June 19, 2007 | Miles: 13.1
Start: Pinkham Notch
End: Imp Campsite
Danielle:
A beautiful day for a tough traverse, with many steep ascents and descents, going over 5 of NH’s 4000 footers. We’ve done some of this section of the AT before, and it did not like us then… However, luckily this time, we had a better time of it, although that isn’t to say it was rough! There was lots of sweating (it was humid), and more than enough grumbling… It took us over 9 hours to do these 13 miles, with the first two miles rising up from the Notch to the start of the Wildcat ridge, giving us great views along the rocky ledges back over to the Presidentials. Then we descended into Carter Notch, stopping at the AMC hut to enjoy the luxury of filter-free water (yeah!) and lunch at their picnic tables, before quickly and steeply ascending up to Carter Dome. Ugh! That was a climb! Over Mt. Hight, Middle Carter and North Carter, where we began our final descent to Imp. I remembered lots of steep rocky slabs to descend on this section, and my memory hadn’t lied. It was indeed steep! Then finally, the spur to Imp, with yet another descent :) After a quick set-up, we devoured our dinner while trying to keep away the black flies that had descended upon us in droves. Needless to say, we didn’t have much success! Ah, hiking in June….
Overall, a tough section of trail, but with some nice views, lots of new bog bridges and some good wildflowers—bunchberries, gold thread, star flowers, rhodora, white violets and a few trillium—to liven up the woods.
Ryan:
A long hike to close out a long week of work—no rest for the wicked. Day started cloudy, but cleared out nicely, then got hazy. And we saw it all as it took us more than 9 hours to get from point A to point B. The initial climb up the Wildcat Ridge Trail was hard—really steep. But we made it to the top of Wildcat Ski Area and then onto Wildcat D in just about 2 hours. Then some more work to climb Wildcats C, B and A, followed by a huge descent to Carter Notch Hut. The climb out of Carter Notch to Carter Dome was even bigger, and slow after a tasty lunch. Then it gets a little muddled, we just kept walking over the Carters. It was long and rugged and warm and we were tired. Then came the descent from North Carter—reeeediculous. Eventually, we got to Imp campsite 13 miles after we started. I got tired just typing that. Overall, it was a great day. We were tired, but we had a blast. The views were great. The trail was beautiful. The company was even better. All in all good times. But then the 8 million black flies arrived at Imp, made it a little tough to eat my Teriyaki noodles. I muddled through.
June 20, 2007 | Miles: 8.0
Start: Imp Campsite
End: US 2, Gorham
Danielle:
In today’s episode of “The adventures of Sparkplug & Snowman,” we find our duo, tired from a long hike yesterday and not much sleep, continuing their traverse of the Carter-Moriah Range, ascending the slick rocky ledges of Moriah in the rain, hurrying along to get out of the wind, passing by the vistas now enshrouded in fog… the rain finally relents as they descend to the Rattle River Shelter, the trail mellowing as it follows the stream. As the rain relents, the bugs begin their attack, and the episode concludes with a shot of S&S running the last half mile of the now flat trail in an attempt to outrun and outwit the hordes of angry, blood-sucking mosquitos that have descended upon them… Yup, that pretty much sums it up.
Ryan:
So, I woke up feeling like I had been to Fight Club last night…and lost to Meat Loaf. Not pretty. So, a grouchy start. Then it started raining. Then we walked. Then we tried not to get hypothermia climbing over Mt. Moriah. Danielle was in the lead and yelled at me because “She felt rushed.” Of course, I was rushing her…it was miserable, and I wanted to get out of there. Once over the peak, it was all good from there. Off and on rain, but nothing too bad. Then it was all down. About 3000 feet down to the land of the ravenous mosquitoes. We ran/jogged the last half mile in order to not donate too much blood. A great 2 days.
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