For our 2016 vacation we decided to do an overnight hike and stay in an AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) hut. This would allow us to do more “peak bagging” on a single trip and experience more of the hiking commaraderie of others enjoying the White Mountains. The peaks that would be completed on this  two day trip were Wildcat D (4062′), Wildcat A (4422′), Carter Dome (4832′), South Carter (4430′), Middle Carter (4610′), and Moriah (4049′). We also went over Mt. Hight (4675′), though not an official 4000 footer, it had the best panoramic view of the trip. This would be a 20 mile hike over the two days with 5.5 mi. the first day and a long 14.5 mi the next day.

We decided to plan a hike of the entire Carter-Moriah range which would give us six more 4000 footers in a single trip. It made more sense to plan the trip by leaving from Pinkham Notch and crossing west to east over the range to Gorham. This would require an overnight stay in the Carter Notch Hut and allowed for a later start the first day to drive to Gorham and get our car dropped, but would make for a very long day of hiking the second day, from Carter Notch Hut back to the car in Gorham (14 mi).

Quite a bit of planning as involved in this trip because a specific day for hiking had to be selected for the hut reservation which meant we had to plan on different possibilities for weather. I reserved two spots for Jacob and I in January of 2016 for a Monday trip thinking this would be mid week and likelihood of fewer visitors and not in way of our vacation activities that might be going on over weekend. The total cost for the one night was $172. The hut provided dinner and breakfast and had drinking water, so this would cut down on the supplies to be carried. In the past we had only done day hikes, so didn’t need to carry very much. With the hut, we needed to carry snacks for first day and lunch food for second day as well as enough water for second day of long hiking. The only additional requirement was to carry in sheets and pillow cases for bunk beds. We also needed a small flashlight, toiletries, bug spray, Advil, and clothing change. They provided blankets, mattress, and pillow. In the past we had only used day packs and we would need to carry more. I gave Jacob the Kelty pack I had used in previous years to replace his small day pack and I borrowed a Deuter pack from Dara Morgan who had used it for overnight packing in Sierra’s. These packs turned out to work very well. I was able to borrow the sheets from my sister in NH prior to hike. Jacob was able to use his hiking boots from 2015 because they still fit him. I had misplaced my hiking shoes and came to NH without any. I realized at my sister’s that I had given my old hiking shoes to Eddie because they no longer fit properly. I got lucky again when my sister Beth found a pair of hiking shoes in a closet that fit me perfectly. They turned out to be great and I will use them again. In order to drop a car in Gorham, I called around to multiple taxi services. One was expensive and the other didn’t service Gorham, but I was given the name of a guy in Gorham that likes to help out hikers and he was willing to meet me at 11 am on Monday where I was dropping my car. His name was Bruce 504-615-9497 goldenwaldo@yahoo.com. He also helped out by telling me I needed to park my  car about 200 yds down from the Carter-Moriah trailhead because there were homes at the trailhead. This was very helpful because you could not tell from trail information, trip reports, or satellite image whether there was any parking at that trailhead much less overnight parking. Nothing like local knowledge! The last planning issue was one of weather, but we could only wait until the day before to know what we would have to pack for or whether we were going at all. A forecast of rain would cancel the trip.

At my sister’s on Aug 7 the day before the trip and the forecast was perfect. It was supposed to be 80’s in the valley and 60’s up in the mountains with overnight temperatures dropping into high 40’s. We didn’t pack any rain gear, NH had been experiencing a drought and it looked to continue for at least the next two days (we would find out later that it would rain the next day after our trip for many days). We did bring two nylon shirts for hiking, a fleece for me, sweatpants and two sweatshirts for Jacob. A text to Bruce to confirm his  pickup the next day got a quick affirmative. I wisely packed earplugs because I knew we  would have bunkmates and an eyemask because of the 5:50 am sunrise. These both turned out to be useful with the guys next to us  being heavy snorers and sun coming up early. Also packed a small LED flashlight which was needed after sunset to walk back to bunkhouse and in middle of night to go to bathroom. There was no electricity in bunkhouses to charge phones but this bunkhouse did have small light that would have allowed for reading. A small towel was brought to cleanup with but the water pressure was bad and water was shutoff to bathrooms. I brought along some cash which ended up being needed to give hut rangers a tip ($15). I did not bring any alcohol but in hindsight I wish I had a little rum instead of all the extra Gatorade I carried the first day. The bottles were needed for second day but they could have been brought up empty and made my  life easier. I carried five 20 oz bottles of Gatorade and a 32 oz bottle of water. Jacob carried two 20 oz bottle Gatorade. I only needed one Gatorade and the water on the trip to Carter Notch hut, Jacob drank one and half Gatorade. I should have carried 4 of those Gatorade bottles empty.

