Carter Dome - 4832' (34/48)

Trail-head

This past weekend Paloma, John, Foster, and I decided to head up to the mountains to tackle Carter Dome.  John and Foster slept at our place the night before so that we could get as early of a start as possible, anticipating that Memorial Day weekend would attract a slew of tourists to the White Mountains.  We were up and on the road at just after 5:40AM, and began our journey towards the Nineteen Mile Brook trail-head located just past the Mt. Washington auto road off of Rt. 16.  The weather was quite cool, barely breaking 40 degrees on the drive up.

Our plan for the day was to hike up the Nineteen Mile Brook trail to Carter Notch and the Carter Lakes, then take the steep Carter-Moriah trail up to the summit of Carter Dome – a total distance of 10 miles round trip.  I had toyed with the idea of tackling all of the Carters but given that this was our first big hike for the year I decided against it.  Plus, I wasn’t sure what the snow situation was going to be like at the higher elevations.

We arrived at the trail-head parking lot at 8:30AM and had to park on the road as the lot was completely full.  There were already a few cars parked on the road – looked like it was going to be a busy day.  The weather was a balmy 36 degrees, and in a rush out of the house I didn’t grab all of the layers I wanted to.  Oh well, I figured once we got moving I would be just fine.  We officially hit the trail at 8:42AM.

Johnny at the Lake

The first four or so miles up the Nineteen Mile Brook trail are quite pleasant and relatively easy.  The trail follows along the Nineteen Mile Brook, crossing it periodically.  It was quite scenic and enjoyable, even though I had already hiked down this trail in the past when hiking the Wildcats.  There were a few areas where there was some trail erosion and mud but nothing too concerning or difficult to get around.  The river was flowing quite aggressively due to the melting snow from this past winter.  For the number of cars we saw in the lot, we encountered very few people on the way up to the Notch.

As we got a bit higher in elevation there was some scattered snow in the woods but thankfully nothing on the trails at this point.  I could tell Foster was anticipating some nasty potholing up ahead and it was funny to hear him talk about how much he hates hiking in the snow.  We reached the split with the Carter Dome trail at 9:26AM though continued on the Nineteen Mile Brook trail to the Notch.  We reached the Carter Lakes area 10:15AM, and after taking some photos of the beautiful lake and the cliffs on Wildcat, began the difficult part of the hike – 1.2 miles up the Carter-Moriah trail to the summit of Carter Dome.

Snow!

To say this section is steep is an understatement.  That being said, however, there are plenty of hand and foot holds to hang onto and not much erosion – which made this section mostly just physically tiring than technically challenging, per se.  My heart was beating so hard at some points that I could feel it throbbing in the back of my head.  “Whew – this will get me back into hiking shape in no time” I had thought to myself.  John was pushing the pace up this section and we all silently agreed to reconvene at the summit.  The views from some points of this trail were amazing – looking back over at the Wildcats and Mt. Washington.  It was quite breezy at this point and my hands were going numb – I estimated it to be south of 40 degrees up there.  There was also quite a bit of snow but the cold temps overnight froze it solid so you could easily walk on top without post-holing.

While this stretch was only supposed to be 1.2 miles, it seemed like it was triple that.  Once you get past the steep, slide section you continue the ascent through another wooded section that drags on forever with minimal views.  Unfortunately, the summit of Carter Dome is the same way…not that exciting.  I made it to the summit at 11:24AM, John had made it there a few minutes before me and Paloma and Foster arrived a few minutes after.  There was a friendly dog named Monty at the top who almost made off with Paloma’s sandwich.  While the sun was shining bright on the top of Carter Dome, it was quite chilly so we quickly wolfed down our sandwiches and snacks, took our summit photos, then headed back down at 11:42AM.

Chilly Lunch at the Top

On the hike up we had passed a short trail off of the Carter-Moriah trail marked “View.”  We were too gassed on the way up to stop for a look but decided to hit it up on the way down.  It was only about 30 yards up the trail to a great lookout point, providing beautiful views of the notch below and over to the neighboring mountains.  Much better than the view (or lack thereof) at the summit of Carter Dome!

