Mt. Hancock South - 4319' & Mt. Hancock North - 4420' (15/48)

Teamwork

On Saturday, June 29th Paloma, my parents, and I set out on a ride up to the Kancamagus highway to hike the Hancocks.  I had read numerous reports about this hike being pretty difficult, so we decided to set out early so that we would be able to take our time.  Plus, the forecast predicted late afternoon thunderstorms, something that we didn't care to get stuck in.  We arrived at the trail-head at 8:25AM, and were on the trail at 8:37AM.  We decided to take the classic ten mile "loop" up the Hancock Notch, Cedar Brook, and Hancock loop trails.

Sasquatch Ahead!

Since NH had experienced similar weather to us for the few days prior (RAIN!), everything was extremely wet and muddy, and the air was quite humid.  It was approximately 75 degrees.  The start of the hike was relatively flat and uneventful, which may be the reason I took my eyes off the trail and subsequently took a digger no more than three-hundred yards into the hike.  Thankfully, no injuries, though I felt like a moron.  Note to self: don't step on wet roots.  After dusting off the mud and debris from my legs, we carried on.  We were cruising, and it felt great to chip away at the ten mile round trip with relative ease.

Planning the Route

We were slowed down a bit further along the trail due to numerous river crossings, mud puddles, and wet terrain, though the elevation gain continued to be minimal.  We all got quite muddy but the challenge of the various crossings kept things interesting.  Things got a bit scary when we passed some writing on a piece of birch bark - "Beware, Sasquatch Ahead."  I let out my best wookie impression in hopes that it would scare Sasquatch away, hoping deep down that my wookie call wasn't actually a Sasquatch mating call.  That would have sucked.

Summit of Hancock South

We continued on through the mud, the moisture and fog made the woods a bit eerie.  We were shocked at the number of Lady Slippers (the flower) that we saw along the way, as they are a relatively rare and protected plant.  We reached the Hancock Loop trail and decided to climb up to the South peak first, over the ridge to the North peak, and down from there.  The minute we began heading up to the South peak, the elevation gain increased immensely.  Finally it felt like we were hiking!  While this section was only one half mile in length, the elevation gain was significant.  The trail was heavily eroded and required you to grab on to rocks, branches, and the ground at many points.  The humidity combined with the steep climb caused sweat to soak through my shirt and drip from my face.

Heli-dropped Bridge Material

We reached the view-less Hancock South summit at 11:11AM, took a few pictures and began the trek over to the Hancock North summit at 11:20AM.  The ridge was equally as muddy as the earlier parts of the hike. In a particularly muddy section, we came across hundreds of logs and boards that looked like they were dropped in by helicopter.  It will be nice once they are assembled into a bridge.  We used some of the logs to help us navigate this section, which proved to be quite difficult as they were moving and slipping all over the place.  The ridge continued to dip and rise through a primarily pine forest - we reached the Hancock North summit at 12:09PM.

Summit of Hancock North

While there were no views from the immediate summit, a hundred or so feet down a trail labeled "outlook" brought us to a couple of boulders with great views - a perfect spot for us to sit down for lunch.  The sun actually poked through the clouds at this point, which was nice as it helped dry up some of the sweat that we had accumulated on our clothes.  We took a few more photos and began the descent down the North section of the Hancock Loop trail at 12:35PM.

Lookout on Hancock North

I was quite thankful that we decided to do this loop counter-clockwise, as the descent from the North summit seemed significantly longer, wetter, and steeper than the South.  Even though the difference between the steep sections on the South and North sides was less than a quarter of a mile, the North side felt much much longer.  We all slipped and fell at least once on the way down - it was quite treacherous given the wet weather.  Once we met completed the loop we began the nice easy descent back to the car.  We were all starting to feel a bit sore so the nice gradual descent was welcomed.  About a mile from the car we began to hear thunder in the distance, so we picked up our pace in order to make it to the car before getting caught in a heavier rain.  We reached the car at 3:26PM, just as the skies opened up and a downpour began.  Perfect timing!

Steep Descent from Hancock North

We drove back to Haverhill and decided to grill out on our porch.  A solid ending to a nice, long, summer hike.

Overall I enjoyed this hike.  I would recommend saving it for a cloudy day, as the views aren't too spectacular or readily available.  While the distance is just under 10 miles, you chip away close to 5 miles on relatively easy terrain.  The short but steep sections heading up to both peaks is definitely difficult, but the overall hike was one of the easier ones for us.


Hike Stats
Trails: Hancock Notch, Cedar Brook, Hancock Loop
Total Time (Including Breaks): 7:00
Distance: 9.8 Miles
Elevation Gain: 2650'