Conway, NH

I joined the company hiking trip today. It was the first hiking trip even organized, ~60 people turned up and we took 2 chartered bus for 2 and a half hours, all the way to North Conway, NH to climb the 3500 ft Mt. Chocorua (we started out at 1200 ft though).

The hike was 3.5 miles one-way, 7 miles round-trip with an elevation of 2300 ft. It took us 2 and a half hour to go up the summit. The weather was a bit chilly, ~ 12 degC at the trail head and probably ~5 degC up at the summit. The trail started with woods with a rapid next to it for the first 1 mile or so, and then we entered some rocky terrace. Since it had been raining for the last few days, the ground was muddy or slippery on the rock. That was not too bad with proper hiking shoes.


Up at the summit we had a terrific view of the New Hampshire plain of forest in foliage. It was breathtaking. Here is a video clip I took with a 360 deg view at the top.



It only took us 2 hours to go down. We took a detour to see a water fall. Not a tall one, but nice to be a detour from the trail that we had taken up the hill.

We had booked our dinner at Pizza Barn. I supposed it was a real barn in the past, judged from its outlook and the wooden poles inside. They had picnic tables and chairs only, but very cozy to eat.

On the way back, I slept throughout the journey. It was a Saturday well-spent. It was the first sunny day for the whole week after all.
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I forgot to bring my Nikon D70s and I took all the pictures with my new cell phone Nokia N75. The picture quality is alright but the white balance is not quite correct most the time. I needed to correct the color manually in Photoshop. Water gets over-exposed all together and beyond repair. I should be getting more decent pictures from others' cameras in the next few days. They will be available here.
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On the summit we met a couple who had taken their babies up there. The father had the toddler strapped on his chest, and the mother had her two-year-old girl sitting in a basket on her back. They are unbelievable.