We had to take extra care on the descent as the trail was quite slippery with ice and water at some points.  Paloma had prepared for this and put on her microspikes – the rest of us bare-booted down.  Luckily no real bad slips or injuries!  We were able to get down from the steep part and back into the notch pretty quickly, and began the long, easy descent down the Nineteen Mile Brook Trail.  The trails got a lot busier as the day went on and now we were passing numerous people along our descent.  At one point we came to a bridge and another group of hikers were on the other side.  We let them go first but for some reason one of their dogs was terrified of me and wouldn’t cross the bridge until I did and moved to the side.  What did I do!?!?

Summit of Carter Dome

The rest of the descent was pretty uneventful and we were actually able to jog for long sections of the descent which helped us shave off some time.  We made it back to the parking lot at 2:00PM on the dot, shed our gear and hopped into the car, hoping to get out of the mountains before the evening traffic started.  On the way home we stopped in Portsmouth, NH for dinner at the Thirsty Moose.  It was quite delicious and much deserved after this 10 mile hike!

Overall this was a nice hike and while the views from the summit are nearly non-existent, the look-out point and the beautiful lake make it all worthwhile.  If you are up for it I would suggest grabbing all of the Carters at once (Carter Dome, Middle Carter, South Carter) because we now have to make the same trip up next weekend to finish them off!

"View"

Hike Stats

Trails: Nineteen Mile Brook, Carter-Moriah

Total Time (Including Breaks): 5:20

Distance: 10 Miles

Elevation Gain: 3,400' (approx.)

Wildcat Mountain (A Peak) - 4422' Wildcat Mountain (D Peak) - 4050' (28/48)

Wildcat Ridge Trail Head

After what seemed like an eternity, my foot was finally feeling strong enough to test out on the trails.  The great weather we have been having lately had my mind on the mountains, and I was happy to finally get back to hiking!  It had only been a little over two months since I broke my foot on a hike up Mt. Cabot, but those two months seemed quite long!  My foot actually healed up quite well - and ahead of schedule - so I was confident that I would be okay hiking on it.  I was getting tired of seeing pictures and reading blogs about other people out there enjoying the trails....my turn!

Paloma, my parents, and I decided to hike the Wildcats on Saturday.  Out of all the mountains in New Hampshire, I have probably spent the most time on Wildcat, skiing.  I love skiing on Wildcat because it is one of the less crowded ski areas and the views on a blue-bird ski day across to Washington are nearly unrivaled.  Needless to say, I was happy to to be spending some more time on the mountain, this time for hiking.  While most of our skiing is done on Wildcat (D Peak), the Wildcats are actually a set of 5 different peaks, uniquely named A, B, C, D, and E.  Unfortunately, due to 4000 footer rules, only peaks A and D count towards the list, though the route we had planned would take us across all five anyways.

Crossing the River

We headed up Route 16 towards the Glen Ellis Falls parking lot, located a few miles south of the Pinkham Notch visitors center, arriving at approximately 8:40AM.  The lot was relatively empty when we arrived, but as we made our preparations for the hike it slowly began to fill up.  The weather forecast was looking great - a mild 70 degrees with only a few clouds in the skies.  We officially set out on the Wildcat Ridge trail at 9:00AM.  The trail begins by heading underneath Route 16 through a man-made tunnel, and immediately crosses the quite active and deep Ellis River.  The river was a bit difficult to cross so it took a few minutes for us to successfully navigate to the other side.  Immediately after the river the trail begins a steady and quite rocky climb, which awarded us with excellent views of Mount Washington after only about twenty minutes on the trail.  The trail continued to skirt alongside some open rock faces for a while and continued climbing steadily - at no point is the trail flat.  What a great way to whip my ass back into shape!

Steep Climb!

