Accumulated about 5 hours of wood chopping. Hands and elbows are super sore.
I had been looking at this one for a couple of years now, but kept chickening out due to the steepness of the Wildcats. A sectionhiker.com blogpost convinced me to try it southbound, and I got the family blessing to do it on the back end of a family camping trip, so it was on.
I took a quick trip to Walmart to buy some “food” for the trip (box of pop tarts and a box of cosmic brownies. Shut up…). I pounded a couple of McDoubles and a small coffee, then I was off.
First day got me from route 2 to the Imp shelter, going over Mt Moriah and a couple other lesser peaks. The weather was great, as were the views. I saw almost nobody on the trail, and when I got to the shelter, I was the only tenter.
After finishing my camp chores, I wandered over to the shelter to eat my pop tart (shut up) dinner, where I heard thru-hikers talking about the weather. Apparently while I was hiking, Friday’s forecast changed from partly cloudy to thunder showers all day starting at 9am. Great. Friday’s plan was a day’s worth of hiking, a lot of it exposed and above the tree line.
When you are as slow a hiker as I am, early starts are clutch. Not having my CPAP machine means I never really sleep, so a 3:30 wake up for a 4am start is easy. I was on North Carter for the 6am sunrise.
It threatened to rain on the peaks, but it cleared up as I went. The first couple peaks aren’t on “the list” due to a lack of prominence, but the views were amazing. I was there for Middle and South Carter, which were boring rock cairns. Boxes checked.
As the weather continued to not suck, I started having doubts about my bailout alternative. Instead of continuing on to the Wildcats, after descending the Carters I could walk out and meet the family a little up the road from the original plan. But I really wanted to check those Wildcat boxes, and finish this project next year. The problem is the Wildcats are very exposed and super steep on the descent. Basically a 2 mile stretch of scree with 2000 foot elevation change. The literature says it’s tricky to descend, avoid it altogether when the rocks were wet. The books don’t mention lightning, but I assume that it’s a bad idea.
I made the decision to bail while descending Carter Dome. I saw the FPA sign, signifying the Carter Notch hut was .25 miles away. It took me an hour to get there, as I dropped over 1000 feet in that distance (did I mention I was slow?).
There are three reasons to stop at the AMC huts in the White Mountains (which, at $120 a night per person, are out of my price range). One: marvelous bathrooms. I’ve (almost) never had to dig a cathole, instead prefering these amazingly clean and well-scented johns and the muldering outhouses at the shelters. It’s called brown-blazing, folks. Look it up. Two: purified water. I had grabbed some river water earlier, but my filter was clogged. Whoops. If I’m super sick later this week, there ya go. Three: free food. Any extra food that the people staying at the hut don’t eat has to be carried out, so they leave out the extra oatmeal and pancakes for ravenous thru-hikers, and food-obsessed dorks who hike too slow (me).
So, I went into the hut to grab some flapjacks, fill my water up and (four) chat up the lady working in the kitchen about the weather. By now it was noon and still bluebird clear.She mentioned that the weather really can turn on a dime, and confirmed my suspicions that a Wildcat descent wasn’t a good idea. Cool.
I was about a half hour down the trail to real life when I noticed a family of four carrying heavy packs and wearing full rain gear trying their best to move as fast as their loads allowed. Pleasantries were exchanged, and they mentioned that they were trying to beat the storm to the shelter. That’s when I noticed the clouds. And the thunder. Five minutes later it opened up.
There was maybe 30 minutes of heavy rain and constant thunder. When the storm got closer I got to “one Mississippi” between the lightning and the thunder, which sounded like it was hitting right where I was standing a couple of hours ago. I was in a notch, so the sound bounced between the two walls. To be honest, it was a bit spooky, and the rain was starting to flood the trail. I passed a couple more miserable ponchos, trying to move quickly without getting covered in water and mud.
Once it started to ease off a bit, I was granted a rare sight:a croo member, packing out this week’s trash. The croo member was wearing a T-shirt and khakis, no rain gear, and carried the trademark wooden backpack with maybe 50-70 pounds of stuff on it. He smelled great, moved super quick, and somehow appeared not to be wet. I’ve seen young croo ladies who couldn’t be more than 5’1” and 120 pound carrying what looked like 100 pounds of food at about 4mph going UP Mount Lafayette, while I struggled to keep my 1 mph pace. I assume these people are all Olympic hopefuls working here during the off-season. Either that or they are fae-folk. Or both.
The rain stopped and I easily finished an hour earlier than my last best guess text to my wife. All in all an uneventful trip full of very little drama, and a whole lot of views. I have done 42/48 of the peaks, which I can get done in maybe 3 trips.
