slowandsteady
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- Aug 10, 2005
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An unintentional first winter 4K. I hadn’t planned to hike my first winter 4K, but it just happened.
It was yet another weekend in Jackson where I was planning to XC ski while the rest of the family skied at Wildcat (no, I'm much too solitary to join them downhill skiing). But in this non-winter of winters the long XC trails where I’ve become accustomed to finding a bit of solitude are covered with ice not snow. Having recovered from an earlier fall ice is not what I wanted to be skiing on.
A winter hike was therefore in order. Being solo and with the weather forecast for high winds and temperatures plummeting in the afternoon I wanted to stay in the woods. Being car-less I did not have too many options for a long solitary hike from Jackson Village. I snowshoed over Black and Doubleheads two weeks ago in snow that was now mostly ice.
My original plan was to walk up Carter Notch Road and snowshoe to Carter Notch Hut and back via Bog Brook and Wildcat River Trails. I was dreading the stream crossings in the beginning sections however and was contemplating taking the (crowded) Boggy Brook Ski Trail to avoid them.
Decided instead to take the Wildcat Valley Ski Trail to the Wildcat summit station, see if I could find the boys and descend via the Pole Cat. Let the boys know of the change in plans. After walking up Carter Notch Road from Jackson I picked up the Wildcat Valley Trail near Moody Farm Road. There were bare spots but trail was covered with mostly ice or packed snow until just before reaching Prospect Farm where a couple of groomed XC trails were open. I stayed to the side of the groomed portion of the trail for about a mile or so and then picked up the un-groomed section that originates at the top of Wildcat Ski area. There was what looked like two sets of frozen ski tracks going most or all of the of the way up Wildcat. I remembered that a couple of the JXN XC staff has skied it a couple of weeks ago and had posted photos on the web page.
The trail was snow-covered ranging from icy crust on powder to hardpack but definitely not skiable (at least by me) without additional powder. This trail is beautiful! The views just before reaching birch glades over to Carter Dome and Mt Hight were awesome, at least until the snow squalls came in! The birch glades have some enormous paper birches (hope they’re not part of the most recent WMNF proposal to log in that area). There is an area on the Rainbow Trail off Carter Dome on the other side of the valley that is similar but the trees are taller here.
Ascending between the birch glades and ridge there were approximately 6 blowdowns from the overnight winds and several older ones; easy enough to step around with snowshoes but harder with skis. There were sections where skiing would have been difficult due to snow not completely filling in the gullies created by recent runoff. With snowshoes I was able to stay on top of the snow and avoid wrecking the trail for skiers (including me should the snow gods again smile on Jackson). Did meet one XC skier who left his skis in the glades and barebooted to the summit making a few bootholes.
As I got closer to the summit it got windier and windier and I started dreading the idea of descending via the PoleCat. At around noon I climbed out of the woods to the open top of the ski area and the winds must have been 30-40mph anyway. I was surprised they hadn’t shut down the quad (they did later when the temperatures started dropping). I abandoned the idea of going down PoleCat – although I met a couple who had just ascended it, the trail looked miserable with the wind and blowing snow.
I was about to start descending the way I came up when I looked over at the knob that is Wildcat D and thought, why not? Only being a couple of hundred feet from my first winter 4K? Why not at least try? It was packed and icy but very short as I remembered it. I spent about as much time up there this time as we did in 2003 with the black flies chasing us (less than a minute). There was only about a five foot long section where crampons would have been better than my MSR Denalis. Chatted briefly with the couple who had come up Polecat and were heading over to A.
After scrambling off the summit it was a nice walk in the woods back down Wildcat Valley Trail to Carter Notch Road. The temperatures did plummet about 10 degrees during the five mile road walk back to our place in the village.
So, if I had planned to bag a winter 4K I would have probably been discouraged by the weather forecasts. But sometimes things just happen.
It was yet another weekend in Jackson where I was planning to XC ski while the rest of the family skied at Wildcat (no, I'm much too solitary to join them downhill skiing). But in this non-winter of winters the long XC trails where I’ve become accustomed to finding a bit of solitude are covered with ice not snow. Having recovered from an earlier fall ice is not what I wanted to be skiing on.
A winter hike was therefore in order. Being solo and with the weather forecast for high winds and temperatures plummeting in the afternoon I wanted to stay in the woods. Being car-less I did not have too many options for a long solitary hike from Jackson Village. I snowshoed over Black and Doubleheads two weeks ago in snow that was now mostly ice.
My original plan was to walk up Carter Notch Road and snowshoe to Carter Notch Hut and back via Bog Brook and Wildcat River Trails. I was dreading the stream crossings in the beginning sections however and was contemplating taking the (crowded) Boggy Brook Ski Trail to avoid them.
Decided instead to take the Wildcat Valley Ski Trail to the Wildcat summit station, see if I could find the boys and descend via the Pole Cat. Let the boys know of the change in plans. After walking up Carter Notch Road from Jackson I picked up the Wildcat Valley Trail near Moody Farm Road. There were bare spots but trail was covered with mostly ice or packed snow until just before reaching Prospect Farm where a couple of groomed XC trails were open. I stayed to the side of the groomed portion of the trail for about a mile or so and then picked up the un-groomed section that originates at the top of Wildcat Ski area. There was what looked like two sets of frozen ski tracks going most or all of the of the way up Wildcat. I remembered that a couple of the JXN XC staff has skied it a couple of weeks ago and had posted photos on the web page.
The trail was snow-covered ranging from icy crust on powder to hardpack but definitely not skiable (at least by me) without additional powder. This trail is beautiful! The views just before reaching birch glades over to Carter Dome and Mt Hight were awesome, at least until the snow squalls came in! The birch glades have some enormous paper birches (hope they’re not part of the most recent WMNF proposal to log in that area). There is an area on the Rainbow Trail off Carter Dome on the other side of the valley that is similar but the trees are taller here.
Ascending between the birch glades and ridge there were approximately 6 blowdowns from the overnight winds and several older ones; easy enough to step around with snowshoes but harder with skis. There were sections where skiing would have been difficult due to snow not completely filling in the gullies created by recent runoff. With snowshoes I was able to stay on top of the snow and avoid wrecking the trail for skiers (including me should the snow gods again smile on Jackson). Did meet one XC skier who left his skis in the glades and barebooted to the summit making a few bootholes.
As I got closer to the summit it got windier and windier and I started dreading the idea of descending via the PoleCat. At around noon I climbed out of the woods to the open top of the ski area and the winds must have been 30-40mph anyway. I was surprised they hadn’t shut down the quad (they did later when the temperatures started dropping). I abandoned the idea of going down PoleCat – although I met a couple who had just ascended it, the trail looked miserable with the wind and blowing snow.
I was about to start descending the way I came up when I looked over at the knob that is Wildcat D and thought, why not? Only being a couple of hundred feet from my first winter 4K? Why not at least try? It was packed and icy but very short as I remembered it. I spent about as much time up there this time as we did in 2003 with the black flies chasing us (less than a minute). There was only about a five foot long section where crampons would have been better than my MSR Denalis. Chatted briefly with the couple who had come up Polecat and were heading over to A.
After scrambling off the summit it was a nice walk in the woods back down Wildcat Valley Trail to Carter Notch Road. The temperatures did plummet about 10 degrees during the five mile road walk back to our place in the village.
So, if I had planned to bag a winter 4K I would have probably been discouraged by the weather forecasts. But sometimes things just happen.
