Neil
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2004
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After the road-side moose sightings on Highway 2 the night before and a quiet night at Hiker’s Paradise I dropped my son and his friend at Lowe’s Path at 7am. Having thus outlived my usefulness I turned the car around and headed for the Imp Trail. 15 minutes up that trail I realized that Mt. Washington was not where it was supposed to be and that I had started up the wrong Imp trail so I turned around and moved my car and myself 200 yards up the road to the “correct” Imp Trail.
I was surprised to find ice as low as 2000 feet (my estimation) and put a pair of yak tracks on. Within 2 minutes I decided they were the wrong tools for the job and switched to crampons. The snow got deeper as I made my way to the Imp Face. I was wearing shorts and a long-sleeved t-shirt and once at the overlook a blast of wind prevented me from lingering and taking in the exceptional views for more than a few minutes.
This was supposed to be a warm-up hike after a 2-week lay-off and the day before a big all-day hike planned with Dr. Wu. Therefore, I set my inner exertion dial to “comfortable” and went slowly and deliberately up the trail. I was struck by the pleasantly gentle and consistent grade. Very un-ADK. It was easy to get a nice rhythm going and stick to it as the vertical feet melted away. I was walking on several inches of wet new snow over top of about a foot and a half of very solid packed trail.
Before I knew it I was on the Moriah-Carter trail a few minutes from North Carter. I think it’s great the way every single trail in the Whites has a name and can be easily found in the guide-book.
I decided to try my snowshoes for the quick jaunt over to N. Carter and preferred them to crampons. The shoes stayed on for most of the day. On this trip the Presies dominated the view all day long. From the North Carter-Moriah junction I took a compass bearing to what I thought was either Adams or Madison and checked my southerly progress by repeatedly sighting back to the same mountain.
There were other views but I couldn’t ID what I was looking at. Then, at one point a humungous set of tracks entered the trail from the woods. I realized I knew next to nothing about moose behaviour other than they rut in the fall. I became keenly aware and kept a sharp eye out for Mamma Moose but after a while the tracks wandered off into the woods again.
After South Carter’s summit I could see Mt. Height and Carter Dome with some mean looking slides in the distance. This was starting to look like more than just a warm-up hike but I kept my pace nice and slow and even. At a trail junction I chose to go over the top of Mt. Height which was a 700 vertical foot excellent move. The views were particularly nice from the summit. I didn’t linger for long being in a meditative headspace brought on by the steady effort and being alone. I tried to keep as even an energy expenditure rate as possible, slowing down and speeding up according to the terrain and topography.
The sun came out as I made my up the Carter Dome ‘s ridge. What a gorgeous day it was. Again, I didn’t linger. Once I had begun my descent I removed my snowshoes in hopes of boot skating my way down the trail. I had been keeping close track of my exact position all day long trying to predict my arrival times at the various summits and cols and my map perusal showed that the contour lines all came together in a thick black mass mid-way to Carter Notch. Wow! Shades of the Dacks! The trail was steep, big time. Worst of all was the mixture of glare ice, mud and hardened snow that I encountered at just this point: the dreaded “mixed zone”. I admired the view down to some ponds and across to awesome Wildcat. Once at the pond I realized that the descent had tuckered me out so I decided to omit Wildcat from my “warm-up” hike’s itinerary. After that I kept my pace leisurely and marvelled at the roar of springmelt in 19 Mile brook. I made the highway 1 minute later than predicted and stuck my thumb out. The 4th driver stopped and drove me back to the Imp TH where cold beer awaited in the cooler.
Next:
From Garfield to the Kanc.
I was surprised to find ice as low as 2000 feet (my estimation) and put a pair of yak tracks on. Within 2 minutes I decided they were the wrong tools for the job and switched to crampons. The snow got deeper as I made my way to the Imp Face. I was wearing shorts and a long-sleeved t-shirt and once at the overlook a blast of wind prevented me from lingering and taking in the exceptional views for more than a few minutes.
This was supposed to be a warm-up hike after a 2-week lay-off and the day before a big all-day hike planned with Dr. Wu. Therefore, I set my inner exertion dial to “comfortable” and went slowly and deliberately up the trail. I was struck by the pleasantly gentle and consistent grade. Very un-ADK. It was easy to get a nice rhythm going and stick to it as the vertical feet melted away. I was walking on several inches of wet new snow over top of about a foot and a half of very solid packed trail.
Before I knew it I was on the Moriah-Carter trail a few minutes from North Carter. I think it’s great the way every single trail in the Whites has a name and can be easily found in the guide-book.
I decided to try my snowshoes for the quick jaunt over to N. Carter and preferred them to crampons. The shoes stayed on for most of the day. On this trip the Presies dominated the view all day long. From the North Carter-Moriah junction I took a compass bearing to what I thought was either Adams or Madison and checked my southerly progress by repeatedly sighting back to the same mountain.
There were other views but I couldn’t ID what I was looking at. Then, at one point a humungous set of tracks entered the trail from the woods. I realized I knew next to nothing about moose behaviour other than they rut in the fall. I became keenly aware and kept a sharp eye out for Mamma Moose but after a while the tracks wandered off into the woods again.
After South Carter’s summit I could see Mt. Height and Carter Dome with some mean looking slides in the distance. This was starting to look like more than just a warm-up hike but I kept my pace nice and slow and even. At a trail junction I chose to go over the top of Mt. Height which was a 700 vertical foot excellent move. The views were particularly nice from the summit. I didn’t linger for long being in a meditative headspace brought on by the steady effort and being alone. I tried to keep as even an energy expenditure rate as possible, slowing down and speeding up according to the terrain and topography.
The sun came out as I made my up the Carter Dome ‘s ridge. What a gorgeous day it was. Again, I didn’t linger. Once I had begun my descent I removed my snowshoes in hopes of boot skating my way down the trail. I had been keeping close track of my exact position all day long trying to predict my arrival times at the various summits and cols and my map perusal showed that the contour lines all came together in a thick black mass mid-way to Carter Notch. Wow! Shades of the Dacks! The trail was steep, big time. Worst of all was the mixture of glare ice, mud and hardened snow that I encountered at just this point: the dreaded “mixed zone”. I admired the view down to some ponds and across to awesome Wildcat. Once at the pond I realized that the descent had tuckered me out so I decided to omit Wildcat from my “warm-up” hike’s itinerary. After that I kept my pace leisurely and marvelled at the roar of springmelt in 19 Mile brook. I made the highway 1 minute later than predicted and stuck my thumb out. The 4th driver stopped and drove me back to the Imp TH where cold beer awaited in the cooler.
Next:
From Garfield to the Kanc.
