South Hancock

[dr_wu002]

#47212 |

Eric (Barbarossa) and I chose my favorite mountain, Hancock, and more specifically South Hancock Summit for Flags on the 48. I picked the Red Bearded Bastard up at 4am (this was a 3am day for me!) and we were on South Hancock Summit by around 9am. Along the way up we checked out some of the bootleg trails, reroutes, and old logging roads dug into the slopes of South Hancock. We carried that flag and 16′ pole still in the box (I made Eric carry the thing the whole way and threatened to kill him several times if he didn’t hurry up).

We got to the top early so that we’d have time just to poke around. This had been my 5th or 6th time to Hancock in the last year and I was in the mood to explore the South Hancock Summit Area. So after looking at the illegal summit campsite and cleaning up plastic toilet paper and cigarette butts left by careless tourists, we walked over to Middle Hancock and headed east, off trail. We thought about maybe going over to East Hancock but abandoned that idea as we had an actual job to do in setting up the pole and flag (which were, at this point stashed in the woods… I don’t bushwhack with flagpoles). So we just kind of moseyed on back, looking for viewpoints of The Captain on the way back.

Like dutiful citizens we got the flag up before noon and hung around for a little while, eating lunch and talking to people as they arrived at the summit. Eric and I had discussed the possibility of saying the most offensive things imaginable to people as they showed up or perhaps acting like cretins in general but did not want to incur the wrath of Michael J, so like East Hancock, we abandoned this plan as well.

So, for the next two hours we alternated between hanging around, looking at the North Hancock Flag, looking for more views from the top (you can see 17 4000’er from South Hancock), looking at what I call “Hancock” Pond and “Huntington” Pond, and running back and forth between South and Middle Hancock desperately trying to see if I could see our flag from any point. I couldn’t We needed a 100′ pole. Eric had refused to carry the 80′ pole I originally bought and had to return from Ebay.

We had a great day. Like I said already, Hancock is my favorite mountain. There is a ton of stuff to explore and do… we’ve done Arrow Slide and Cedar Brook Slide, climbed not just South and North Peak but also Northwest Peak and made our way towards East Peak. There’s numerous old logging roads to explore and the lower woods are gorgeous — filled with old logging camps and more recent campsites. I feel like, besides doing my little good deed in lugging the flag up (I actually did carry it) and displaying it for a few hours, I got to explore a little more of my favorite mountain. And get nice weather and good company in the process.

Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/449011975eltmJk

Dr. Wu

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