grouseking
Well-known member
I'm not sure what made me think this hike would be easy. I underestimated it so much, that I thought we'd easily hit South Carter as well. Boy was I in for a surprise.....
Mattl and I left Plymouth NH around 8:10 to attempt Middle and South Carters. I knew they were fairly high for 4ks, but I thought these would be pretty easy. Well, given better condtions I'm sure it wouldn't have been bad at all, but the trail was in horrible shape. I'll get into that later.
We arrived at the Imp trailhead around 9:50am...really late...the drive takes forever. We went up the north side of the trail first, which was a good choice. The only challenges were a couple of stream crossings which provided a little bit of drama for me, since rocks were slick with ice. But we made relatively good time up the trail to the Imp lookout in less than two hours. The views were astounding, from the Wildcats, to the Presidentials and towards the North Country. I wish we could have stuck around longer but it was time to go. At around noon, we pushed our way along the trail, which was beautiful thru here with the fresh coating of snow on everything. More crossings provided some minor challenges, but they wern't too bad. We arrived at the North Carter junction at 12:37pm and continued on.
So far, we hadn't run across much in the way of nasty ice. And still, on our way up, the ice wasn't too bad. But as we increased the elevation, more and more ice became present, making it difficult to walk in places, but it was easy enough to avoid without even going off trail. There was also still running water underneath that ice, so a mix of mud, half frozen mud, water and ice were our friends. It wasn't too bad for most the way, and then it changed to all ice near the Carter Moriah trail junction. There was lots of glaze on the trees, which prob fell from that major storm we got Friday night when elevations of 4000ft were below freezing according to the Mount Washington site. The glaze was beautiful.
We hit Middle Carter sometime before 2pm, and then on our way back found a rock just off trail then gave us amazing views of the Presidentials. I ate my first once of food on the trip (not a good practice) and then we left as it was getting late fast. The trip back to the North Carter trail was extremely icy and we inched our way along. From here on out, I took no more pictures of the hike because I was concentrating too much on not falling.
On our descent down, the trail conditions turned from bad to worse. A little snow melted off the trail thanks to the brightness of the sun, which revealed more ice, which in turn made it more slippery. After several butt sliding episodes and walking like a penguin, we made it back to the Imp trail, with a long way down. It was a 3 mile trip to the road, and normally that would take us about an 1 hr 30 min tops. The time was about 3pm and I figured we'd be out by 4:30, just in time for it to be dark. Well, this side of the Imp trail was a complete, utter DISASTER!!! There was a combination of glaze ice, running water, mud, blowdowns, big tree stumps and jumbled rocks all the way down to the bottom! It appears as if this section of trail suffered heavily from that big Oct 2005 dumping of wet snow because the trail was completely a mess. The blowdowns have been cut down, but no new drainage areas were built so the trail was a mess. Add in the heavy rain we recived, and it adds up to water covering the trail, mixed with hidden ice, mud and rocks. We basically picked the worst time of year do do this trail. It there had been a nice snowpack, there wouldn't have been a problem. But we struggled all the way down, as the skies grew darker and darker. The map shows NO stream crossings. Well, once we neared the bottom and came close to Cowboy brook, there were many stream crossings, and prob some ones that aren't normally there thanks to all that rain. I learned that there is northing harder than crossing a stream in the dark, even if its narrow and even if you have a head lamp.
In what seemed like forever, we finally caught site of cars from Rt 16! Horray! Well we had one more challenge, more mental than anything else. Just before one final minor crossing, we caught the stench of a skunk! That was my first experience of a skunk in the Whites. It was pretty pungent, and the last thing we wanted was to get sprayed 50 yards from the road! Luckily we never saw one and got out unharmed and unsprayed. A quick .3 mi walk back to the car and we were finished. We got back around 5:30pm...an hour after we originally thought...ugh. Well you live and you learn. Thank god for the headlamp.
Lessons learned....crampons would have been overkill thru most of the hike, stabilicers might have worked, so I ordered some on sale last night! Better yet, just stay off trails this time of year until a real snowpack sets up. Then things are easier. Also, start earlier. We thought we'd have no problem leaving at 8 from Plymouth but the trip to the trailhead was so long we ended up comin out in the dark. And for me, eat more food! I was gone by the time we hit the bottom thanks to the lack of nutrients. A nice hot bowl of corn chowder helped that on the way home! Well, I still took quite a few pics despite not taking any on the way down. I'll add some of Matts when he sends me his copies. Here they are.
http://grouseking.phanfare.com/album/164115
grouseking
Mattl and I left Plymouth NH around 8:10 to attempt Middle and South Carters. I knew they were fairly high for 4ks, but I thought these would be pretty easy. Well, given better condtions I'm sure it wouldn't have been bad at all, but the trail was in horrible shape. I'll get into that later.
