May 1, 2010 Hike #2
After getting the Tripyramids in the morning, I decided on the Hancocks. The first couple of miles are in rough shape with lots of blowdowns. I spent about 30 minutes clearing as many as I could, but there are still many left.
I reached the junction for the Hancock Loop. Looking through the trees I could see that Arrow Slide was mostly clear of snow. I've been meaning to take that route so I decided that today was the day. I dropped down into the little col before the climb up to North Hancock. I got off the trail and went to a little unofficial camping area. I turned towards the mountain and started a very short bushwhack through open woods. It took no time to spot the bottom of the slide.
Up I went.
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Looking down the steep slide
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I still had a ways to go.
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View from the slide
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How's this for a steep look down.
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The top of the slide branches off in two directions like the end of an arrow (thus the name ~ Arrow Slide). My original plan was to take the route to the right. That seemed to be the most logical since the trail was in that direction, but I noticed a cairn on the other side. Figuring someone knew something I didn't, I decided on that route.
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Looking over to South Hancock
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I reached the top of the slide and knew it was time for snowshoes. Madison took a break while I strapped them on.
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It was only a tenth of a mile to the summit but it was very steep and I had to push through some steep spruce. I decided to angle to the right hoping to run into the trail. I saw some fairly open woods and headed further to the right where I bumped into the trail. I took that to the summit and then proceeded over to South Hancock.
While descending South Hancock I got a good view of Arrow Slide. The red line is my approximate route.
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The next day I hiked the Kinsmans in the morning followed by a quick hike of Cannon in the afternoon.
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