Wildcats 10-16-18
Wildcat A 4422' and Wildcat D 4062'
8.6 Miles 3400' Elevation gain
Nineteen Mile Brook Trail, Wildcat Ridge Trail and Polecat Ski Trail
Kevin, Judy and Wicket
At one time or another, but not necessarily together, Judy and I have both done out and backs to Wildcat A from Glen Ellis Falls. We didn't want to do it this way again on this trip.
We opted for the somewhat easier and more wimpy way by hiking in 19 Mile Brook Trail until it meets the Wildcat Ridge Trail, and then turning south along the AT and rising up to Wildcat A for our first of two 4k's along the ridge.
The plan from there was to continue south to Wildcat D adjacent to Wildcat Ski Area and from there to follow the Polecat Ski Trail down to a car we had spotted in Wildcat parking area that morning. We did make an effort to buy hiker passes, but there was no one to buy them from.
W#e had taken this route before when we had done these mountains for our Winter 48 in March of 2009. Quote of the Day from that hike was: "This could be categorized as epic. Stupidly epic. No, epically stupid." Jude
On that trip we had somehow missed a turn ascending Wildcat A and had followed snowshoe tracks which we thought had been made by a hiker who passed us, but must have been older and made when the snowpack was harder than it was that day.
Even though we had backtracked a couple of times in search for the correct path which we at least realized must ascend to the left, we got into an awful mess bushwhacking up the northeast side of the mountain.
Post-holing and swimming through spruce traps where the top of the snow was over my head and where Emma was able to walk along at my eye level on the thin crust that wouldn't hold me.
We eventually thrashed our way out and back onto the trail and then finished the hike, but not before I had visions of my bleached bones being found sometime the next spring.
As we started out on the 19 Mile Brook Trail to repeat that hike we were glad there was no snow and little chance of a repeat of that day's events.
Wicket bounced along the trail in a good hiking mood despite not having any other dogs along to play and explore with. I think she was actually enjoying the sole attention she was getting.
Parts of the lower section of 19 Mile Brook Trail have been re-routed which I had noted on a trip to the Carters earlier in the year. Sections ruined or flooded by the likes of Irene and subsequent storms have been repaired or moved. New bridges in several places are in good shape.
After we passed the junction with the Carter Dome Trail we came upon a solitary hiker, who sort of popped up out of the landscape, at least that's what Wicket thought, She was spooked, but we quickly got her under control and moved past the guy.
Further on we came upon a group of about 10 trail workers where Wicket was able to pass them without so much as a biff. It really is the singular hikers that seem to spook her.
We reached the junction with the Wildcat Ridge Trail and stopped for a snack. There had been several blow-downs across the trail, and many large trees completely uprooted along the way, all the victims of wild winds ripping through the notch the night before.
We finished up our snacks and put on warmer gloves and hats before beginning the ascent to the top of the cliffs we could see rising above us from where we had stopped.
There were a couple of sketchy icy spots and even some icicles along the way, but nothing that required having any sort of traction to get through. We passed by the slide that seemed so treacherous in winter before, but now seemed laughable.
Further up we turned more southward, but I could not figure out where exactly it was that we had lost the trail all those years before. I think also that the section I am thinking of may also have been re-routed from what I had previously hiked, so that maybe we never got to where we had lost the trail before.
At any rate, here we were nine years later and with a different dog. One as equally uncaring that she is collecting mountains as Emma was, but also just happy that she was there with us, and getting a chance to share the big outdoors with her hoomans.
We soon found ourselves in the small clearing at the summit of Wildcat A. We took the few steps east to the outcrop of rock high above Carter Notch where you can gaze across to the mass of Carter Dome with its jumble of huge boulders spilling down it's steep slope into the bowl of Carter Notch.
The Carter Lakes reflect blackness back at the sky and the scattered buildings that make up the Carter Notch AMC Hut appear tiny against the landscape far below us. Wicket stands on the rock outcrop with her nose to the wind and eyes scanning the view, just as her predecessor did many years before in the same spot.
We have some sandwiches and a good drink and decide to get moving again after finding the small cairn that seems to mark the high spot. We move out knowing there is still a good deal of hiking and scrambling to do to get across the ridge, and the possibility that there may some more ice as well.
Crossing the ridge was beautiful, and also uneventful. We only passed one other hiker, and this time apparently Wicket didn't care, and that was good. No foolishness, and no reason to leash her.
