Block It Out

I woke up this morning (August 27) at the Quality Inn in Gorham, and I'd arranged a ride back to the trail with a guy named Ziggy. He’s a former thru-hiker who lives in Gorham and shuttles hikers all around the area. He picked me up at 8 o'clock, and we headed to Pinkham Notch. The weather was absolutely beautiful today, so I’m very thankful to Turbo for kind of yelling at me for not originally planning to take yesterday off. That was definitely the right move.

We got to Pinkham Notch at about 8:30, and Ultra was there with a guy in her tramily [Wife note: Trail + family = tramily.] who’s named Crazy Sticks. He kind of looks like Art Garfunkel, but I think he's only about 24 years old. Seems like a nice guy. I also saw Hootie and Not Yet, who were already pretty organized for the day and just kind of headed up Wildcat right away.

Because Wildcat is a ski resort, there's a fire road that goes to the top of the mountain, and apparently, a bunch of hikers have been taking it, rather than following the AT, which goes straight up a ridge. Ultra and Crazy Sticks and I started discussing the idea of trying to find this road and maybe going up that way. I’d seen comments on the Far Out app saying that the road option is considerably more hiker friendly, but it’s also longer. I mean, that makes sense. The road naturally has to be longer if it's not going to be as steep.

So Crazy Sticks, Ultra, and I went into the visitor’s center to consult the big topographic map there and see whether we could figure out the best route. Ultimately, we decided to just follow the AT, because it all looked a little too complicated, and we didn't want to risk finding ourselves on the wrong road.

So, away we went, and as promised, Wildcat goes straight up from Pinkham Notch. I mean, there's a little bit of a flat portion, but it's a 3-mile hike to the top, and it took me three hours to go those 3 miles — and I was not taking my time, either. That's just how long it takes.

It was exhausting and heavy and at times pretty scary, because there was a lot of climbing involved, but at least the weather was beautiful, and the views were nice on the way up.

Once you get up to the top, there's a nice picnic table area, and your reward is getting to sit for a while and enjoy the beautiful view in the nice weather and have a snack and just be thankful that that part of the hike is over. But the devilish part is that that's only the beginning.

After Wildcat, you go over the Carters and then Mount Moriah, and they’re all in a line. It's about a 15-mile stretch, or probably more like an 18-mile stretch, and there’s not a single easy section of trail. It's all just brutal. And I remember from my days at Pine Island Camp, there's a trip they call Carter-Moriah that goes north to south. And at Pine Island, it's considered one of the more difficult hiking trips you can go on. So I was a little nervous about it, but I think I’d sort of blocked out some of the harder parts. Also, I was going south to north this time, so it was a much different experience.

Once I left the top of the first peak of Wildcat, I had to get to the second peak of Wildcat, and then the trail went straight down into Carter Notch. That’s where the final hut in the White Mountains hut system is, so a lot of people tend to stop there. It's probably about 6 or 7 miles from Pinkham Notch to Carter Notch hut. There's no camping area there, but there are stealth spots around, and a lot of hikers just call it a day when they get there. I decided instead to continue on to Imp shelter, which was another 7 miles.

In retrospect, that probably wasn't my finest idea, but I made the commitment. Out of Carter Notch, you go up Carter Dome. And it's just straight up. It's like 1,300 feet in a mile, which is just ridiculous. So I was already tired, and starting an impossible — well, not impossible, but certainly very challenging — 7-mile section when you're really tired is not necessarily the best idea. I’d sort of forgotten how steep that climb up was, and of course, when I was hiking it with Pine Island, I’d been going the opposite direction, so I’d climbed down it. If I’d remembered it more accurately, it would have definitely made the list of hikes I was nervous about.

I think going up Carter Dome absolutely qualifies as a challenging hike. But I basically just tackled it and ground it out. The trail went either straight up or straight down for the next 5 or 6 miles, and then I had about a mile to go straight down to Imp shelter. At that point, I knew that I was ahead of a lot of other hikers, including Hootie and Not Yet and Crazy Sticks and Ultra. And when we were at the top of the first Wildcat peak, a huge contingent of NOBO hikers showed up who had taken the road, and I was ahead of them, too. So I didn't know how many people would be wanting to tent at Imp shelter, but I knew I was in front of a good eight or ten people, so I felt pretty confident that I’d be able to get a good spot.

Well, toward the end of the day, the people who’d taken the dirt road up Wildcat, rather than the AT, all passed me within the last mile. And I was like, Oh man, am I even going to get a tenting spot? I hobbled into the campsite by about 7 o'clock, and there was a guy who was section hiking, who’d found a spot that wasn't on a tent platform but was kind of nestled away in the woods. There was another flat area near him, so I grabbed it. And it’s good that I did, because right after me, a whole flood of hikers showed up. I have no idea where they found space to put up their tents.

So I lucked out there. I’m just so tired now. I got water and put up my tent, and for dinner, I just stood next to my tent and ate some trail mix. All in all, I think I hiked somewhere between 13 and 14 miles today, and it took me 10 hours to do it, which is very slow. And I hardly took any breaks. The terrain was just so difficult that it was really slowgoing the whole time. As expected, the Whites are proving to be very challenging.

But I made it up and over Wildcat, and I'm delighted. Now I get to check another big one off my list.