sapblatt
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2004
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I have been planning a trip with two coworkers for sometime, both Travis (a Colorado transplant) and Tamara (an Ohio transplant) have expressed and interest in hiking to me when they found out how much time I spent in the Whites. Travis had hiked a lot in Colorado and Tamara is an AMC member who had never hiked in the Whites, but had done most of her hiking in Kentucky. As the winter months peeled away Tamara ended up leaving her job. With a week to go Travis had to back out so Tamara and I headed north on Saturday. The original plan was to hit Franconia Ridge and hike Lincoln and Lafayette, but with a more than good chance of rain and no views I opted out for the Hancock’s as there would be a lot more cover from the forest, and if there are no views it does not really matter where you are!
A 4:30 AM departure from Boston got us to the trailhead for 7:15 AM, and as per usual the light rain was just starting. I would not have it any other way! The early going along the Hancock Notch Trail was really just a pleasant stroll in the woods. A wide clear trail that had some recent maintenance done on it (drainage ditches were clear and blow downs had been cleared.) The trail was pretty wet but it posed no real problems as far as traction were concerned. We made very good time to the junction with the Cedar Brook Trail.
The Cedar Brook Trail continued the easy ramble in the woods theme, which would account for most, but not all of the days hiking. The differences of course on this trail are the five brook crossings. Even with the rain these were not as difficult as I was anticipating from the WMG. The first two are easily avoided by a well-worn path that skirts them up to the third crossing. We stuck to the trail on the way out but noted the side path for the return trip. The remaining crossings were easy as long as you took a minute to look at how you wanted to attack them before you started to cross. All five crossing occur within a very short distance and after the final one you soon come to the junction with the Hancock Loop Trail.
Once again, this trail was nicely graded and gained its elevation gently up until decision time and the north/south loop junction. Thanks to all who posted last week I decided we should head up the north side and descend the south side. I figured that there was going to be a steep area no matter which way we went but that it would probably be nicer to descend on the step like section of the south side of the loop. The north side is unrelenting. After an initial dip to a small stream crossing it goes very solidly up for a little over a half a mile. There is tons of loose rock and gravel but even in the wet conditions this did not pose much of a problem. I do not recall either of us slipping back. There were a couple of big step ups that were a little tough for me at 5’ 8”, but there were ample trees and roots to aid in getting me up and over. It soon leveled off and the grade disappeared; we were at the top of the north peak. A very short stroll to the outlook provided outstanding views of clouds and fog. I pointed out to Tamara were Carrigain and the Sawyer River Valley would be! We said hello to two hikers who were the first people we had seen all day.
The ridge path that connects the two summits is very gently graded and I would rate these two peaks as being quite easy to do as a pair. In the clockwise direction we were traveling the dip down from the north is fairly far, but there is little rise needed to get back up to the south peak. I did mention to Tamara that the very brief stop at the north peak had chilled me a bit and that I wanted to walk faster through this section to get heated up again…this worked! The connector trail was very wet and one low-lying section was close to impassable. We were able to push through some scrub to avoid some flooded areas that would have been over our knees. We blew right through the south summit and its similar outlook to clouds and fog and began to descend the south side. The descent on this side was great. Although steep it was very easy to negotiate with all of the stone steps that had been placed. Thanks to Sherpa John who from what he knew about my hiking figured I would prefer this hike in this direction! You sir, are correct!
We made it quickly to the loop junction where we took a 15-minute lunch break before continuing back towards the car. The rain was very off and on but near the end of the hike it started to pour. We made it back at about 2:15 which made the hike about book time (deducting breaks), and I feel like we moved at a real good pace except for going up the north side which required a lot of one-minute breaks! Tamara had a nice first experience in the Whites and vows to be back and I managed to get peaks 33 and 34 done in what was the easiest hike I had done in some time, as it was well under twelve hours and a little under 10 miles.
A 4:30 AM departure from Boston got us to the trailhead for 7:15 AM, and as per usual the light rain was just starting. I would not have it any other way! The early going along the Hancock Notch Trail was really just a pleasant stroll in the woods. A wide clear trail that had some recent maintenance done on it (drainage ditches were clear and blow downs had been cleared.) The trail was pretty wet but it posed no real problems as far as traction were concerned. We made very good time to the junction with the Cedar Brook Trail.
The Cedar Brook Trail continued the easy ramble in the woods theme, which would account for most, but not all of the days hiking. The differences of course on this trail are the five brook crossings. Even with the rain these were not as difficult as I was anticipating from the WMG. The first two are easily avoided by a well-worn path that skirts them up to the third crossing. We stuck to the trail on the way out but noted the side path for the return trip. The remaining crossings were easy as long as you took a minute to look at how you wanted to attack them before you started to cross. All five crossing occur within a very short distance and after the final one you soon come to the junction with the Hancock Loop Trail.
Once again, this trail was nicely graded and gained its elevation gently up until decision time and the north/south loop junction. Thanks to all who posted last week I decided we should head up the north side and descend the south side. I figured that there was going to be a steep area no matter which way we went but that it would probably be nicer to descend on the step like section of the south side of the loop. The north side is unrelenting. After an initial dip to a small stream crossing it goes very solidly up for a little over a half a mile. There is tons of loose rock and gravel but even in the wet conditions this did not pose much of a problem. I do not recall either of us slipping back. There were a couple of big step ups that were a little tough for me at 5’ 8”, but there were ample trees and roots to aid in getting me up and over. It soon leveled off and the grade disappeared; we were at the top of the north peak. A very short stroll to the outlook provided outstanding views of clouds and fog. I pointed out to Tamara were Carrigain and the Sawyer River Valley would be! We said hello to two hikers who were the first people we had seen all day.
The ridge path that connects the two summits is very gently graded and I would rate these two peaks as being quite easy to do as a pair. In the clockwise direction we were traveling the dip down from the north is fairly far, but there is little rise needed to get back up to the south peak. I did mention to Tamara that the very brief stop at the north peak had chilled me a bit and that I wanted to walk faster through this section to get heated up again…this worked! The connector trail was very wet and one low-lying section was close to impassable. We were able to push through some scrub to avoid some flooded areas that would have been over our knees. We blew right through the south summit and its similar outlook to clouds and fog and began to descend the south side. The descent on this side was great. Although steep it was very easy to negotiate with all of the stone steps that had been placed. Thanks to Sherpa John who from what he knew about my hiking figured I would prefer this hike in this direction! You sir, are correct!
We made it quickly to the loop junction where we took a 15-minute lunch break before continuing back towards the car. The rain was very off and on but near the end of the hike it started to pour. We made it back at about 2:15 which made the hike about book time (deducting breaks), and I feel like we moved at a real good pace except for going up the north side which required a lot of one-minute breaks! Tamara had a nice first experience in the Whites and vows to be back and I managed to get peaks 33 and 34 done in what was the easiest hike I had done in some time, as it was well under twelve hours and a little under 10 miles.
