Team ChacoPak: Mt Chocorua via Champney Falls

So this hike has ended up as one of my favorite hikes in The Whites. What a great trail! We had so much fun today. I think it was nice to finally be out of boots and in trailrunners. I also learned about mud season as the trail is very soft. There is a lot of melting going on and water is plenty. I only started out with 2 liters, but hydrated hard all morning. We started at 10am and the lot was almost full. We hit snow and ice pretty quickly but made very good time to the Falls. The trail winds up along side of river and it was running very nicely. Im always amazed at how clear the water is in New Hampshire. We were in microspikes the second leg of the climb up. It was a nice gradual climb up and really only challenged Grayson, when we got to the rock scramble. He navigated it very nicely. I latered up his paws just before we came out above treeline with some Mushers Paw Wax and I could tell a difference. I did monitor his paws as we would hit the ledges as we ascended. Grayson is a hiking machine and really enjoys the other dogs and people he meets. He does very well off leash and on leash so we are pleased with how much he has progressed over the past few hikes. I think above treeline will get to be too much for him into July and August because of the heat.
We made the summit with few issues and did it pretty quickly. We sat on top and had some lunch. Grayson downed some Peanut Butter mixed with his treats. The views were absolutely stunning and I feel fortunate to live in such a place of amazing beauty. I have become familiar with the mountains up here so it's nice to look out from the summits and point to the one's we have climbed. Chocorua was no less amazing. I feel like the view looking straight up the back of Mt Washington with the quick snow melt is just gorgeous. You can look out from the top and point out so many 4000 Footers! On a really good clear day you can probably get a view of Old Speck. We passed lots of people that were pretty ill equiped. I could not even imagine doing this without microspikes. The snow is melting very fast and is very slippery even with spikes on but you still get the needed traction. My feet ended up very muddy because I like to trudge through mud. So enjoy the pictures and we will see ya'll on the trail!