Snowflea
New member
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2003
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Cruddy was kind and sporting enough to join me for this 19-mile lollipop loop through the beautiful Wild River side of the Carters. The Rainbow and Black Angel Trails had been on my to-do list for... oh, ever, it seems. From the NE Kingdom of Brrrmont the drive is a long one, but I can now state authoritatively: it's worth the drive! The area is lightly visited and although wet and sloppy on the Wild River Trail on this day, the Rainbow Trail was lovely, especially the birch forests, as was the Black Angel, an easy stroll in the woods save for the very top section which had a couple of steep, challenging drops. We saw exactly TWO people on a beautiful weather day in late foliage season, and they were on Carter Dome's summit, having ascended from the more commonly approached west side.
The Wild River lived up to its name, with high--and really moving (!)--water resulting in some sketchy but fun and challenging water crossings, as long as one didn't mind getting their feet and clothing wet. We didn't: fortunately the day was on the warm side, so even though some of the crossings involved midthigh deep water, we stayed warm enough. Fortunately also our (Cruddytoes and Stinkyfeet's) feet are tough and didn't mind being soaking wet in trail runners all day.
We opted for the Highwater Trail on the outbound, mistakenly assuming our feet would stay dry. Hah! It did keep us from doing the larger river crossing, but also kept the heart pumping with lots of PUDs (pointless ups and downs) interspersed with 3 or 4 rather exciting secondary stream crossings. The water had lowered enough on the return that we were able to cross the Wild River and take the flatter, faster trail out. This is not a beginner hike due to the stream crossings (on this particular day) and the fact that in a few spots, we had to search a bit for the Wild River Trail. (For comparison, it reminded me a bit of the Lincoln Brook Trail north of the Owls Head Slide spur.) Not much traffic through here! Sadly, there were only a few piles of moose evidence. WHERE HAVE ALL THE MOOSE GONE?? Twas also muddy and sloppy, with lots of standing/running water, not unexpected on this "wilderness" trail and after Friday night's and Saturday early morning's rains.
All in all a super hike and fun and rewarding day in the woods! Thx Cruddy.
The Wild River lived up to its name, with high--and really moving (!)--water resulting in some sketchy but fun and challenging water crossings, as long as one didn't mind getting their feet and clothing wet. We didn't: fortunately the day was on the warm side, so even though some of the crossings involved midthigh deep water, we stayed warm enough. Fortunately also our (Cruddytoes and Stinkyfeet's) feet are tough and didn't mind being soaking wet in trail runners all day.
We opted for the Highwater Trail on the outbound, mistakenly assuming our feet would stay dry. Hah! It did keep us from doing the larger river crossing, but also kept the heart pumping with lots of PUDs (pointless ups and downs) interspersed with 3 or 4 rather exciting secondary stream crossings. The water had lowered enough on the return that we were able to cross the Wild River and take the flatter, faster trail out. This is not a beginner hike due to the stream crossings (on this particular day) and the fact that in a few spots, we had to search a bit for the Wild River Trail. (For comparison, it reminded me a bit of the Lincoln Brook Trail north of the Owls Head Slide spur.) Not much traffic through here! Sadly, there were only a few piles of moose evidence. WHERE HAVE ALL THE MOOSE GONE?? Twas also muddy and sloppy, with lots of standing/running water, not unexpected on this "wilderness" trail and after Friday night's and Saturday early morning's rains.
All in all a super hike and fun and rewarding day in the woods! Thx Cruddy.
