It's starting to shape up to be a my tradition to open my hiking year on Mt. Chocorua. Although this mountain is fairly small, only 3,490 offers some of the best views in New Hampshire, since it's summit is bare.

Unfortunately, I was unable to enjoy those views today, since it was cloudy with mist/light rain combo. It was unseasonably warm for January, in mid 30s, so trail was in pretty rough shape. I decided to take Champney Falls trail, which is 3.1 miles long (3.7 miles to the summit) and it's fairly gradual most of the way. Due to warm weather lately, trail was really soft with lot of water (even small streams on some sections). I tried to use snowshoes, to prevent post holing, but it didn't work, since there was a lot of rocks and roots, so I ended up just using microspikes. I spent short time on the summit, since there was no views and on the way back visited Champney falls and frozen Pitcher falls.

I finished this hike in 3 hours and 32 minutes (3:11 hrs was active moving time) and clocked in 7.4 miles with 2,231 ft of elevation gain.