shamples
New member
Finally after such a long time looking forward to doing this mountain, I finally got to Carrigain this morning. Just the straight up and back via Signal Ridge Trail so 10 miles in all. Started at 5:45AM and immediately had some problems with the first water crossing just .2 mi into the trip since my father-in-law is 69 years old and has trouble with that type stuff. I found a sweet blow down a little up the brook and went across with ease, but he doesn't have my agility so I waited like 15 minutes for him to find a better spot for him to cross safely. By then it was 6AM and off we went.
The second water crossing at 1.7 mi wasn't as bad but still required you to get a little wet since there were no easy dry spots to rock hop across. Luckily it wasn't deep here so you could kinda run across fast on the wet top rocks. Aside from these two water hazards (um, how about building a couple quick and easy foot-bridges at these two spots?????) these first 2 miles were a breeze. The final 3 get more relentless just up all the way basically. At 4.5 mi the ridge is awesome and such a welcome sight. So steep on that one side, pretty cool as you're right on top of it. The last half mile was easy and we made it to the summit at 9:15. Only saw one other hiking group the entire way up and it happened to be that guys 48th 4,000 footer so congrats to that guy!!! A great day for it and a great peak to finish that on. I was curious after that where I stood personally with that list so when I got home, I counted up my peaks and this was actually #20 for me so looks like I still have quite a number to go yet.
Hung around at the top on the tower for a half hour and started our descent at 9:45. Got back down to the ridge at 10 and decided to have ourselves a sandwich and snacks... but after 5 minutes, the bugs were pissing us off so we ate quick and left. Down, down, down and we were back at the car by exactly 12 noon, so only took 2 hours 10 min for the 5 mi down. My father-in-law is seriously a machine going down. LOL I go fast going up while he lags behind so I have to wait for him alot, and then it's the opposite going down. It's funny! And all in all, basically 6 hours for the entire 10 mile trip with a half hour spent of that at the top. So a pretty easy 10 miles for us really except for those damn water crossings! Carrigain great peak on a perfect day!
The second water crossing at 1.7 mi wasn't as bad but still required you to get a little wet since there were no easy dry spots to rock hop across. Luckily it wasn't deep here so you could kinda run across fast on the wet top rocks. Aside from these two water hazards (um, how about building a couple quick and easy foot-bridges at these two spots?????) these first 2 miles were a breeze. The final 3 get more relentless just up all the way basically. At 4.5 mi the ridge is awesome and such a welcome sight. So steep on that one side, pretty cool as you're right on top of it. The last half mile was easy and we made it to the summit at 9:15. Only saw one other hiking group the entire way up and it happened to be that guys 48th 4,000 footer so congrats to that guy!!! A great day for it and a great peak to finish that on. I was curious after that where I stood personally with that list so when I got home, I counted up my peaks and this was actually #20 for me so looks like I still have quite a number to go yet.
Hung around at the top on the tower for a half hour and started our descent at 9:45. Got back down to the ridge at 10 and decided to have ourselves a sandwich and snacks... but after 5 minutes, the bugs were pissing us off so we ate quick and left. Down, down, down and we were back at the car by exactly 12 noon, so only took 2 hours 10 min for the 5 mi down. My father-in-law is seriously a machine going down. LOL I go fast going up while he lags behind so I have to wait for him alot, and then it's the opposite going down. It's funny! And all in all, basically 6 hours for the entire 10 mile trip with a half hour spent of that at the top. So a pretty easy 10 miles for us really except for those damn water crossings! Carrigain great peak on a perfect day!
