Mt.Chocorua – Alone at Hammond Trail

I picked Mt. Chocorua for my hike number 3.  I arrived at 8:15AM at the parking lot of Hammond Trail, it is a small parking lot and nobody was there except me.  There was construction machinery for an on-going improvement of the site.  It was a small parking lot with new gravels on the ground – about 8-10 cars can fit.   There was no park fee meter or drop box for payment so I hesitated for a minute if it was a private property – after a litle bit of thinking I started my hike at 8:30AM.

I was hiking the Hammond trail alone, the first mile of the trail was easy walked under the trees, then after that one mile of easy hike the climb started.  I arrrived at the interesection of Hammond Trail and Weetamoo/Piper Trail after one and a half hour of hiking and still did not encounter a single soul.  Not long after I passed the intersection, an experienced hiker who took the Piper Trail overtook took – I made a little conversation and felt glad that there was another person on the trail.  I continued my hike and reached the Liberty Cabin at 11:00AM.   There  were some rock climbing ass the hike get closer to the summet- admittedly, I got scared looking at the ravine and started worrying how I would climbed down – it was proved unfounded as I did not experience any difficulty on the way down.  Before reaching the summit, I lost track  and climbed rocks that are not part of the trails.  Thankfully, I can already hear the people at the summit and one of them kindly pointed me to the right direction to go the top.  I reached the summit at exactly 12PM,  it was very beautiful 360 degrees view at the top – I feel great and lucky that I was looking at this beauty – it is hard to describe.  That day was cloudy  and cool temperature which addded to my great feeling.  There were around 30 people at the summit at that time, some were leaving and there are some more arriving from different trails.   I enjoyed the view and the weather for 30 more minutes, and then started my hike going down.    I’m back at the parking lot at 4PM and I saw two other cars parked on the lot.  This was a very rewarding hike,  I’m already thinking of  going back.