On morning of Aug 8 the forecast for day was sunny and low of 45 overnight in Gorham. This seemed like it might be below 40 at Carter Notch hut, but it didn’t matter because 4 bodies in the small bunkhouse kept it plenty warm and I didn’t even need the wool blanket. We left house 9:15 and realized 15 miles up road that I had forgot to grab the lunch meat and raisinets from the refrigerator. We would now have to stop and grab lunch before getting on trail and grab snacks. We got to Gorham and I stopped at Subway for food. Jacob stood in line while I went next door to get snacks and water. I got a call from Bruce and he said he was already at pickup point because he had another passenger to take to doctor. I told him I would be there as soon as possible. We got our sandwiches and brought with us and I bought snacks and 32 oz water bottles. We drove a mile down road and clearly saw Bruce waiting in a field for us with a van. It was 11:00 am. We grabbed our packs, lunch, and put on our shoes. Locked van and jumped in with Bruce. I had planned on leaving from Pinkham Notch  Visitor center and walking the 0.9 mi to start of Carter-Moriah via the Lost Pond Tr. When I asked Bruce about whether we could start right at the  Carter-Moriah at Glen Ellis Falls, he  said there shouldn’t be any issue with crossing the Glenn-Ellis river because of the drought. I decided to shorten our hike and had Bruce drop us at the Glenn Ellis Falls parking lot. I gave Bruce $30 for his help. We ate our sandwiches in the parking lot and asked another group to take our trash as there was no disposal in this parking lot. This lot was pretty full so it could have been hard getting overnight parking there, but it was also 11:35am.

At 11:45 we went thru the tunnel under Rte 16 and then turned right on the path heading toward Glenn Ellis Falls. We did not see any obvious crossings of the river and walked all the way  to the falls. I knew we had gone too far so we came back to the tunnel. The map was no help in figuring out the crossing so we just crossed at the tunnel exit. We then worked our way up the other bank of river about 75 feet until we were able to get atop the river bank and we then saw the WildCat Ridge trail where it intersected with Lost Pond Tr. We could also see the Applachian Trail crossing on the other side that we could not find as you would only have seen it if you crossed Rte 16 instead of using the tunnel.

The first mile started pretty steep and I worked up a sweat very easily. Jacob kept a face pace…but I kept telling myself I had the heavy pack.

We got to the first lookout prior to WildCat E (1.2 mi) in an hour.

I think the following picture is Wildcat E which we reached in 1:40

We reached the top of WildCat D at 1:44pm for a 2 hour hike. This is where the lift/gondola dumps out tourists and it was a little amusing that we were sweating and winded and people were milling around overweight with their big picnic lunches. There were quite a few tourists around eating lunch and enjoying the views on the beautiful day. A couple noticed us sweating and asked if we had hiked up…a little intrigued. We climbed to the  top of the WildCat D viewing tower for a photo op at 2:00 pm.

Some of the peaks have the US Geological Survey markers

We left WildCat D at 2:15 pm and headed to WildCat A. A very skinny thru-hiker passed us moving very quickly. We got to WildCat B at 3:15pm. We got to WildCat A at 3:30 for a 3:45 hike from the beginning of the hike. There was a group of young backpackers with all their gear for camping in the woods. There were hanging out eating a snack and enjoying the views. The view down to the Carter Notch hut was great and the view across to Carter Dome was spectacular. It was a little daunting to think that it was only a mile down to the hut…it was going to be a steep descent.

