Mt Chocorua via Hammond trail - 5/Jul/97

By David Metsky

For July 4th weekend we decided to seek out the crowds, so Chocorua seemed like the best bet. We chose the Hammond trail because is was closest to where we were staying and probably would avoid a lot of the people. The trailhead is off Rt 16, just north of Lake Chocorua. We just barely fit in the small parking space, but no one else was present so our hopes for some solitude were still high.

The bottom part of the trail is steady climb, until you reach the top of Bald Mountain at about 2.0 miles. There are some nice views to the south from there, and a good spot to take a water break, but we didn't wait long. Soon, the trail passed the Weetamoo trail junction, and another half mile gave us our first view of the summit. Right after that is the Jim Liberty Cabin, an small cabin with bunks and a cooking area. We paused for a bit to let Allison start handing out water consumption questionaires then pushed on to the summit.

From here on up, the trail is more open. We climbed up to some beautiful open ledges and a view of Bald Mountain, which we had crossed on our way up. After a steep climb up rocky ledges, we reached the bare summit and all the people. But we were looking for people to answer questionaires, so that was good.

The summit is bare, so we had views in all directions. Here is what we saw:

The trip down was uneventful and enjoyable. After two full hours on the summit with beautiful views the entire time, we saw no one on the entire trip down. A pleasant way to end the day.


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