which trail to the Carters?

[richard]

Would I be better off to take the IMP trail or the 19 mile brook trail to hike South & Middle Carter MTS.? Will I have water crossings to contend with? Which is the easier or safer to take? THANKS for opinions.

 

[Chip]

If I wanted South and Middle, I'd go up 19 Mile (nice grade) to Carter Dome Trail,
north over those 2 and then down North Carter Trail & Imp Trail.
There's probably a bushwhack at the point in the Imp Trail where it switches back to the northwest
that you could cross Cowboy Brook back to 19 Mile parking, otherwise you'd need to hitch south after finishing Imp.
That full loop is about 11 miles.

 

[Lefty E]

Both trails have water crossings, while the Carter Dome Trail second crossing as you ascend could be tricky if really high water...Imp Trail (south branch) crossings are not that big...Chip is right in that usually hikers will do it the way he said...as you come down Imp (south) you come to the bushwhack, which is an old logging road, take a left that leads to Camp Dodge and the gravel road out to Rt. 16 and take a left a couple tenths to parking...you could follow the power line on the left of the gravel road to the parking lot too...have done Middle Carter out and back a few times via Imp and N Carter trails up to Carter Moriah but when tagging both have done it the way described...

 

[IQuest]

...you could follow the power line on the left of the gravel road to the parking lot too.

It's not a pleasant as one may think. Very brushy and poor footing. Only traces of a faint herd path a few years ago. The roadwalk is much quicker and easier. FWIW, I prefer the loop counterclockwise.

 

[Mike P.]

I've done it a couple of times and have used the old road into the back of Camp Dodge which leaves a very short roadwalk back to the 19M trailhead. Cowboy Brook is another bushwhack following the brook but generally is harder than the road. It's been a few years since I did the road but it will likely be overgrown with grass, saplings and some thorns unless someone is using the road. (AMC, loggers, underground cable, gas, etc)

It's also doable with a bike start, park at 19M, ride down to the Imp trailhead and then hike back to your car. In thus case, you can take the northern spur of the imp trail which goes over the Imp Face and is a much better trail than the southern section.

 

[erugs]

I've always done the road walk. At that point in the trip it's mindless and goes fast enough, and have gone clockwise. Next time I will go counter-clockwise, just to be different. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[TJsName]

Would I be better off to take the IMP trail or the 19 mile brook trail to hike South & Middle Carter MTS.? Will I have water crossings to contend with? Which is the easier or safer to take? THANKS for opinions.

If you're looking something bit more adventurous you could try out going in via the Wildcat River trail (take the forest road about 500 feet down the road to skip the crossings right by the trail head). Get water at the hut then hit up the Dome, then do an out and back to Middle, then descend via the Rainbow trail and take Bog Brook back to the car (or back on the forest road to skip the crossings again). It's a longer day, but the trails are a lot nicer (minus one stretch of Bog Brook that has flagging to follow due to some flooding).

 

[Quint]

If you're looking something bit more adventurous you could try out going in via the Wildcat River trail (take the forest road about 500 feet down the road to skip the crossings right by the trail head). Get water at the hut then hit up the Dome, then do an out and back to Middle, then descend via the Rainbow trail and take Bog Brook back to the car (or back on the forest road to skip the crossings again). It's a longer day, but the trails are a lot nicer (minus one stretch of Bog Brook that has flagging to follow due to some flooding).

Just did Wildcat river trail last weekend, it's in pretty good shape with some overgrowth in the middle section, otheriwse a nice gentle decent out to 16.