What happened to the 5,000ft club?, your saying right now. The answer is, I had the old ball and chain (my lovely fiancee) with me on this one.
I've been up Mt. Chocorua before via the Piper trail, but it is such a great hike, and relatively short and moderate. It's also in the southern White Mountains, in the Sandwich range, making it a bit shorter of a drive to get to from Massachusetts. Standing at 3,490ft, it's the eastern most peak of the range. It does feel like a 4,000ft'er though.
It was my girl's birthday weekend and she wanted a special northern getaway type vacation. She likes to hike a bit too, so she agreed to do an "easy" one. After, we were to max and relax at an inn and spa in Jackson, NH.
An interesting thing happened when arriving at the trailhead just off the Kancamagus highway. The trail we wanted to use, the Champney Brooke trail, had been blocked off due to a small bridge being damaged. The stream was just alive enough to make it a tough crossing. We did end up going over the bridge after all, being the rebels that we are.
Mt. Chocorua is slowly becoming one of my favorite mountains. It's rich native American history and beautiful location make it a really special mountain. The view from Chocorua Lake is especially beautiful.
The trail was very wet and mucky, and once we got up into some elevation we hit some snow and, more notably, some heavy ice. I brought some crampons and my girl brought some microspikes, but she forgot them in the car. To be honest I really didn't think we'd need them and was surprised by the adverse conditions. Being the gentlemen that I am, I outfitted her with the crampons and took chances bare-boot. It proved to be a good decision because once up above 3,000ft the ice really became a factor. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of the rather rough conditions high up. Of course, nearing the summit the snow had been melted by the exposed sunlight.
Mt. Chocorua is unmistakable in the skyline. It's conned summit has a very distinct look. Driving up rt.16 it is the first major, noticeable peak. It is technically in the town of Tamworth, NH, but the lake is in a cute little village called Chocorua Village. Surprisingly exposed, the last .5mi or so involves a bit of scrambling, and is certainly a fun little climb. The summit is a very small area of rock that probably can accommodate 7 people at most. The views are excellent...completely exposed and panoramic.
The one glaring downside to Chocorua is that it's so darned popular for many of the reasons I've stated above. Both times I've been to the summit it's been annoyingly crowded. Overall, the views are some of the best around.
On the descent we decided to take a little side trail called the Champney Falls trail. It passed by some impressive falls as well as an impressive group with similar tee-shirts out for a day hike of Chocorua with the similar ideas we'd had..."We'll go and climb an easy mountain today. How about Mt. Chocorua." I learned another valuable lesson. Even in a nice springy early May day, up in the mountains you'll find some adverse conditions and you'd better be prepared for them. We guessed the large group with sneakers and sandals won't even sniff the summit.
The falls, by the way, we beautiful.
Next post: Mt. Tripyrimad (North Peak)
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