Ahhhh. The Hancocks. Possibly the one hike I have been avoiding due to the many negative reviews and constant piling on of how bad this hike is. It’s long, it’s muddy, it’s boring, it’s steep, it’s a “cross off” if you are working on completing the NH48. Well, after hiking to these peaks yesterday I will probably never take much advice from anyone when it comes time for our next hike. This is an amazing hike (my opinion) and some of what I mentioned in my opening statement about length, conditions, terrain and such is kind of what most of the White Mountains are all about. The only thing I can kind of understand is that the entire trail is wooded. Is that so bad? In my opinion, having that feeling of seclusion is one of the reasons I love to get out and hike.

We started out by pulling into the Hancock parking lot just off the Kancamagus Highway (The Kanc as us New Englanders call it). After parking the car, crossing the Kanc we headed into the woods to start what I thought was going to be a crappy, boring, long hike. As we walked the first mile or two of the flat but rooted trail we felt a sense of being alone deep in the woods of NH and loved every minute of it. Kyle loves this sort of trail also so it was a nice hike thus far knowing it would be getting fairly difficult soon. At around mile 2 you merge onto the Cedar Brook Trail where the trail stays fairly flat but gets rocky and through the trees you can see North Hancock taunting you as you have already hiked close to 2.5 miles and you get the feeling you are not close!! After 0.7 miles on the Cedar Brook Trail you merge onto the Hancock Loop Trail where the actual ascent to the summit starts. This is about 400 feet of gain in a mile until the real steep scramble begins.

The junction gives you the option to go left toward North Hancock or right to South Hancock. We knew North would be steeper going up so we opted for that rather than coming down the steepest part. This climb is approximately 1100 feet of elevation gain in 0.7 miles. This was pretty tough as it was basically a scramble of very loose rocks but was fun at the same time. We reached the summit around 9:10am where we took a few pictures at the sign and went over to a lookout and had a snack. This lookout would be very cool if we weren’t socked in by the clouds. After resting for a few and summiting #19 of 48 we began our trek over to South Hancock which is 1.4 miles. This was just a cool traverse of wooded, flat albeit muddy terrain but it was definitely a cool part of the hike. There is something about being in the fog deep in the woods that I think is fantastic! After reaching South Hancock (#20) and chatting with a very nice family, we started our steeeeep descent down the 0.5 miles portion of the Hancock Loop Trail. You have to stay focused on this part or you could be seriously injured. Steep, loose, slippery rocks. Our dog (Rocky) is very good on the mountains and all terrain but if you have an older dog or small size dog this is probably not the trail for them. After meeting back up with the Cedar Junction trail we hiked the rest of the “down” and then had a 2 mile flat walk out. All in all it was another great day in the Whites and we had a blast. I want to reiterate my feelings about The Hancocks. Very underrated hike and we will do this one again for sure on a clear day because there are views to be had.