We arrived at the Imp trailhead around 9:50am...really late...the drive takes forever. We went up the north side of the trail first, which was a good choice. The only challenges were a couple of stream crossings which provided a little bit of drama for me, since rocks were slick with ice. But we made relatively good time up the trail to the Imp lookout in less than two hours. The views were astounding, from the Wildcats, to the Presidentials and towards the North Country. I wish we could have stuck around longer but it was time to go. At around noon, we pushed our way along the trail, which was beautiful thru here with the fresh coating of snow on everything. More crossings provided some minor challenges, but they wern't too bad. We arrived at the North Carter junction at 12:37pm and continued on.
So far, we hadn't run across much in the way of nasty ice. And still, on our way up, the ice wasn't too bad. But as we increased the elevation, more and more ice became present, making it difficult to walk in places, but it was easy enough to avoid without even going off trail. There was also still running water underneath that ice, so a mix of mud, half frozen mud, water and ice were our friends. It wasn't too bad for most the way, and then it changed to all ice near the Carter Moriah trail junction. There was lots of glaze on the trees, which prob fell from that major storm we got Friday night when elevations of 4000ft were below freezing according to the Mount Washington site. The glaze was beautiful.
We hit Middle Carter sometime before 2pm, and then on our way back found a rock just off trail then gave us amazing views of the Presidentials. I ate my first once of food on the trip (not a good practice) and then we left as it was getting late fast. The trip back to the North Carter trail was extremely icy and we inched our way along. From here on out, I took no more pictures of the hike because I was concentrating too much on not falling.
On our descent down, the trail conditions turned from bad to worse. A little snow melted off the trail thanks to the brightness of the sun, which revealed more ice, which in turn made it more slippery. After several butt sliding episodes and walking like a penguin, we made it back to the Imp trail, with a long way down. It was a 3 mile trip to the road, and normally that would take us about an 1 hr 30 min tops. The time was about 3pm and I figured we'd be out by 4:30, just in time for it to be dark. Well, this side of the Imp trail was a complete, utter DISASTER!!! There was a combination of glaze ice, running water, mud, blowdowns, big tree stumps and jumbled rocks all the way down to the bottom! It appears as if this section of trail suffered heavily from that big Oct 2005 dumping of wet snow because the trail was completely a mess. The blowdowns have been cut down, but no new drainage areas were built so the trail was a mess. Add in the heavy rain we recived, and it adds up to water covering the trail, mixed with hidden ice, mud and rocks. We basically picked the worst time of year do do this trail. It there had been a nice snowpack, there wouldn't have been a problem. But we struggled all the way down, as the skies grew darker and darker. The map shows NO stream crossings. Well, once we neared the bottom and came close to Cowboy brook, there were many stream crossings, and prob some ones that aren't normally there thanks to all that rain. I learned that there is northing harder than crossing a stream in the dark, even if its narrow and even if you have a head lamp.
In what seemed like forever, we finally caught site of cars from Rt 16! Horray! Well we had one more challenge, more mental than anything else. Just before one final minor crossing, we caught the stench of a skunk! That was my first experience of a skunk in the Whites. It was pretty pungent, and the last thing we wanted was to get sprayed 50 yards from the road! Luckily we never saw one and got out unharmed and unsprayed. A quick .3 mi walk back to the car and we were finished. We got back around 5:30pm...an hour after we originally thought...ugh. Well you live and you learn. Thank god for the headlamp.
Lessons learned....crampons would have been overkill thru most of the hike, stabilicers might have worked, so I ordered some on sale last night! Better yet, just stay off trails this time of year until a real snowpack sets up. Then things are easier. Also, start earlier. We thought we'd have no problem leaving at 8 from Plymouth but the trip to the trailhead was so long we ended up comin out in the dark. And for me, eat more food! I was gone by the time we hit the bottom thanks to the lack of nutrients. A nice hot bowl of corn chowder helped that on the way home! Well, I still took quite a few pics despite not taking any on the way down. I'll add some of Matts when he sends me his copies. Here they are.
http://grouseking.phanfare.com/album/164115
grouseking
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The hike really was fun, despite walking out in the dark. One of these days I'll get the rest of the Carters.
