Juddmansee.com

At 9am today I checked the weather report and saw CLEAR for all of today so I grabbed my pack and headed off to hike Mt. Hancock and South Hancock for my 22nd and 23rd 4000′ peaks. What the trail lacked in adequate signage and views it made up for in black flies.

On the way up the trail I found myself in a clearing with no obvious way to go. I set off in what I thought was the proper trail but it dead ended in short order. I worked my way back and tried another path which led me to a stream I had been following. Since I knew my trail crossed the stream further up, I hiked up the flowing stream for about 1/4 mile until I hit what was obviously the trail.

There was a decent view from an overlook near Mt. Hancock’s summit but the entire trail above 3500′ was swarming in black flies. The ridge connector between Hancock and S. Hancock was flat with gentle rolling hills. Combined with the recent rains this area was an insect ridden bog that I hiked through quite quickly. On the descent at one point my altimeter watch had me losing 70 feet per minute — that is *steep* combined with me in a hurry to escape the flies.
On the way down I was determined to find where I had gone wrong on the way up. I found my way down to the clearing and STILL couldn’t identify the proper way down. I wandered for a few minutes before eventually finding the path. That section needs to be blazed or signed much more clearly.

At the poorly marked clearing I stumbled across a name and arrow made of sticks in the dirt that pointed to some empty tents pitched on the trail. At first I thought it was someone camping illegally/inconsiderately, but about halfway down I started worrying maybe someone was lost. When I got off the mountain I tried to call the ranger station and eventually got hooked up with the State Police who took my report. I hope I was just being paranoid.

All in all it was a beautiful day for hiking and hopefully the weather will reward me with another great day soon.