Mandy's NH4K Finish on Middle Carter, and PATN

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Vernon, Conn.
I spent this past weekend in the White Mountains, camping at Dolly Copp with a bunch of friends from the Connecticut Section of the Green Mountain Club. The main event of the trip was my friend Mandy's finish of the New Hampshire 4000 Footers on Middle Carter.

Saturday: Middle Carter, South Carter, and Hight

There were six of us staying at Dolly Copp and Saturday morning we all joined Mandy on her final NH4K peakbagging. The day before some of them had joined her on the Wildcats where she picked up numbers 46 and 47. They had apparently had a lot of rain that day. On Saturday it was cloudy all day, at first overcast, but there was no rain, although the water from Friday being blown off of trees made it seem like there was sometimes.

Besides Mandy and me, we were Mike, Jim, Jim, and Jim. We started out at Dodge Camp, where Lefty E recognized me from my VFTT avatar. We went up Imp Trail, North Carter Trail, and Carter-Moriah Trail, which is part of the AT. When we got to the rather nondescript summit of Middle Carter I presented Mandy with an AMC 4000 Footer Club patch, Jim produced some chocolates, and Mike broke out some ice cream, an FTFC T shirt, and some wintergreen cupcakes which he'd baked for the occasion. We had a big celebration of Mandy's accomplishment, and the clouds even parted enough for a view of the Baldfaces. While we were celebrating TrailTrotter appeared; she was doing a Wildcat/Carter traverse.

After the celebrations Jim and Jim went down the way we came, but Jim, Mike, Mandy and I went south over South Carter to Hight. Unfortunately, there were no views of the Presidentials on Hight, but nonetheless we enjoyed the summit. After that we went back to Zeta Pass and hiked out 19 Mile Brook Trail, where Jim and Jim were waiting for us.

Sunday: Peak above the Nubble

On Sunday Jim, Jim, and Jim went home, but Mike, Mandy, and I hiked Peak above the Nubble. I'm not working on the New England Hundred Highest list, but Mike is, so Mandy and I joined him for this peak he needed.

The forecast for Sunday had been clear and dry, and when we got up on Sunday, it was exactly that. By the time we got to the trailhead, though, it was cloudy and had been raining off and on. It rained off and on all that day, but never hard. We had no views at all.

We started out from the North Twin Trailhead, crossed back over the bridge, and started bushwhacking southwest. Soon we came to a straight trail running north/south. We decided to take it south, figuring that if it isn't headed to PATN then where the Hell is it headed. I was worried that we should be headed more west when we came across a path to the right. We took that.

What followed was an ascent which mostly followed the herd path, but which occasionally lost it, only to find it again. After a while the way got very steep. Even though we were clearly on the herd path during that section, there were several very difficult rock scrambles to go over, one of which we went around instead. After a while of this we came across a plateau. It was like we were in the Catskills. Soon after this we met two guys coming down, two of the three people we'd meet on the hike. The herd path then went over a false summit, and then climbed somewhat steeply again to the true summit. There we signed the log in the canister and headed down. Soon after we met another Mike, also headed down, who hiked with us most of the rest of the way. We lost the path for longer going down than up, but eventually found it, and our Mike had a waypoint on the straight north/south trail which told us when to cut back down to the bridge.

So congratulations again to Mandy! Good luck on the New England 4Ks!

Here are the pictures for the Carter Range (Saturday).
Here are the pictures for Peak above the Nubble (Sunday).

--

Cumulus

NE111: 115/115 (67/67, 46/46, 2/2); Cat35: 27/39; WNH4K: 32/48; NEFF: 35/50
LT NB 2009

"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
 
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