Copy/Repost Hike

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What a nice weekend! Weather was beautiful with cloudless blue skies and 60-70 degrees in the valleys. Joey & I left Boston about 3:30 on Sat. We picked up our 2010 White Mtn National Forest parking pass at the Waterville Valley info center. Then we had a beer at the bar at Mad River Tavern followed a by great dinner. Chuck came in just as we finished. I booked us a room thru Expedia at Royalty Inn in Gorham NH, so we drove the 60 minutes and checked in. Chuck stayed at his place in Waterville Valley. We walked across the street to Salt & Friends Pub where a very energetic young man was playing his guitar and making up words to songs as the small audience gave them to him. My word was Subaru, and he did a good job with it.

 

After a decent night of rest, our wake up call got me to plant my feet on the floor at 6:30 AM. After packing, we hit Dunkin and then the trail head for 19 Mile Brook Trail, (3300’ elevation). Dan has 6 left to complete the 48 four thousand footers of NH. Today the plan is to knock off 2 of the 6, Carter Dome and S Carter. It was planned to be a 13 mile day, possibly coming out at dark, which everyone was aware of before we headed up the trail. We all had some sort of light and some traction device in case the snow we were sure to hit above 3500 feet was treacherous. There was Dan, Joey, Chuck, Brian, Mark and Ron. We left the lot at 9:15 and were at the Carter Notch hut about 30 min under AMC Guidebook time, at about 11:30. The hut has 2 newer bldgs with 4 or six smaller bunk rooms each. There are two high elevation lakes right outside the doors. The main hut serves food during full service season. It's really pretty nice. I’d like to bring a few non hiker friends of mine here for an over night. I think they’d really enjoy it.

 

We the huts about noon taking the Carter Moriah Trail up to Carter Dome, and it is up. You gain 1500 feet in 1.2 miles! During this gain, we ran into snow. Most of us put on our microspikes or other traction device. Post holing was infrequent since it was still chilly up here with heavy wind gusts. There were a few nice views looking back down at the huts and lakes. To my surprise, Carter Dome had more vegetation and decent size trees, so views off Carter Dome were not great…..but we were there, (4832’)! We grabbed a quick bite, change of socks or clothes and we were off. The AMC Guide book said the best views are off of Mt Height which is 4675’, but not considered one of the 4,000 footers for some technical reason. Since it was only a short distance, (about .2 miles) longer than talking the Carter Moriah, we decided together to go for it. Chuck who had completed his 4000 footers had not hit this mtn & was looking forward to seeing the views…..so off we go. It was really not a bad trip over. The wind really whipping at the summit….I’ll guess a constant 40 mph with gusts significantly higher. We found a somewhat sheltered spot and hung here for 10 minutes or so before leaving the spectacular views of Mt Height. Personally I was very glad we hit Height because my reason to hike is for views. Mt Height made the effort expended worthwhile for me. The hike down Height to Zeta Pass and the Carter Moriah Trail was very steep and snow covered and trail finding was not easy, making me very glad we did not go up Height this way. When we finally did find Zeta Pass and the Carter Moriah Trail, I looked at my cheat sheet and thought we were right on my planned time of 3:30. Looking at it as I write this, I see 3:30 was the planned time to have summated S Carter and come back to Zeta Pass to head back toward the cars, so we were actually about 1 hr behind, most of which was due to the trail finding coming down Mt Height. After reaching Zeta Pass from coming down Mt Height, the plan was now to go gain 540 feet elevation over .8 mile to the summit of South Carter’s to knock off another 4,000 footer. In hind sight, I wish I had been more persistent about completing the trip we all signed up for. One of us was doing fine and I’m sure could have made it, but was more persistent to head down than I was to head up. Because trail finding was not easy and it did not seem to me that anyone else was going to head down with the one member who wanted to head down, I did not feel I could send one person off on their own or ask him to wait an hour + while we summited S Carter, so I made the decision we’d all go down. We walked out via Carter Dome Trail and 19 Mile Brook Trail.

 

The plan was to walk out about 6:30 after summiting Carter Dome, Mt Height and S Carter. We did not get S Carter this day, but I believe we still arrived back at the cars at 6:30. South Carter is still on Dan’s list of five, (Moriah, S Cater, Owls Head, Isolation & Garfield….we did bag Moriah the next day so the list is down to four!!).

 

Because we were heading in different directions, we did not get to share drinks or food Sunday. Dan, Joey & Chuck headed north back to Gorham. Brian, Mark & Ron headed south. It was really a great day. Now I have an excuse to hike the Imp Trail to get S Carter!

 

 

 

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