freighttrain48
New member
date 8/2
cast of characters
Myself and Kevinski
Trails used / lost pond, wildcat ridge trail, polecat ski trail
We left pinkham notch around 7:30am and headed out on the lost pond trail. The lost pond trail was a nice warm up but I knew that once I met up with the wildcat ridge trail I was in for a steady climb. I had heard from others that this was a section that was a lot more work than the distance and elevation suggested, they were right. Once we were on the ridge trail it climbed sharply up the steep ridge
here is Kevinski climbing a tricky spot early on
The trail continued up quite steeply, easing at times but for the most part it was quite steep until we reached the top of the lower shoulder. The grade eased for about a quarter mile giving are lungs a chance to catch up. From this shoulder you could see E peak it did not look all that far away but it did look pretty high up! We slogged our way up this steep section of the ridge and soon we found those familar wooden steps like the fishing jimmy trail. The wooden steps soon gave way to rock steps that seemed to be chisled out of the ledge.
Me on one of the final ledge scrambles up top
We soon enter the trees and climb the final section to E peak with sounds of thunder rumbling in the background. We made our way to the col between E and D peak and decided to take a break under the old summit buliding at the top of the ski area. It was still pretty early in the day so we decided to wait out the storm and were soon joined by two Sobo thruhikers. We chatted for bit with them about our favorite sections of the whites they were about to enter and after about 45 mins the rain stopped and we parted ways and soon we were on top of D peak and Kevinski got to celebrate his 40th peak
The trail drops sharply to the col between D and C peak then climbs up to C peak. After some more ups and downs over easier grades we found ourselves giving Kevinski his 41th peak and my 29th we had lunch at the view spot overlooking carter notch and carter dome watching big puffy white clouds pass over the carters into the wild river wilderness.
Soon the views into Gorham started looking dark and grim so we put our rain coats back on and made or way back to D peak. The rain came and went and soon we found ourselves again atop the viewing deck on D peak. Looking over to Washington we could see that we would soon need to pull out the rain coats yet again! We started walking down the polecat ski trail in high winds and pouring rain, but after descending five hundred feet or so the rain stopped and off came the jackets this time for good. We resumed the tedious trek down the ski trail and about halfway down the sun pierced threw the clouds giving an intresting view towards shoulder of Washington, with beams of light in the foreground
We soon found ourselves at the base of the ski area and after a short road walk back at pinkham, then off to Elvios for some silican pizza and icecream! The hike was a shy under ten miles but a lot more rugged then a suspected but a great day in the whites.
cast of characters
Myself and Kevinski
Trails used / lost pond, wildcat ridge trail, polecat ski trail
We left pinkham notch around 7:30am and headed out on the lost pond trail. The lost pond trail was a nice warm up but I knew that once I met up with the wildcat ridge trail I was in for a steady climb. I had heard from others that this was a section that was a lot more work than the distance and elevation suggested, they were right. Once we were on the ridge trail it climbed sharply up the steep ridge
here is Kevinski climbing a tricky spot early on
The trail continued up quite steeply, easing at times but for the most part it was quite steep until we reached the top of the lower shoulder. The grade eased for about a quarter mile giving are lungs a chance to catch up. From this shoulder you could see E peak it did not look all that far away but it did look pretty high up! We slogged our way up this steep section of the ridge and soon we found those familar wooden steps like the fishing jimmy trail. The wooden steps soon gave way to rock steps that seemed to be chisled out of the ledge.
Me on one of the final ledge scrambles up top
We soon enter the trees and climb the final section to E peak with sounds of thunder rumbling in the background. We made our way to the col between E and D peak and decided to take a break under the old summit buliding at the top of the ski area. It was still pretty early in the day so we decided to wait out the storm and were soon joined by two Sobo thruhikers. We chatted for bit with them about our favorite sections of the whites they were about to enter and after about 45 mins the rain stopped and we parted ways and soon we were on top of D peak and Kevinski got to celebrate his 40th peak
The trail drops sharply to the col between D and C peak then climbs up to C peak. After some more ups and downs over easier grades we found ourselves giving Kevinski his 41th peak and my 29th we had lunch at the view spot overlooking carter notch and carter dome watching big puffy white clouds pass over the carters into the wild river wilderness.
Soon the views into Gorham started looking dark and grim so we put our rain coats back on and made or way back to D peak. The rain came and went and soon we found ourselves again atop the viewing deck on D peak. Looking over to Washington we could see that we would soon need to pull out the rain coats yet again! We started walking down the polecat ski trail in high winds and pouring rain, but after descending five hundred feet or so the rain stopped and off came the jackets this time for good. We resumed the tedious trek down the ski trail and about halfway down the sun pierced threw the clouds giving an intresting view towards shoulder of Washington, with beams of light in the foreground
We soon found ourselves at the base of the ski area and after a short road walk back at pinkham, then off to Elvios for some silican pizza and icecream! The hike was a shy under ten miles but a lot more rugged then a suspected but a great day in the whites.