At some point we had summitted Wildcat E Peak, but given the absence of any type of markings, where exactly that was, I am not so sure. Just before we reached Wildcat D Peak (one of the ones that counts), we came into a clearing at the top of the Wildcat Gondola chair.  Wow, this looks a lot different in the winter!  Much like Cannon Mountain, Wildcat tends to attract summertime tourists who can easily get great views of Mt. Washington and the Presidential Range by simply taking a five minute Gondola ride to the top.  Yuck!  It made me feel great though to see a guy walking by with flip flops on reaking of Armani cologne while I was covered in mud reaking of MAN.  Oh well.  We took a few photos and continued up the short incline to the summit of Wildcat D Peak, reaching it at just about 11:30AM.  After taking a few photos from the wooden lookout tower, we continued on our way.  There were a few trails leading from the top of Wildcat D Peak, so we spent a few seconds trying to figure out the right one.  Luckily we chose correctly (if looking at the stairs, the trail is to the right), and began making our way across the ridge to Wildcat C Peak.

Top of the Gondola

The going across the ridge was actually a lot more strenuous than I had anticipated.  You descend and ascend quite a bit over the mile or so to Wildcat C Peak, which took a lot of our energy.  Given that we only had one car, our plan had been to do an out and back on the Wildcat Ridge trail, but the up and downs were not going to be easy on the way back so we modified our plan and decided to continue across all of the peaks and descend via the Nineteen Mile Brook trail (wise choice!).    Unfortunately, the parking lot that this trail takes you to is located about five miles from where our car was parked, so one of us would need to walk or hitchhike back to the car and return to pick up the others.

Summit of Wildcat D Peak

Much like Wildcat E Peak, we weren't quite sure exactly when we hit the summit of Wildcat C or B peak, but were able to estimate it pretty good.  We reached Wildcat A Peak at 1:20PM, and sat down on a beautiful ledge overlooking Carter Notch and the Carter Notch Hut for lunch.  We watched some other hikes way across the Notch while we ate.  Luckily, there weren't many people on the outlook, only a couple of guys who joined us halfway through lunch.  They too, modified there plans and actually had a friend giving them a ride back to the Glen Ellis Falls parking lot, so my mom bribed them with some fresh bing cherries for a ride back as well if we were to end up at the lot at the same time.  We finished lunch and began the descent to the Nineteen Mile Brook trail at 1:40PM.

Summit of Wildcat A Peak

The descent was quite steep to start, but once we reached the junction with the Nineteen Mile Brook trail it flattened out quite a bit.  Knowing that we weren't going to have to deal with the up and downs on the Wildcat Ridge trail was quite settling.  We kept a pretty quick pace going down, and the descent was relatively uneventful, but the trail was actually quite pretty at some parts where it weaved alongside a fairly rapid river.  About a half mile from the parking lot we encountered an older gentleman walking up the trail.  He indicated to my dad that he was just hiking up to meet some people on the way down.  We didn't put two and two together that he was the person giving the two guys we met at the top a ride back to the Glen Ellis Falls parking lot.  Whoops!

My Cool Parents!

Needless to say, we got down to the lot before the two guys and their ride, so I jumped at the opportunity to hitchhike back to the lot some five miles away (call it a bucket-list item).  My father decided to join, and before you know it we were walking up Rte. 16, thumbs stretched out.  A few cars passed by without stopping, but shortly into our walk a pickup truck with an older man and two kids pulled over onto the gravel shoulder - we told them where we were headed and they obliged. My father and I hopped into the bed of the pickup and off we went.  Thank god we got picked up because this five miles had a pretty steady incline at a few points - which frankly would have sucked after our long hike!  We got back to the lot, gave the guy a five-spot for his hospitality, hopped in our car and went back to pick up Paloma and my mom.  Success!

We were all pretty hungry so we decided to stop at the Moat Mountain Smokehouse for dinner.  Aside from the families with one trillion starving kids who just got out of a day at Story Land, the dinner was quite tasty and the beer even tastier.  All in all a solid hike!

Hike Stats
Trails: Wildcat Ridge Trail, Nineteen Mile Brook Trail
Total Time (Including Breaks): 7:20
Distance: 8.7
Elevation Gain: 3,150'