoe 1.5 miles to get to the trail intersection with the Kilkenny Ridge Trail. 

Once there, I was exhausted. Nothing else had been touched; at my pace, I would have been out past dark if I went for the mountains. I decided to turn back and go up Cabot as a consolation prize.

I could have tried the 3.0 mile trail over Terrace Mountain to get to Cabot, but it wasn't broken out and would probably take ~3 hours. I went back down to where the tracks left off, and followed them, hoping they'd connect to the other trail. They didn't. So I turned around and went back to the original trail intersection, 0.2 miles from the parking lot after hiking for 3 hours+.

I turned and followed the Bunnell Notch Trail back up to the Kilkenny Ridge Trail and up to Mt Cabot and the Mt Cabot Cabin.

By the time I got to the cabin, I was completely exhausted; I was almost out of water and hasn't been eating enough. I sat down in the cabin for a while, drinking the last of my peppermint tea water and devouring a Steve's Original Whoopy Pie. I then headed the last few tenths to the summit of Cabot.

I was frustrated to find that it looked like the Kilkenny Ridge Trail towards Unknown Pond, the Horn, and the Bulge was broken out. However, I only had a few hours of daylight left, and I wasn't confident that the trail was broken all the way back to the cars. I knew that I didn't have the time or energy to turn around and go back uphill if I needed to backtrack. So I scampered back the way I came, arriving at my car an hour and a half later.

NE Hundred Highest: NE Cannonball

Friday March 23, 2018
Miles: 5.75
New England Hundred Highest: NE Cannonball
The Grid: Cannon Mtn
Elevation gained: 2487'
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I got to the parking area at the trailhead around 4pm. Due to unclear signage, I ended up driving part way into the summer parking lot/winter snowmobile trail. 

After I realized my mistake and started to back up, just a car's length from the dry, paved road, my driver's side front tire fell off the edge of the packed snow. My car ended up stuck in snow up to the front axle, in the middle of the snowmobile trail.

Some nice folks tried to help me shovel and then push it out, but that just wasn't happening. Just as I was dialing AAA for a tow, a hiker walking past offered up a tow with a strap and his car. I eagerly agreed. We got the strap set up and wrapped around my rear axle. And with a few good heaves from a four-door Volkswagen Jetta, my Ford Fiesta was free of the snow and on dry ground again. All of that took maybe 20 minutes but it was a hell of a start to my hike.

From there, I packed up my backpack, put on my snowshoes, and hiked out on the Lonesome Lake Trail. 

The snow was well packed down all the way up to the intersection with the Cascade Brook Trail and the Dodge Cutoff. From there, the most packed trail went across the lake towards the hut. 

From here forward, I was very glad for my snowshoes. While the trail was packed, some people wearing only boots had put holes in the snow, making the terrain more challenging.

I continued along the Lonesome Lake Trail until the intersection with the Kinsman Ridge Trail. 

From there, I went left to ascend the northeast Cannonball. I ran into three guys setting up a snow camp at the peak. 

After taking some pictures, I headed back down to the trail intersection and then ascended Cannon by the Kinsman Ridge Trail. The bottom half-mile was steep and my snowshoes had some slipping but once I got to the second half, the going smoothed out. 

I summitted Cannon, scampering up the viewing tower for some pictures of Franconia Ridge and the Cannonballs.

Then I headed back down, taking the left at the trail intersection with Hi-Cannon and descending by that trail. 

The sun set as I headed down, giving me beautiful views of Lonesome Lake and the hut.

I hiked by headlamp for the last 45 minutes or so. The hike down was somewhat steep but uneventful. I made it back to my car by 8:15pm.