Since I’m up at 3am anyway (the joys of being oncall…) figured I’d continue the trip report. When last we saw our heroes, they had just settled in for a night at the relatively extravagant Carter Notch Hut…
I woke up at 6am, mostly because that’s when I set my watch alarm to go off. I went off to freshen up before the Hut crew came around with their wake up call at 6:30; I was expecting trash can lids or something similar and was presently surprised to hear one of the crew members singing a wake up song to the occupants of each cabin (three cabins total) as I returned from the bath room. By this time Dan was mostly awake and we headed over to the common room for the grub.
Breakfast was pretty good. First course was oatmeal, which I liberally covered with brown sugar, not being a huge oatmeal fan. Next was bacon and eggs; bacon is always great, but they filled the eggs with all sorts of veggies (really, mushrooms?) which kinda ruined those for me. No orange juice, but they did have some red juice…which basically tasted like watered down…red…juice. Really no better way to describe that. Thankfully they also had coffee. Even Dan ate well, which is always surprising considering his well known aversion to breakfast. We sat at the same table we had at dinner, with the same people, and had some pleasant conversation going over our various plans for the day. Most were traveling between huts and only a couple people were going in the same direction Dan and I were.
After breakfast was winding down, the crew put on a little after breakfast theater. Basic moral was to A) sweep out your bunk room, B) don’t leave any garbage, and C) tip generously. The skit was funnier than expected and I did end up leaving them a little something.
After breakfast, Dan and I returned to the cabin. I was pretty much all packed. Dan finished putting his gear together, although he did have a web loop on his pack rip off trying to tighten a strap down. He retied the strap around the pack frame, so not a huge problem. However, Dan did start feeling a little queasy, maybe due to the large breakfast, so we hung around for 30 or 40 minutes while his stomach adjusted. While I waited, I took a quick video of the hut.
And then we were off to conquer the Wildcats! First, we basically went straight up the side of Wildcat Mountain, almost 1200 feet worth. Once we got to the top, we spent the rest of the time traversing the ridge (and the other Wildcat peaks, cunningly named “B”, “C”, “D”, and “E”). About a quarter mile before peak D, we came across an old fire tower and climbed up to take a look around. I didn’t stay up there long, since it was pretty obvious why it was abandoned (falling apart just a little bit…). As usual, the Law and Rest Stops(which states, “When backpacking in a new area, no matter where you stop for a break, you’ll find a much better spot five minutes further on the trail”) caught us — at Wildcat D there was what’s probably a ski lodge in the winter, complete with an in service gondola bringing people up from below. We stopped for a few minutes to look down the side at the ski trails; luckily, one of the tourists pointed out that the trail continued along the ridge and not down the ski trail…I thanked him for that bit of insight…
And then came the “Descent of Wildcat E”. E was the last mountain in the Wildcat group and the last 4000 footer we’d cross before getting into the Presidentials proper. Splitting the two mountain groups was Pinkham Notch. The trail runs through Pinkham Notch visitor center (also known as AMC headquarters). To get there, it was only a 2100 foot descent from Wildcat E…in just one mile…
The climb down started pretty easy, so when I mentioned that the guide book describes this descent as extremely steep and dangerous we both shared a hearty laugh at the poor loser who thought this was a strenuous descent. About ten minutes later, we’re climbing down, hands and knees, almost vertically — at least someone was nice enough to bolt 4 by 4’s into the side of the rock, since otherwise there was basically no way to descend. Basically, Sleeping Giant Blue trail, except steeper angle (and that reference is pretty much meant just for Jeff…)
Pinkham Notch
My knees had been holding up fine the entire trip, but coming down from E was really getting to them. Dan was in worse shape, since his knees had been bothering him almost non-stop. We finally got down to level ground and the Lost Pond. We got to Pinkham Notch Visitor’s Center around noon, having already done five miles. Unfortunately, it was still another five miles to our next camp site, which was Osgood Tent site. We grabbed a picnic table and made lunch (we doubled up on the mini-bagel, pepperoni, and cheese sandwiches). Dan sacked out on the picnic table bench while I explored the Visitor’s center. There was a large scale 3d model of the Presidential range, so I scoped out the terrain between us and Osgood — not too bad, actually. Bought some candy bars for the two of us and headed back out to make sure Dan was still alive.
It took another half hour or so to get Dan moving again, since the climb down really did a number on him (along with the climb up from Carter Notch). By one or so we were back on the trail, which for the most part was pretty level. We crossed the Mount Washington Auto Road at mile post two — and were very happy to have left it behind, since the stench of car exhaust was almost overwhelming. Another mile or so further, we crossed a pretty nice river and decided to take a break. Dan wanted to refill his water bottles, since the water he got from Pinkham Notch Visitor’s Center tasted like “burning rubber tires” or something similar. While we were hanging out there, a north bound hiker came by and stopped to chat. He told us he’d seen a moose on the trail at Osgood camp site; apparently the moose walked within four or five feet of him. He showed us the pictures he’d taken and it was pretty impressive. Dan and I were both pretty psyched about the idea of seeing a moose; so far, the biggest animal we’d seen was probably the spruce grouse. As we got closer to Osgood, we did see several moose prints in the mud, but that was about as close as we got.
There were quite a few rivers and streams between Pinkham Notch and Osgood tent site, but the coolest (and also the largest) was the West Branch of the Peabody River. We were only a half mile or so away from the tent site when we got there and I was very impressed with the bridge slung across the river.
At the next river (not nearly as impressive as the Peabody) we took a longer rest break, since Dan wanted to wash up a little bit. Since he’d been going on about swimming, I got a good laugh when he put a foot in the water and nearly froze. After a half hour or so we continued on and got to Osgood by 7pm or so.
There were a lot more people at Osgood than I expected. Only five tent platforms or so, we got there in time to snag space on the most remote platform. I say space, because we split the platform with another hiker (from Stratford, CT). After we got there, two other hikers showed up and had to find semi flat areas off the platforms to pitch their tents. Dinner was cranberry chicken and rice, sans cranberry (since Dan doesn’t like cranberries). Pretty good, although I added a little too much water. Also, the home made dehydrated veggies don’t seem to dehydrate very quickly — I’ll have to work on that.
Since there wasn’t a bear box, I got to play my favorite game — trying not to look like a total moron while hanging the food bags. Naturally there are never any decent trees anywhere nearby. After attempts in two different trees with no luck, one of the other backpackers told me there were bear boxes near the privy. Off I go, thinking that not only didn’t I see the bear box on the way up, but I had spent thirty minutes looking like an idiot. Turns out, no bear boxes — the guy had seen one of the composting boxes for the privy (conveniently marked with bio hazard signs). I returned to bear bagging (by this time getting dark) and managed to hang the bag about seven feet (on a good day). Whatever, it was hung.
As an added bonus, the weather report for the next day was rain showers in the morning and possible thunderstorms in the afternoon. I was pretty worried about that, since we had the toughest climb yet tomorrow to Mount Madison (3000 feet in 1.5 miles) and doing that in the rain didn’t sound like a smart idea. I told Dan we’d need to be up there before the rain started — once we got to the top of Madison, we could take shelter in the Madison Springs Hut, which was only a half mile past the mountain. I stayed up for a while checking the map and then fell asleep pretty quick. That night was probably my best night’s sleep so far on the trip.