Along the way there are some great spots where you can get filtered, and sometimes wide open views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. Often some feature of the Presidential Range like Huntington Ravine would appear through a break in the trees.
Washington and the two most northern Presidents, Adams and Madison were mostly visible and were covered in a dusting of snow and rime above 4000' from where the hanging clouds had left their moisture across the range.
Mounts Jefferson and Clay were hidden from our view behind the northernmost shoulder of Washington known as Chandler Ridge. On this ridge parts of the Auto Road are visible as it climbs towards the summit of Washington.
After a few ups and downs along the trail we are making the final approach to the deck that sits above the actual summit of Wildcat D. Here we are able to sit in the bright sun, though it brings little warmth.
The clouds are boiling chaotically above us giving a visual clue as to why the bright sun has little warming effect while we are there. Sitting there in the cold sun, Wicket planted herself in my lap hoping to share the last of my PB&J.
We donned our packs again and made our way the last few hundred yards to the top of the ski area. from here the plan was that we would follow the Polecat Ski Trail down to our waiting car.
That was a good plan, take the Polecat Ski Trail down. And this is why it was a good plan. It is steep, but it is not as steep as some of the trails that you may be tempted to take that look like they will be shorter and more direct.
The Polecat Ski Trail does indeed do some winding as it descends, taking you out of the general direction you want to be going, but always winding back to the correct direction, and always at a more gentle grade.
It also offers a well beaten patch, where as most of the shorter, more direct routes do not. We chose some of these alternative routes in search of a shorter more direct route. Truth is, it most likely would have been more easy to just stay on Polecat.
The steep routes we chose had wet areas, trip hazards, chuck-holes hidden under deep ground cover and probably increased the difficulty of our descent by quite a bit then if we had just wound our way down along the Polecat.
So, another Wildcat lesson learned: "There is a reason the tell you to take the Polecat Trail. It's the easiest way!" we saw one more hiker as we descended the ski trails. I assume he had ascended at descended by the ski trails as he was alone, but his car was also in the parking lot with ours.
Despite our exploring adventure on our way down the ski trails, this hike went a darn sight better than our winter one had gone, though neither had ended in disaster. This one proved to be the better, and Wicket had now scored #'s 36 & 37. She didn't care...
Read More8.6 Miles 3400' Elevation gain
Nineteen Mile Brook Trail, Wildcat Ridge Trail and Polecat Ski Trail
Kevin, Judy and Wicket
At one time or another, but not necessarily together, Judy and I have both done out and backs to Wildcat A from Glen Ellis Falls. We didn't want to do it this way again on this trip.
We opted for the somewhat easier and more wimpy way by hiking in 19 Mile Brook Trail until it meets the Wildcat Ridge Trail, and then turning south along the AT and rising up to Wildcat A for our first of two 4k's along the ridge.
The plan from there was to continue south to Wildcat D adjacent to Wildcat Ski Area and from there to follow the Polecat Ski Trail down to a car we had spotted in Wildcat parking area that morning. We did make an effort to buy hiker passes, but there was no one to buy them from.
W#e had taken this route before when we had done these mountains for our Winter 48 in March of 2009. Quote of the Day from that hike was: "This could be categorized as epic. Stupidly epic. No, epically stupid." Jude
On that trip we had somehow missed a turn ascending Wildcat A and had followed snowshoe tracks which we thought had been made by a hiker who passed us, but must have been older and made when the snowpack was harder than it was that day.
Even though we had backtracked a couple of times in search for the correct path which we at least realized must ascend to the left, we got into an awful mess bushwhacking up the northeast side of the mountain.
Post-holing and swimming through spruce traps where the top of the snow was over my head and where Emma was able to walk along at my eye level on the thin crust that wouldn't hold me.
We eventually thrashed our way out and back onto the trail and then finished the hike, but not before I had visions of my bleached bones being found sometime the next spring.
As we started out on the 19 Mile Brook Trail to repeat that hike we were glad there was no snow and little chance of a repeat of that day's events.
Wicket bounced along the trail in a good hiking mood despite not having any other dogs along to play and explore with. I think she was actually enjoying the sole attention she was getting.
Parts of the lower section of 19 Mile Brook Trail have been re-routed which I had noted on a trip to the Carters earlier in the year. Sections ruined or flooded by the likes of Irene and subsequent storms have been repaired or moved. New bridges in several places are in good shape.
