NH Tramper
Member
Date of Hike: May 4, 2013
Trail Conditions: Been hiking smaller stuff recently, but it was time for some 4k love again. Despite the recent reports, I decided to keep the Hancocks on my Meetup schedule and led a group up there today. It was so warm and beautiful I figured tough going aside, it'd be fun. And it was. The Hancock Notch Trail started dry then got a little muddy right away. Right after the first crossing the monorail loomed before us; firm in the morning, soft in the afternoon. The second crossing was a small challenge and there was one easy-over blowdown on the trail. The rest of the route was okay, excepting a bit of mud and a lot of monorail to walk on. Cedar Brook Trail was more of the same, the snow a little deeper. We passed the first two crossings (if that's even the trail any more -- I don't think it is) and we took the normal bushwhack. We then took the next less established bushwhack to get past the next two. They would have been impossible to rock-hop since all the rocks were completely submerged. The next two crossings after that were both a challenge, but we made it okay. For one we had to go upstream a little for a better boulder-hop spot. The Hancock Loop Trail was just more of the same, and the snow on the ridge was still quite deep in sections. We went south to north but in hindsight we wished we went the other way since that would have made both ascending AND descending easier due to snow cover. We wore snowshoes on most of this trail, but we took them off on the way down due to bare sections, rocks, and roots. It was one of those days. There was one larger 'whack-around blowdown on the ridge.
Special Equipment Used: Snowshoes, as noted, will be helpful on and off, as would be spikes, though only some of the group wore them. Ice was in limited supply and soft. Trekking poles were VERY helpful for probing, balance, and especially for the crossings. I suspect we would have gotten wet without them. Safety glasses might also be useful due to the in-your-face canopy in the still-deep snow sections at the higher elevations, but this wasn't as significant a problem as I've been seeing.
Comments: Hiked this one as lead for the NE Peakbaggers Meetup group (with Amy, Yvonne, Jim, Trisha and Mark, Julie and her dog Mike, and Kathleen). A good bunch. We all had a good time, though the trails were tough and it did slow us down. Saw an old acquaintance on the trail: a fellow gridder named Roby whom I had hiked with on Isolation last year. That was cool.
Mike "Tramper" Cherim
Nottingham NH
Trail Conditions: Been hiking smaller stuff recently, but it was time for some 4k love again. Despite the recent reports, I decided to keep the Hancocks on my Meetup schedule and led a group up there today. It was so warm and beautiful I figured tough going aside, it'd be fun. And it was. The Hancock Notch Trail started dry then got a little muddy right away. Right after the first crossing the monorail loomed before us; firm in the morning, soft in the afternoon. The second crossing was a small challenge and there was one easy-over blowdown on the trail. The rest of the route was okay, excepting a bit of mud and a lot of monorail to walk on. Cedar Brook Trail was more of the same, the snow a little deeper. We passed the first two crossings (if that's even the trail any more -- I don't think it is) and we took the normal bushwhack. We then took the next less established bushwhack to get past the next two. They would have been impossible to rock-hop since all the rocks were completely submerged. The next two crossings after that were both a challenge, but we made it okay. For one we had to go upstream a little for a better boulder-hop spot. The Hancock Loop Trail was just more of the same, and the snow on the ridge was still quite deep in sections. We went south to north but in hindsight we wished we went the other way since that would have made both ascending AND descending easier due to snow cover. We wore snowshoes on most of this trail, but we took them off on the way down due to bare sections, rocks, and roots. It was one of those days. There was one larger 'whack-around blowdown on the ridge.
Special Equipment Used: Snowshoes, as noted, will be helpful on and off, as would be spikes, though only some of the group wore them. Ice was in limited supply and soft. Trekking poles were VERY helpful for probing, balance, and especially for the crossings. I suspect we would have gotten wet without them. Safety glasses might also be useful due to the in-your-face canopy in the still-deep snow sections at the higher elevations, but this wasn't as significant a problem as I've been seeing.
Comments: Hiked this one as lead for the NE Peakbaggers Meetup group (with Amy, Yvonne, Jim, Trisha and Mark, Julie and her dog Mike, and Kathleen). A good bunch. We all had a good time, though the trails were tough and it did slow us down. Saw an old acquaintance on the trail: a fellow gridder named Roby whom I had hiked with on Isolation last year. That was cool.
Mike "Tramper" Cherim
Nottingham NH
Last edited:
