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!