North and South Hancock

Sunday September 24, 2006

Hikers: Corey, Jodie, Pat, Lincoln, Luna
Weather: 50s, cloudy, rain, t-storms
Miles: 9.8
Elevation Gain: 2650 ft
Duration: 5.5 hrs

Corey is visiting New England for about a month before he heads back to Mammoth, CA for another winter on ski patrol. We decided to go for a hike despite the weather forecast, which called for rain. When we arrived at the trailhead, there were a couple small breaks in the clouds and it didn’t look that bad, so we were optimistic.

The first part of the route up the Hancocks uses the Hancock Notch Trail and the Cedar Brook Trail. Both trails are relatively flat and easy. There are several stream crossings, but the water was pretty low, so they weren’t much trouble. The easy terrain let us enjoy the colors of the trees, as many of them have already turned bright reds, yellows, and oranges.

It started to rain lightly as we began the steep ascent up to North Hancock. It continued to rain while we were up on the ridge, so we didn’t see any views. The descent from South Hancock was very steep as well, and it began to pour just as we started down. We were somewhat happy about the heavy rain though because Lincoln had rolled in some poop at the summit and we hoped the rain would wash it away.

As we neared the road, the rain stopped an the sky began to clear. By the time we had driven back to the town of Lincoln, the sky was bright blue. Hiking in the rain really isn’t that bad though. We had a great time. It was nice to see Corey again.

Trail Maintenance on Isolation (West) Trail

Sunday September 10, 2006

Hikers: Pat, Lincoln, Luna
Weather: 40s and 50s, Sunny
Miles: 15.0
Elevation Gain: 2950 ft
Duration: 9.0 hrs

This was my first maintenance trip to my newly adopted trail, the 2.5-mile section of the Isolation Trail from the Davis Path to the Dry River Trail. It also turned out to be the first hike with our new dogs Lincoln, and Luna.

I had never hiked the section of trail that I adopted, but I had seen the end of the trail on the Davis Path and it looked very overgrown and hardly passable. One of the reasons I decided to adopt the trail was that I knew it needed work, and I felt it would be very rewarding to make a big difference. My goal on this first trip was largely to see what I was up against so I only brought a saw and some loppers. With the saw, I hoped to clear out all the blow downs and make the trail passable, and with the loppers, I wanted to cut back the overgrowth as much as possible.

In some ways, the trail was in better shape than I expected. I didn’t come across any major blowdowns; it appears the Forrest Service was able to send a trail crew through this year. The trail was still heavily overgrown. By the time I reached the Davis Path, I was absolutely soaked from constantly pushing through dew soaked branches. I spent three and a half hours clipping back branches that were extending over the trail, but I doubt I even covered a half-mile of trail. Obviously, there is a lot of brushing work remaining, but otherwise the trail is in decent shape.

It took me about 2 hours to drive to the trailhead from home, 2 hrs to hike the 5 miles of the Dry River Trail to the beginning of my trail, and 1 hour and 15 minutes to hike the 2.5 miles up my section of the Isolation Trail.

It’s a nice hike, and the dogs did very well, despite getting bored during my trailwork.