car vs deer

car vs deer
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

I hit a deer the other night. Bummer!

Tank one hundred and twenty-nine

Total miles: 45296. Trip miles: 173.2. Gallons: 3.408. Price per gallon: $2.739.

Screen mileage: 58.1 mpg. Tank mileage: 50.8 mpg.

Mix of long drives and short commutes.

view from south hancock

view from south hancock
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

The view from South Hancock is more obscured than the one from North Hancock, but it's still nice.

I was surprised at how quickly I reached this peak from North Hancock. Probably the most difficult part of the hike was the climb down from South Hancock. The AMC guide describes this section as "unrelievedly steep" (p 233) and that's kind of true. There's more scrabbly rock on this section too, but overall it's not too bad. Mostly it was just dealing with the steepness, and not climbing over giant boulders, so my knees only complained very slightly for a short period of time. Although I'm sure it's pretty difficult going up; I'm glad I was only going down it.

I ran out of water early, and it was rough hiking back to the car for the last hour without anything to drink. There's plenty of water along the trail, but I hadn't brought along anything to purify it (and probably wouldn't have bothered at that late stage anyway). Fortunately I'd left a pint of water in the car. The car thermometer read 90°F, and boy was that water hot! It was almost like drinking tea (without any tea in it).

I seemed to have avoided getting any blisters, so I guess the prep hiking I've been doing worked. Hooray! What a great day! I feel like I took my brain and soaked it in a vat of endorphins. Woohoo!

view to south from north hancock

view to south from north hancock
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

This is the view looking south once you reach North Hancock. Incredibly beautiful view today, nice surprise! I've had quite a lot of rain when hiking the Whites so far. Today's hike reminded me a bit of my hike up Tecumseh. Except it was incredibly hot today!

It turns out that the Hancocks are one of the less difficult set of peaks that I've hiked in the Whites. Or maybe I'm just getting used to the nature of these peaks.

hancock loop trail choice

hancock loop trail choice
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

The weather was great! Clear blue skies, but a bit too hot and humid, and pretty still with only rare breezes.

There weren't too many bugs either. I had heard that there might still be black flies, but I didn't encounter any. Just a few mosquitoes, and they weren't voracious.

On the way up, I passed a trail runner who wasn't carrying anything, just running down the mountain. This made me feel a little bit overprepared, carrying a backpack and all. He said it was nice and cool up top, but that wasn't really true by the time I got there.

At the Hancock Loop trail, I took the trail to the North peak. I had heard the trail to the South peak was incredibly steep, so I figured it would be more pleasant taking that down. The problem with going up the North loop is that it takes you straight down for a while... and then you go up and up and up again. There are some stretches of trail which are very scrabbly, with difficult footing, and I slipped a few times, but not badly.

north and south hancock

hancock notch trail
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

Today's hike: 5 h 50 min | 9.8 miles | 1.7 mph

I got a bit bored with the training hikes, and decided to go for a more extended hike this weekend. My WMNF parking permit had recently arrived, so that decided it. I chose to do North Hancock and South Hancock, which are connect by a short loop trail.

I started out with about 2 liters of water, and a pack weight of 16 lbs. I got to the trailhead at around 8:30. I was expecting to find hordes of people, but there were only about 5 cars parked at the trailhead. It turned out very reasonable; I only passed someone about every hour.

Tank one hundred and twenty-eight

Total miles: 45123. Trip miles: 436.7. Gallons: 7.826. Price per gallon: $2.899.

Screen mileage: 55.2 mpg. Tank mileage: 55.8 mpg.

Mix of long drives and short commutes.