Silverfox
New member
The weekend's original plans were to hike with some friends as they finished their 48 but unfortunate injury delayed that a bit..I had reworked my schedule and Rocket was up for a hike so we through around a couple of thoughts
The forceast looked to be excellent..Considered the bigelows..sadly too much time on the road this week and had to work saturday as well so we decided on the Carters..
It was the first frost of the year in Meredith...chilly....while driving up Route 16 all the ponds were steaming..all the peaks glowing in the amazingly clear air..we did not dawdle at the trailhead as it was quite cold in the shadows there..
We were at the height of the land on 19 mile in no time and set our sites on Wildcat where the cliff faces there shown brightly in the sun.. Thankfully Jeremy slowed his rocket like pace for the ascent and we soon tagged the summit and checked the views for a moment..but our goals lay further along the ridge that stretched out to the northeast.
Chatted with a few folks by the slide for a moment..indeed a scary spot in winter but well placed steps make it okay this time of year..The first pond was gorgeous with Wildcat reflecting off the slightly ripply surface..
The climb up C Dome always kicks my butt..starts off steep and gets steeper..I huffed my way past the viewpoint and delighted in making the more gradual grade soon after.. Pretty nice stretch of woods from the viewpoint up..some ferns showed signs of frost damage..other plants looked wilted from our recent drought..who would have thought..We quickly made the summit and chatted with a few folks at the viewpoint. A bit off the summit we took a water bar/herd path and popped out onto a talus field with simply amazing views towards the presis..I counted 22 cars on the auto road..this is a very wide reaching 200 degrees plus vantage point..very spectacular
Of course then, the short jaunt over to mt Hight is rewarded by certainly one of the better views in the Whites..Far to the northeast Sugarloaf, Abraham, Saddleback and the Horn were easily recognized..NH North country peaks with the shiny faces..well kind of faces..of Percy Peaks and range after range stretching off into Vermont..Spectacular..and we dawdled a bit over lunch as did several other groups..
The descent from Hight a bit rough and i picked my way..we chatted a bit at the carter Dome jct with some folks and lit out for South Carter..This stretch of trail in great shape..lots of boardwalks..some turning foliage and swamp grass added color..very pleasant even for the short scramble up South Carter. We poke through about 20 yards of spruce to the east right off the summit and came across a ledge with a great views into the Wild River Valley..except for the near poke in the eye this was prett nice..
Pretty easy going over to Middle carter..the new-knee still going strong..we stopped at several of the ridge ledges there to soak in the amazing day..Nice stretch of trail when dry as the spruce bogs sometimes found there are gone..
One at the North Carter JCT we dropped our packs and scooted over to North,,quite the clearing of some kind on the summit there..alien landing site?? and we lingered for quite some time at the excellent lookout ledge as the sun angle began to sharpen
North Carter Trail a bit rough in spots but dry for the most part with only a brief wet spot..South Branch of the Imp Trail a mix of roots rocks and long stretches of good footing..the logging road over to Camp Dodge well mowed and great footing..pretty quiet there now.. we said hi to a few folks we saw there
All in all an excellent choice for such a fine day with unique and different viewpoints in several directions.. Certainly my most ambitious hike in awhile and everything went fine..after finishing off this Carters plus 1 six pack the first couple of cold ones out of an imported six pack tasted pretty good in my recliner....
hopefully some pics to follow
The forceast looked to be excellent..Considered the bigelows..sadly too much time on the road this week and had to work saturday as well so we decided on the Carters..
It was the first frost of the year in Meredith...chilly....while driving up Route 16 all the ponds were steaming..all the peaks glowing in the amazingly clear air..we did not dawdle at the trailhead as it was quite cold in the shadows there..
We were at the height of the land on 19 mile in no time and set our sites on Wildcat where the cliff faces there shown brightly in the sun.. Thankfully Jeremy slowed his rocket like pace for the ascent and we soon tagged the summit and checked the views for a moment..but our goals lay further along the ridge that stretched out to the northeast.
Chatted with a few folks by the slide for a moment..indeed a scary spot in winter but well placed steps make it okay this time of year..The first pond was gorgeous with Wildcat reflecting off the slightly ripply surface..
The climb up C Dome always kicks my butt..starts off steep and gets steeper..I huffed my way past the viewpoint and delighted in making the more gradual grade soon after.. Pretty nice stretch of woods from the viewpoint up..some ferns showed signs of frost damage..other plants looked wilted from our recent drought..who would have thought..We quickly made the summit and chatted with a few folks at the viewpoint. A bit off the summit we took a water bar/herd path and popped out onto a talus field with simply amazing views towards the presis..I counted 22 cars on the auto road..this is a very wide reaching 200 degrees plus vantage point..very spectacular
Of course then, the short jaunt over to mt Hight is rewarded by certainly one of the better views in the Whites..Far to the northeast Sugarloaf, Abraham, Saddleback and the Horn were easily recognized..NH North country peaks with the shiny faces..well kind of faces..of Percy Peaks and range after range stretching off into Vermont..Spectacular..and we dawdled a bit over lunch as did several other groups..
The descent from Hight a bit rough and i picked my way..we chatted a bit at the carter Dome jct with some folks and lit out for South Carter..This stretch of trail in great shape..lots of boardwalks..some turning foliage and swamp grass added color..very pleasant even for the short scramble up South Carter. We poke through about 20 yards of spruce to the east right off the summit and came across a ledge with a great views into the Wild River Valley..except for the near poke in the eye this was prett nice..
Pretty easy going over to Middle carter..the new-knee still going strong..we stopped at several of the ridge ledges there to soak in the amazing day..Nice stretch of trail when dry as the spruce bogs sometimes found there are gone..
One at the North Carter JCT we dropped our packs and scooted over to North,,quite the clearing of some kind on the summit there..alien landing site?? and we lingered for quite some time at the excellent lookout ledge as the sun angle began to sharpen
North Carter Trail a bit rough in spots but dry for the most part with only a brief wet spot..South Branch of the Imp Trail a mix of roots rocks and long stretches of good footing..the logging road over to Camp Dodge well mowed and great footing..pretty quiet there now.. we said hi to a few folks we saw there
All in all an excellent choice for such a fine day with unique and different viewpoints in several directions.. Certainly my most ambitious hike in awhile and everything went fine..after finishing off this Carters plus 1 six pack the first couple of cold ones out of an imported six pack tasted pretty good in my recliner....
hopefully some pics to follow
