shamples
New member
Have long had the Wildcats on my mind and a few other times I wanted to do them, it was crappy weather so I waited for a nice dry day.
So glad I did after taking much advice from these boards and more as that initial Wildcat Ridge Trail from 16 is a steep climb up!
Did this with my hiking buddy and both drove so left a car at Nineteen Mile Brook Trail and took the other car to Pinkham Notch. Did not feel like messing with that water crossing from the Glen Ellis Falls lot.
Started on the Lost Pond Trail at 8:10am. A very nice hidden pond. I was hoping for a random moose but got nothing. It was still nice and peaceful in the morning. Towards the end of the pond, the trail gets a little confusing and goes thru or around a boulder field. This mile was much tougher than I originally figured it was. Running parallel to Rt 16, I guess I had expected a nice flat easy trail. Nope. But was fun.
At the end, I took a right at the junction and ran down to the river since I was curious about the river crossing. After scoping it out, I know I could have made it across, but my 76 year old hiking buddy wouldn't have wanted any part of it. So I def made the correct call there.
Got to that junction at 8:45 hiking a bit slow taking pictures and losing the trail that one time. (nice beaver dams at the end of Lost Pond!)
Ran into a hiker at that junction who lived close by and got to talking with him so we didn't start up Wildcat Ridge Trail until 9am.
WRT - Straight up climbing! All the reports were true and this trail is no joke. Intense, relentless, interesting and fun. Some nicely spaced out open view ledge lookouts along the way more than made up for the steep climbing. Seriously awesome ledges.
Met a thru-hiker who started in Georgia on March 7 - trailname SABER. A great guy who we talked to for longer than we all probably wanted to talk, but was fun listening to his stories and giving him a little more insight of our mountains here. The guy was flying!
I have an idea now of what was Wildcat E but we totally missed it while hiking as there is no markings of it and before I knew it, we were hiking down to the col where the Gondolas peak and all the tourists are. Having never been up there, I must say it was a little underwhelming. If going up a gondola, I would have expected more up there and there is really nothing. Cannon has a much nicer area at the top for tourists.
Hit the viewing tower on Wildcat D for my #46! 11:30am
This is where again, just like E Peak, I have no idea what peaks were the actual C and B peaks. I kept guessing and think I was wrong every time. I guess I must have been right twice but no clue which times those were. Again, no markings.
My energy level was hurting and I kept thinking A Peak was close and that was about an hour before we hit it. Overall a slow-going trail after that initial climb zapped alot of my energy. This trail really showed me how much I am not in great shape!
Finally hit A Peak at 1:15pm. Great lookout ledge over Carter Notch. Had a late overdue lunch and shared the view spot with 2 other hikers who had also did the same car spot as us and also a solo woman who lived down the road in North Conway.
Needed that lunch and got my second wind for the steep climb down to Carter Notch. Got down to the Nineteen Mile Brook Trail at 2:15 and decided to skip the hut since we had been there last time we did Carter Dome and we were getting beat.
Did the 1.7 down to the Carter Dome Trail junction and got there at 3:05
Then the 1.9 back to the car and out at 3:55. Overall did 9.7 miles in a little longer time than I thought it would have taken.
Was a great hike and glad that one is behind me. Overall, wouldn't be high on my list as a repeat hike like some are. I think I would do that initial climb just up to before E Peak for those ledge lookouts and then back down in terms of repeating any of that.
Overall though, couldn't have picked a better weather day. Nice and cool. Sunny blue sky. No clouds until the afternoon. And from seeing other trip reports, looks like this was a popular hiking day and there were many people on all the peaks this day. Good stuff!
Now onto my final #48 for my next hike!!!
So glad I did after taking much advice from these boards and more as that initial Wildcat Ridge Trail from 16 is a steep climb up!
Did this with my hiking buddy and both drove so left a car at Nineteen Mile Brook Trail and took the other car to Pinkham Notch. Did not feel like messing with that water crossing from the Glen Ellis Falls lot.
Started on the Lost Pond Trail at 8:10am. A very nice hidden pond. I was hoping for a random moose but got nothing. It was still nice and peaceful in the morning. Towards the end of the pond, the trail gets a little confusing and goes thru or around a boulder field. This mile was much tougher than I originally figured it was. Running parallel to Rt 16, I guess I had expected a nice flat easy trail. Nope. But was fun.
At the end, I took a right at the junction and ran down to the river since I was curious about the river crossing. After scoping it out, I know I could have made it across, but my 76 year old hiking buddy wouldn't have wanted any part of it. So I def made the correct call there.
Got to that junction at 8:45 hiking a bit slow taking pictures and losing the trail that one time. (nice beaver dams at the end of Lost Pond!)
Ran into a hiker at that junction who lived close by and got to talking with him so we didn't start up Wildcat Ridge Trail until 9am.
WRT - Straight up climbing! All the reports were true and this trail is no joke. Intense, relentless, interesting and fun. Some nicely spaced out open view ledge lookouts along the way more than made up for the steep climbing. Seriously awesome ledges.
Met a thru-hiker who started in Georgia on March 7 - trailname SABER. A great guy who we talked to for longer than we all probably wanted to talk, but was fun listening to his stories and giving him a little more insight of our mountains here. The guy was flying!
I have an idea now of what was Wildcat E but we totally missed it while hiking as there is no markings of it and before I knew it, we were hiking down to the col where the Gondolas peak and all the tourists are. Having never been up there, I must say it was a little underwhelming. If going up a gondola, I would have expected more up there and there is really nothing. Cannon has a much nicer area at the top for tourists.
Hit the viewing tower on Wildcat D for my #46! 11:30am
This is where again, just like E Peak, I have no idea what peaks were the actual C and B peaks. I kept guessing and think I was wrong every time. I guess I must have been right twice but no clue which times those were. Again, no markings.
My energy level was hurting and I kept thinking A Peak was close and that was about an hour before we hit it. Overall a slow-going trail after that initial climb zapped alot of my energy. This trail really showed me how much I am not in great shape!
Finally hit A Peak at 1:15pm. Great lookout ledge over Carter Notch. Had a late overdue lunch and shared the view spot with 2 other hikers who had also did the same car spot as us and also a solo woman who lived down the road in North Conway.
Needed that lunch and got my second wind for the steep climb down to Carter Notch. Got down to the Nineteen Mile Brook Trail at 2:15 and decided to skip the hut since we had been there last time we did Carter Dome and we were getting beat.
Did the 1.7 down to the Carter Dome Trail junction and got there at 3:05
Then the 1.9 back to the car and out at 3:55. Overall did 9.7 miles in a little longer time than I thought it would have taken.
Was a great hike and glad that one is behind me. Overall, wouldn't be high on my list as a repeat hike like some are. I think I would do that initial climb just up to before E Peak for those ledge lookouts and then back down in terms of repeating any of that.
Overall though, couldn't have picked a better weather day. Nice and cool. Sunny blue sky. No clouds until the afternoon. And from seeing other trip reports, looks like this was a popular hiking day and there were many people on all the peaks this day. Good stuff!
Now onto my final #48 for my next hike!!!