After we passed the junction with the Carter Dome Trail we came upon a solitary hiker, who sort of popped up out of the landscape, at least that's what Wicket thought, She was spooked, but we quickly got her under control and moved past the guy.
Further on we came upon a group of about 10 trail workers where Wicket was able to pass them without so much as a biff. It really is the singular hikers that seem to spook her.
We reached the junction with the Wildcat Ridge Trail and stopped for a snack. There had been several blow-downs across the trail, and many large trees completely uprooted along the way, all the victims of wild winds ripping through the notch the night before.
We finished up our snacks and put on warmer gloves and hats before beginning the ascent to the top of the cliffs we could see rising above us from where we had stopped.
There were a couple of sketchy icy spots and even some icicles along the way, but nothing that required having any sort of traction to get through. We passed by the slide that seemed so treacherous in winter before, but now seemed laughable.
Further up we turned more southward, but I could not figure out where exactly it was that we had lost the trail all those years before. I think also that the section I am thinking of may also have been re-routed from what I had previously hiked, so that maybe we never got to where we had lost the trail before.
At any rate, here we were nine years later and with a different dog. One as equally uncaring that she is collecting mountains as Emma was, but also just happy that she was there with us, and getting a chance to share the big outdoors with her hoomans.
We soon found ourselves in the small clearing at the summit of Wildcat A. We took the few steps east to the outcrop of rock high above Carter Notch where you can gaze across to the mass of Carter Dome with its jumble of huge boulders spilling down it's steep slope into the bowl of Carter Notch.
The Carter Lakes reflect blackness back at the sky and the scattered buildings that make up the Carter Notch AMC Hut appear tiny against the landscape far below us. Wicket stands on the rock outcrop with her nose to the wind and eyes scanning the view, just as her predecessor did many years before in the same spot.
We have some sandwiches and a good drink and decide to get moving again after finding the small cairn that seems to mark the high spot. We move out knowing there is still a good deal of hiking and scrambling to do to get across the ridge, and the possibility that there may some more ice as well.
Crossing the ridge was beautiful, and also uneventful. We only passed one other hiker, and this time apparently Wicket didn't care, and that was good. No foolishness, and no reason to leash her.
Along the way there are some great spots where you can get filtered, and sometimes wide open views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. Often some feature of the Presidential Range like Huntington Ravine would appear through a break in the trees.
Washington and the two most northern Presidents, Adams and Madison were mostly visible and were covered in a dusting of snow and rime above 4000' from where the hanging clouds had left their moisture across the range.
Mounts Jefferson and Clay were hidden from our view behind the northernmost shoulder of Washington known as Chandler Ridge. On this ridge parts of the Auto Road are visible as it climbs towards the summit of Washington.
After a few ups and downs along the trail we are making the final approach to the deck that sits above the actual summit of Wildcat D. Here we are able to sit in the bright sun, though it brings little warmth.
The clouds are boiling chaotically above us giving a visual clue as to why the bright sun has little warming effect while we are there. Sitting there in the cold sun, Wicket planted herself in my lap hoping to share the last of my PB&J.
We donned our packs again and made our way the last few hundred yards to the top of the ski area. from here the plan was that we would follow the Polecat Ski Trail down to our waiting car.
That was a good plan, take the Polecat Ski Trail down. And this is why it was a good plan. It is steep, but it is not as steep as some of the trails that you may be tempted to take that look like they will be shorter and more direct.
The Polecat Ski Trail does indeed do some winding as it descends, taking you out of the general direction you want to be going, but always winding back to the correct direction, and always at a more gentle grade.
It also offers a well beaten patch, where as most of the shorter, more direct routes do not. We chose some of these alternative routes in search of a shorter more direct route. Truth is, it most likely would have been more easy to just stay on Polecat.
The steep routes we chose had wet areas, trip hazards, chuck-holes hidden under deep ground cover and probably increased the difficulty of our descent by quite a bit then if we had just wound our way down along the Polecat.
So, another Wildcat lesson learned: "There is a reason the tell you to take the Polecat Trail. It's the easiest way!" we saw one more hiker as we descended the ski trails. I assume he had ascended at descended by the ski trails as he was alone, but his car was also in the parking lot with ours.
Despite our exploring adventure on our way down the ski trails, this hike went a darn sight better than our winter one had gone, though neither had ended in disaster. This one proved to be the better, and Wicket had now scored #'s 36 & 37. She didn't care...
