Mt Chocorua (10/29/22)

Back in the summer, Dragonfly started planning a family hike on Mt. Chocorua. It would involve Dragonfly, her sister Sondra, Sondra's husband Parched (trail name), Dragonfly's cousin Hummingbird, and me. The plan was to take Champney Falls Trail up to Chocorua, and descend the same way. We planned to meet at the Champney Falls parking lot at 8:30.

Being me, I didn't want to be late. This was even more true because I know that Chocorua is one of the most popular hikes in the White Mountains, and I didn't want to end up without a parking spot. Thus, I got up at 5 AM and was on the road around 6 AM. I stopped at Big Dave's Bagels in North Conway for breakfast around 7:15. I texted Dragonfly that I was in North Conway, and she texted back that I had issues. I arrived at the trailhead just before 7:30, and I was the first car in the parking lot by about half an hour. At least I got a parking spot!

As I sat in my car eating my bagel, I watched a group of teenagers with a couple adults start up the trail. They were the first ones on the trail that morning. I couldn't even guess how difficult it must have been to get that many teenagers up early on a Saturday. They later told me that they were from Massachusetts, and they had stayed overnight near the trail.

It was cold in the morning, so cold that I had to occasionally turn on the engine to warm up while I waited. Dragonfly and Hummingbird arrived around 8 AM, with Sondra and Parched arriving maybe twenty minutes later. It was still cold when we started out, so I encouraged everyone to get moving as quickly as possible and not make stops so that we would all have a chance to warm up.

The hike up was pretty smooth, as the Champney Falls trail is a pretty easy trail, especially near the bottom. It gets a little rougher and rockier near the switchbacks at the top, but still not anything terrible. About halfway up, we diverted left on the trail to go to Champney Falls itself. The last time Dragonfly and I were at Champney Falls was in August of 2020. It was pretty dry then, and not very impressive, so I wasn't expecting a lot. Of course, this month it has been a bit wetter than it was then, so the falls were running pretty nicely.

This falls was well hidden and took some work to get to.

As we climbed, it began to warm up, and of course we shed our jackets. Dragonfly and I have an arrangement at this point that she carries a small pack and then stuffs everything into my pack. It increases her hiking endurance, which only makes my life better.

Eventually, we came to a beautiful sunny spot on a rock, and we decided it would be the perfect place for a lunch break. It was a little more than half a mile from the summit, and probably about a quarter mile from tree line, and we didn't know what conditions would be once we got past tree line. By this point, the temperature was perfectly comfortable, and we took our time with our snack break. Parched had spread his stuff out a bit, so it kind of blocked the trail and forced people to evade it, but he eventually fixed that issue.

After our snack break, we made a bee line for the tree line (you like that?), and crossed into the rocky area at the top of Chocorua. The views were fantastic from here. The sun was shining, there was little wind, and we realized that we had picked a perfect day for this hike.

360 degree views from the top of Chocorua on this day.

There were different levels of comfort in our group with the rock scrambling at the top. Dragonfly is a born rock scrambler, and I am pretty confident with it as well. Hummingbird was right there with us as well. Parched probably would have done fine, but he stayed back with Sondra to make sure that she was comfortable.

As we were about halfway across the rocky area, someone near us found a phone. He shouted out to everyone on the mountain to see whose it was, and one guy claimed it. However, the guy who found it was going in the wrong direction, so he passed it off to Parched, who passed it off to me, and I delivered it to the rightful owner. It was a great team effort.

When we started the final climb, there were two ways up the mountain. There was the more direct way, which was more difficult and dangerous, or there was the alternate way that went around the summit before climbing the easier middle section. I, of course, went up the direct way, with Hummingbird and Dragonfly right behind me.

In front of me, there was a couple who had started up the direct way, and then realized that it was beyond their skill level. They asked me if there was another way up, and I pointed them to it. They then asked if I was going to go up the direct way, and I said, "Yeah, I've done it before, so I know what I'm getting into." The woman turned to me and sarcastically said, "Well, good for you," before heading down to the easier path. I suspect she was just frustrated with the difficulty she was having and decided to take it out on me, but it's still pretty rare to have people be nasty to you on a hike, so I was caught a bit off-guard.

I summited the mountain with Hummingbird maybe a minute behind me, and Dragonfly probably another minute behind her. The summit rock was very crowded, so I went over to go see how Sondra and Parched were doing. They had taken the easier path, and they were working their way slowly up the center section.

At the top of the mountain there was a big group that had climbed in Halloween costumes. I thought that was a pretty cool nod to the time of year. They were nice enough to step aside and let us have the summit to ourselves for a little bit, so we appreciated that. We even found a lady who was nice enough to take our picture.

Hawk, Dragonfly, Hummingbird, Sondra, and Parched summit Chocorua!

By the way, you may notice the bandana that I am wearing in the picture. I put it on to keep the top of my head from being sunburned, but you can imagine how many pirate comments I got from Dragonfly.

When we turned to go down, we had to first work our way back across the rocks at the summit. The going was slow, but we eventually made it back into tree line, allowing me to take off the bandana.

Hummingbird has some ambitious hikes she wants to do, and we have talked about working together on the ones that are above Dragonfly's comfort level. Thus, this hike was a good chance to figure out how well we would pace each other on a more difficult hike. It turned out that we are probably about equally strong hikers at this point, so I would imagine that Hummingbird and I will try to take on the Sisters from the Carter Ledge Trail next year sometime. That will accomplish her goal of hitting the full Sisters and my goal of knocking out another Terrifying 25 hike.

The hike down was relatively easy, especially near the bottom, and I think everyone preferred the descent to the ascent, especially given the more forgiving temperatures. We kept a good pace and made it down pretty quickly overall.

Overall, this was an enjoyable family hike. I always enjoy getting to spend time with Dragonfly, and Parched is someone that I now count not just as my girlfriend's brother-in-law, but as a friend in his own right. I enjoyed hiking with Hummingbird and Sondra as well. I look forward to the next time that we get to do one of these. Until then, always remember that you can't take flight until you spread your wings.