Hancock and Hancock South

Saturday, July 27, 2002 found 5 people and one dog on the trail to hike the Hancocks. This is a very popular hike for some reason. I can't say I understand why as I wouldn't want to do it again. The trail head is located at the hairpin turn on the Kancamagus Highway. The regular parking lot was closed due to construction so we had to park down the road. This increased the hike to about 10.5 miles.

The group:

The sign at the beginning of the trail was missing, strange, so my traditional picture at the beginning of the hike didn't happen. The next trail sign was at the junction where the Hancock Notch Trail meets the Cedar Brook Trail.

Randy, Don, Midas, Mary and Dave.

Once on the Cedar Brook Trail, you cross the brook a bunch of times and the trail is not nearly as nice as the notch trail is for walking purposes - there are a lot of roots crisscrossing the trail, but this is not a difficult hike.

There were a lot of other people hiking this mountain today. It was a fantastic day for hiking - cool and not very humid. There were no views from the main summit as it was an overcast, foggy day, but half way to the South summit the sky began to clear. This was a peak bagging summit for most of us, so the lack of views was not a big deal. The most important thing was that we had a great time for the entire day, made some new friends and got to check off two more peaks. Yea - numbers 27 and 28 for me!  :-)

Mary adding a rock to the cairn.                    The Hancock Loop Trail sign.

Cedar Brook crossing - these rocks were really cool.

Hancock Loop Trail to North Peak - the North Slide.

And yes, it really did look like this. I did not digitally alter this picture. The fog played in integral role in making this hike memorable and added to the beauty of the mountains.

At the summit of Hancock - Mary, Midas, Cheryl, Don and Randy.