Raven
Well-known member
I started out at the Nineteen Mile Brook Trail Head by parking along the side of route 16 as the lot was full. This one is often full. Of course, it was a little after 10 AM so I was certainly not the early bird this day. I hiked the 19MB Trail to the Pond at Carter Hut which was fairly uneventful other than passing a few groups and exchanging hellos. The weather was cloudy and alternating between no rain, light drizzle, and moderate showers. The rain coat had been coming on and off as needed; it was going to be one of those days. From the pond, I climbed the Carter-Moriah Trail, a good thigh burner up to the summit of Carter Dome. I have always like the ledge partway up that overlooks the notch. I traded a few words with a passing couple of hikers in the misty wind. There were some openings in the cloud cover revealing swirling mists that resembled smoke rings forming and quickly disappearing in the air below me in the notch. I moved on and after some more climbing and about 5 miles into the hike, going across Carter Dome’s summit I recalled this was the first mountain I had climbed in New Hampshire. That had been a great hike involving the Rainbow and Black Angel Trails. With the rain more steady, I took the low road past Hight and continued on to Zeta Pass where I passed a group of 6-8. This was the first option to head back out along the Carter Dome Trail, but on reaching it, the weather was still not too bad, the rain had stopped for a while, and I felt good, so I committed to moving on. I was also committing to a road walk at this point. Middle and South Carter came with some more climbing but the weather was still reasonable. It never rained hard, although I needed my jacket to stay dry and warm enough at times even with shorts on the whole day. A group of 8-10 was taking a break on South Carter’s summit, and I had a nice chat with a gentleman near Middle Carter’s summit who was doing an out and back. I moved over Middle Carter, recalling the “point of no-return” I remembered from winter hikes. There’s a steep descent at one point that once you go down could be terribly difficult to get back up in deep snow. The North Carter Trail came up at the pass, the next option to head out to route 16 by combining with the Imp Trail. But the weather had been holding with only occasional need for my jacket and I still felt good, so I committed to going on over North Carter and on toward Moriah. The drop off North Carter heading north is a fairly aggressive section of trail but with some careful foot placement, I made it down to the col and its extensive world of bog bridges. Hiking with my daughter, I have gotten in the habit of counting bog bridges when we hit a long section of them. There were 46 in a row at one point in this stretch and I counted at other times segments of 23, 16, and two 15’s along with countless others. All in all, I was confident I had crossed 200 bog bridges on the route. My daughter will be fascinated when she hears of this magical land. I did a few slippery jigs across more than a couple of these bridges as they were all slick from the rain but managed to not fall and eventually made it to the Stony Brook Trail. I could head out to 16 here but wanted to include Moriah in this endeavor, so I moved on the 1.4 to the summit and was treated to some sun and blues sky when coming out on the South ledges. It was nice the day had worked out to be moderate in terms of its rainfall. I reached and climbed the short and steep spur to Moriah and topped out on the round, ledgy summit. I was about 13 miles in at this point and could feel it in my feet a bit but was happy to have worn gaiters to keep my socks drier. The rainy days and wet shoes tear up my feet much faster, even when in waterproofs. Anyway, I considered heading out Carter-Moriah but that would put me way up near Route 2 after dark. I went back to Stony Brook figuring I was going to be hoofing it back to my car and wanted the shortest walk. My luck is usually great hitch hiking but I don’t count on anything after dark. The lot at Stony Brook is a 5-mile walk from 19 Mile Brook, not ideal, but also an hour and a half realistically. Part of the deal, and far better than coming out much further north. I passed a hiker on her way in for the evening as she was putting on her headlamp. She thought I was a moose coming I think but after hearing her call out, I yelled, “hello” and chatted for a bit. I held out as long as possible for the headlamp and it was only after I missed a slippery, sloped boulder and landed chest to rock that I took the hint. I was lucky to hit the way I did. I was at trailhead after maybe 45 minutes with the headlamp and then faced the 5 mile roadwalk in the dark. I tried thumbing on and off half-heartedly for about a mile before giving up. It’s nice to have those little green mileage signs every 2 tenths to keep track of progress since I knew how far I had walked. It was a quiet walk back to my car where I arrived about 9:20. Ultimately, it was about 23 miles, 18 on trail, and maybe 6500 feet of gain. My feet are sore from the wet miles, my chest is quite tender on the right side from meeting rock, but nothing is cracked nor punctured and all in all, it was a great day in the mountains.
Honestly, the day was fine weatherwise for me. I'm not a fan of the cold, hard rain but this was a cloudy day with some drizzle and a few showers and occasional cool cloud formations.
