On Friday (5 Jul) we took a trip to Franconia Notch, Joan had some botanizing she wanted to do and I went along for the ride. Our goal was the bottom of the cliffs on the east face of Cannon Mountain (these are seen prominently as the west side of the notch).
The climb up was not too bad, one follows the bike path from the south end of Profile Lake for a short while before turning on to an unmarked trail that climbers use to access the cliffs. Eventually this trail emerges onto the boulder field at the base of the cliffs. From there it is about a 400-500 vertical foot scramble (in about 0.1 miles) to the base of the cliffs. The total elevation gain from the Lake to the base of the cliffs is about 800 feet in 0.4 miles.
As I said, going up wasn’t too bad, but coming down is another story. There were a couple of brief showers just after we started down… nothing quite like walking on wet rocks! My quadriceps are still recovering as I write this two days later. The seat of the pants I wore will never recover… nylon is no match for NH granite!
Anyway… I got a few nice photos from an unusual vantage point. One climber we talked with said that he had never seen a hiker (i.e. someone without climbing gear) up there before… I guess we are a bit crazy!
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Frank, another fine set of monochromatics. I like the angle you chose for the Old Man of the Mountain. The first shot with the hiker was impressive. The second one was less stellar as the man was a mere speck.
Comment by Just Joe — 8 July 2013 @ 8:08 PM