Rose, Teah and I headed for end of the Kancamagus highway with the objective of spending our first night in the backwoods and reaching the summit of Mt Hancock. We made the trail head for the Hancock Notch Trail about 3:30pm after checking in with the Ranger Station to verify my understanding of the rules.
We have camped before but not as a group with the dog, and not with fully loaded packs up and down a 4400 footer. So this would be a trip of firsts and hopefully Teah would be cooperative.

The first couple miles of trail was really easy with minor increases in elevation and the trail was quite wide and obviously an old road. There was water along most of the trail, providing that welcome relaxing ambient sound in the woods. At the Cedar Brook Trail junction we saw a man camping just off the trail, obviously he didn’t get the memo of being 200′ back. We ended up hiking about 2 miles in to just before the first stream crossing on the Cedar Brook Trail and made camp up on a wooded rise. We were close enough to hear the stream but high enough and off the trail as required to not be seen or bothered by passers by. There was plenty of dead firewood laying down for a camp fire.

The area was used previously and with a bit of searching Rose actually found a small fire pit and we set-up camp near it. Rose started gathering fire wood and I started with the tent. Once the tent was up I started the fire and Rose set-up the furnishings getting the pads, sleeping bags, and cribbage set ready for the night. We had some back country gourmet Lasagna which only required a couple cups of hot water from my Jetboil stove. The Lasagna was actually quite good and the portion was decent. We had a couple glasses of wine toasting our adventure and enjoyed the fire. Teah liked the tent hung out inside most of the evening. We were all inside about 9:30, using our headlamp LEDs as a ceiling light for Rose to kick my but in cribbage.
I was up about 4:30 as it got light. Teah was concerned and had to lay by the door to keep an eye on the forest and she kept giving concerned vocalizations off and on. I nodded in and out until 5:30 but I thought Teah might have to go out, I certainly did and so up and out we were. I tried to get her to walk to the stream with me while I pump water for the camelbacks, but she was not leaving Rose behind. I put Teah in the tent and headed off for water. When I returned I pulled our food out of the tree and made some scrambled Back Country Denver Omelet and hot chocolate. Note to self, powdered eggs are horrible, Rose took a pass, I ate mine and Teah got the bonus and ate Rose’s. We packed up and hit the trail about 9:30.
There are several stream crossings on the Cedar Brook Trail, in high water they would be very tough to traverse. Actually the whole area would likely be problematic in early spring since it was muddy in places and a lot of water was along the trail. There are also many great places to camp in this area all the way in up to the north south fork. We reached the Hancock Loop Trail and decided to go to the North Summit. The seven tenths to the summit were quite steep and steady, but this would be the only heavy elevation gain of the trail. This section had many high step ups and in areas had loose shale like stones mixed in, making footing a little treacherous. We reached the summit about 12:00 and hung out on the outlook, had lunch, and rested. The views were great we could see Mt Chocorua to the south and Mt Oceola and points west. Teah was tired, we all were and we decided not to do the additional 1.3 miles of the loop to the south summit and just headed back down the way we came.

On our way out we were passed by a single hiker who did the South loop and a three group who arrived at the trail head just after us who had also done the South loop. We had seen all these folks on top and they left the Summit about the same time we did. We probably should have gone for the loop it would have been just a little extra effort, but 8.7 miles was enough for this trip and everyone had a tiring great time. Besides the South Summit loop was described as “Reliably Steep” in the AMC guide. Rose unlocked the car and the rest of the doors would not unlock, dead battery, lights were left on. A man from Connecticut had cables and obliged us with a jump. Disaster was averted, we changed out our shoes and were on our way.