So much New Hampshire in my life right now, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Last weekend was a whirlwind. Because the Mountain Goat race– CRANMORE HILL RUN– was to be Sunday morning, my friends and I decided to venture up on Saturday to camp out and hike. It turned out to be a good group of 5 of us– Matt and Erik came (as they are also Goating), Lauren and Sarah also decided to come up and race as well! We were unable to reserve a campsite a few days earlier, so we tried our luck at one of the first come first serve sites off the wonderful Kancamangus highway (my favorite road probably ever). We stopped at a silly sounding one called “Jigger Johnson”. Jigger was a logger from New Hampshire who appears to have been one wiley badass. He was a short, stern, rambucuous young man. He ‘tysoned’ someone before Tyson could (i.e. bit off someone’s ear). He was an alcoholic and wore the heart of “LIVE FREE OR DIE” on his sleeve. There is surprisingly little information about this man whose legend is adorned on this campsite.. at least very little that I can find online. Perhaps he is mostly legend. This link to a blog provides some good stories about “Jiggy J” (as we referred to him) : http://blogericious.blogspot.com/2011/02/lost-system-of-jigger-johnson.html
Anyway, Sarah, Erik, & I left early Saturday and were able to snag probably the last site at Jiggy J’s. We set up and Matt and Lauren rolled through not too long after. After we set up, we headed to Conway to get lunch and provisions for later… e.g. lots of hotdogs, corn, and beer.
We then wanted to hike since we had the afternoon to hang out. I proposed that we hike Mt. Chocorua– a 3500 ft tall mountain, the eastern most of the Sandwich range. It is a very popular hike because the trails are not overly strenuous or technical, and the top is bald and has an incredible 360 degree view of the White Mountains to the north and the lakes region to the south. The mountain is allegedly named after a man named Chocorua, a native to the land. Chocorua was friendly with the new settlers and was watching after a new family in the area. One week, he had to leave town and he left his son to care for the family– the Campbell’s. His son accidently drank a poison made by Mr. Campbell that was intended to be used on foxes and the son passed away. When Chocorua came back, he pledged revenge on the family and killed Mr. Campbell’s wife and kids and put a curse on him that went (according to Wikipedia):
“May the Great Spirit curse you when he speaks in the clouds and his words are fire! Lightning blast your crops! Wind and fire destroy your homes! The Evil One breathe death on your cattle! Panthers howl and wolves fatten on your bones!”
Awesome!
So anyway, this hike was AMAZING. It’s completely runnable until the last little scrambles (which are the fun part in my opinion). It was just over 7 miles round trip and look at these views:
Just an all around great hike. The summit rock reminded me of the Presis and why I love them so much. I would recommend this hike to anyone of any hiking experience level and any age. Absolutely beautiful!
On the way down, we stopped at Champney Falls to see some cool gorge and beautiful rock and water. Stopping here, still 2 miles from the car, made me want 2 things:
1. BEER.
2. To jump in a river.
Luckily for me, we did both of those things as soon as we got out of the woods. We drove to an outlet of the Saco, and sat in the water drinking local Pale ales as the sun set. I can’t think of any more perfect day.
48 peaks 