poison ivy
Well-known member
After glissading down South Hancock last April, I promised myself that I would come back and hike the Hancocks this year in calendar winter. So, I arrived at the Hancock Notch trailhead with much anticipation, ready for a fun winter hike with Pedxing. We geared up and were on the trail at 9 a.m.
We found the Hancock Notch Trail was well-trodden and broken out, as were all of the trails on our loop hike. With the first 1.7 miles very flat and bare bootable, we cruised down the trail, reaching the Cedar Brook Trail junction in about 45 minutes even after stopping a couple of times just to take in the views of the beautiful snowy trees around us. Just as we reached the junction, the cloudy skies started to blue up and we had plenty of warm sun to bask in for the rest of the day.
Upon arriving at the first of five brook crossings, we were happy to find that the North Fork of the Hancock Branch was frozen over like we’d hoped, though we celebrated a little too early. As Pedxing headed across the first crossing, one foot broke through a weak spot in the ice. Fortunately, he didn’t get his feet wet with just the toes of his boot touching the frigid water. So, we felt comfortable heading onwards and upwards and fortunately, none of the other crossings proved to be a problem for us. The snow around the brook was covered with critter trails -- the dog prints and rabbit tracks I could recognize, but there were other smaller tracks that I wasn’t so sure about.
At 10:20 a.m., we reached the Hancock Loop trail junction and started to head uphill. It was another quick 40-minute walk over to the junction, where we had to decide whether to hike up North or South Hancock. Pedxing didn’t mind going either way, so I decided that I’d rather hike up the North Peak and slide down the south peak again. We took a short lunch break to fuel up for the difficult ascent up North Hancock.
While the map says the trip up is .7 miles, it seemed a lot longer to me! It took us an hour and a half to climb up those miles on a tricky trail that had icy spots left over from yesterday’s glissades, making crampons extremely helpful. Occasionally, I’d look to my left and see the top of North Hancock through the trees and see it was still a long, long ways up. As we hiked upwards, the breeze picked up and the trees began creaking like rocking chairs on old wood floors. We crossed paths with the first of the five hikers we’d see all day as we neared the top.
We reached the summit of North Hancock and stopped for a short break to admire the views from the outlook. It was pretty warm in the sun, as long as the breeze wasn’t blowing. We then headed across the easy ridge to the summit of South Hancock. We crossed the ridge in about an hour and it seemed to go by really quickly, but by now I was really looking forward to the glissade! After taking a quick picture on South Hancock, we slid down the peak -- whizzing down the half-mile in an incredibly fun 10 minutes.
We later crossed paths again with three hikers who we passed on the ridge. They said they had a great glissade down North Hancock and I asked whether all the trees were a problem and they replied “We bounce pretty well.” Perhaps, I’ll have to try glissading down the north peak next year!
From there, it was back out the way we came and we were back at the trailhead at 3:30 p.m. Pedxing pointed out this trip was a lot less dramatic than our last one (where we battled 50 mph winds to get off Lafayette) but it was a great day nonetheless! The Hancocks were my 9Th & 10th winter peaks, and Pedxing’s 7th & 8th.
Pictures from the trip are here.
-- Ivy
We found the Hancock Notch Trail was well-trodden and broken out, as were all of the trails on our loop hike. With the first 1.7 miles very flat and bare bootable, we cruised down the trail, reaching the Cedar Brook Trail junction in about 45 minutes even after stopping a couple of times just to take in the views of the beautiful snowy trees around us. Just as we reached the junction, the cloudy skies started to blue up and we had plenty of warm sun to bask in for the rest of the day.
Upon arriving at the first of five brook crossings, we were happy to find that the North Fork of the Hancock Branch was frozen over like we’d hoped, though we celebrated a little too early. As Pedxing headed across the first crossing, one foot broke through a weak spot in the ice. Fortunately, he didn’t get his feet wet with just the toes of his boot touching the frigid water. So, we felt comfortable heading onwards and upwards and fortunately, none of the other crossings proved to be a problem for us. The snow around the brook was covered with critter trails -- the dog prints and rabbit tracks I could recognize, but there were other smaller tracks that I wasn’t so sure about.
At 10:20 a.m., we reached the Hancock Loop trail junction and started to head uphill. It was another quick 40-minute walk over to the junction, where we had to decide whether to hike up North or South Hancock. Pedxing didn’t mind going either way, so I decided that I’d rather hike up the North Peak and slide down the south peak again. We took a short lunch break to fuel up for the difficult ascent up North Hancock.
While the map says the trip up is .7 miles, it seemed a lot longer to me! It took us an hour and a half to climb up those miles on a tricky trail that had icy spots left over from yesterday’s glissades, making crampons extremely helpful. Occasionally, I’d look to my left and see the top of North Hancock through the trees and see it was still a long, long ways up. As we hiked upwards, the breeze picked up and the trees began creaking like rocking chairs on old wood floors. We crossed paths with the first of the five hikers we’d see all day as we neared the top.
We reached the summit of North Hancock and stopped for a short break to admire the views from the outlook. It was pretty warm in the sun, as long as the breeze wasn’t blowing. We then headed across the easy ridge to the summit of South Hancock. We crossed the ridge in about an hour and it seemed to go by really quickly, but by now I was really looking forward to the glissade! After taking a quick picture on South Hancock, we slid down the peak -- whizzing down the half-mile in an incredibly fun 10 minutes.
We later crossed paths again with three hikers who we passed on the ridge. They said they had a great glissade down North Hancock and I asked whether all the trees were a problem and they replied “We bounce pretty well.” Perhaps, I’ll have to try glissading down the north peak next year!
From there, it was back out the way we came and we were back at the trailhead at 3:30 p.m. Pedxing pointed out this trip was a lot less dramatic than our last one (where we battled 50 mph winds to get off Lafayette) but it was a great day nonetheless! The Hancocks were my 9Th & 10th winter peaks, and Pedxing’s 7th & 8th.
Pictures from the trip are here.
-- Ivy