 

It was a little daunting to see that we would have to go down over 1000 ft to get to the Carter Notch Hut, only to get back up in the morning and climb straight up 1500 ft to Carter Dome. We left WildCat A at 3:40 and started heading down to the hut. About 5 minutes later we took this picture of Carter Dome and North, Middle, and South Carter that we would climb the next day.

We had been protected all day from the winds whipping through the notch but we felt it as we were exposed on open ledges. It got a little tricky on the hike down with our footing.

We got to the hut at 4:30, for 5.4 miles total in 4:45. It was a challenging hike for our first of the year. The Carter Lakes where scenic. I love these alpine lakes with their summer fauna.

 

 

 

We checked into the Carter Notch hut and found the college intern innkeepers to be very friendly. The draught had cause water pressure to be very poor at the facilities, so the bathrooms has the water shut off. The only place that had water was the kitchen/gathering hut. I had a very pleasant reaction upon seeing the hut. I was expecting it to be much more rustic. You could tell the facilities had been recently renovated because all the building were in pristine shape. The bunkhouses themselves had two bunks in what was essentially a semi-private room. There was actually a small reading light available. There was plenty of room to hang and store items.

Upon getting there a group of 10 women were sprawled out on the porch of our hut complex playing cards, laughing, and drinking beer/wine. I talked with them a little bit and was sorry I didn’t pack a little something for myself to drink. It turned out there were a group of school teachers from Rochester, NH that came up here for the weekend as a last hurrah and bonding experience before the school year started.

Our own roommates turned out to be brothers who had some acquaintance to a guy from Australia that had recently passed away. This guy had always talked of hiking the Appalachian Trail but never made it. His widow had passed his boots to them in hopes that hikers would get some part of him on the trail. These brother had take the shortcut (19 mile brook tr) to the AMC hut and were to get his boots on the AT trail the next day. The WildCat Ridge Tr we had been hiking today and the Carter-Moriah trail we would hike the next day, were part of the AT. The mistake one of the brothers made was to try and wear the boots of the gentleman that passed instead of just carry them. Apparently the boots had dry rotted and 2/3 of the way up they disintegrated on the brother wearing them. He now had them duck taped together and had made the unfortunate decision to hike back down from the AT because they certainly couldn’t hike with no boots. It was a valiant attempt by these brothers to fulfill the wishes of a dreamer.

Jacob and I stored our bags and prepped our bunks for the night. The twin sheets we brought would be plenty and the wool blanket would go unneeded for me. Between the clothes we wore at night and the body heat from the occupants in the small room, there was plenty of warmth even with it getting into the 40’s outside and the window cracked.

 

Jacob and I went to the kitchen gathering area and played some cards. We got kicked out at 5:30 because they wanted to prep the dining area for dinner at 6. Dinner was served promptly at 6 pm and the food was very good and more than we could eat. We had beef barley soup, salad, steak tips, brown rice, peas, fresh baked bread, and a ginger bread cake for dessert. Everything was served family style. There was a husband and wife and their two young kids that sat at our table. They had come up for a couple of days and seem to be making a mini vacation of it. They had climbed Carter Dome today, which I thought a superb feat giving the age of their young kids. The other two at our table were a father daughter (she was 16) who had hiked over today from the Madison Hut which was apparently a strenuous hike. The day before they had been hiking the Presidentials.

After dinner Jacob and I had a couple games of chess. I beat him handily in the first game as he got a little cocky charging in, only to miss the fools checkmate. On the second game I had him handily beat, yet he drew a stalemate in the end when I messed up checkmating him with my Queen/King. We went to bed at 8:30 even though it wasn’t lights out and quiet time til 9:30. Jacob and I quickly fell asleep even with the noise outside (I had earplugs in). Our bunkmates were already in bed.

Thank goodness I brought a small flashlight, had to get up to go to bathroom twice in the middle of night and it was pitch black. It was a 50 yd walk to bathroom and I didn’t want to pee in nearby woods. Jacob slept like a baby as he was wore out. I slept very well on the comfortable mattress and pillow provided.