| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2004-09-19 22:19:56 UTC-0400 |
| Description |
From: Hector Briceno Subject: TR: GSC Day hike and Wildcat-Carter-Dome Moonlight hike By Karl Schneider GSC Day Hike and the Wildcat-Cater-Dome-Moonlight-Hike It all began with a day- "hike" that GSC had organized for the new graduate students. Leaving MIT at 8.30 a.m. 150 fearless students head out for the White Mountains. Despite some heavy clouds in the morning, it turned out to be absolutely wonderful day. Bus number 3 (of 3) dropped us, a group of 50 people, at the Sawyer River Trail head. We split in 5 groups and hit the trail with a time delay of 10 minutes between each group. The leaders of each group had been briefed and given maps of the area by GSC, who really organized this day very well (thanks to Lik). So, none of the groups had trouble following the easy going Sawyer River Trail, which followed an old railroad track bed for most of the time. At 2 p.m. we reached Sawyer Pond the perfect spot to have our lunch break. Spending one hour sitting in the sun, exchanging chocolate and cookies, and going swimming (at least some people did) we enjoyed the day. Before heading out to the bus on Sawyer Pond Trail our group walked around the lake. On the way we encountered some thick bushes which replaced the little trail we have started on. Adding a little difficulty the day hike we overcame this little problem and had no trouble getting back on the trail. At 5:30 p.m. everybody met at Swift River which had to be crossed before we could get to the bus. Everybody mastered this ultimate challenge by taking off their shoes and wading through the warm water. Everybody seemed to have enjoyed the walk, which was 9.8 miles long. However, many people had probably expected a more demanding hike as it was supposed to be the most difficult of the three offered hikes, but hardly had any elevation gain. Nonetheless GSC did a great job organizing this event! For some reason instead of going home with the others I found myself together with Hector in his car and we decided to do a little bit more of hiking on our own. Karl ----------------------------------------------- Wildcat Carter Dome Moonlight hike. By Karl with contributions by Hector First thing we did was to have dinner at a small restaurant in North Conway. Hector, obviously being a freak, got out his laptop with electronic maps; trail descriptions etc. making sure we would optimize every aspect of the next hike. We decided to do a moonlight hike over the Wildcats and Carter Dome as the sky was clear and full moon was occurring these days. On our way up to the trailhead Hector stopped by Intervale (the Outing Club cabin) to see if anyone was staying there in case we had to crash there later that night. Surprisingly, Susan and Paulina were there. We talked to them for a while, but we fled the scene before we changed our mind on this crazy idea. We drove to the trailhead noticing that it was quite windy outside and decided to put on some windproof clothes. When we started the trail we followed an underpass under the highway and came to a rather wide river crossing and I just said: "They cannot be serious about this!" But encountering the rather steep and long climb straight afterwards the little River was not on my mind any longer. Not thinking much, but watching our steps in the dim lights of our headlamps, we made good time and had gained 2000 ft elevation after the first hour already. On our way out of the dark a ski lift and a weather station appeared. The strong winds and rather cool temperatures prohibited any long breaks. However, we caught some splendid views. The rising moon was also contributing to these quite extraordinary conditions. From the highest summit (Wildcat A) we could look down into Cater Notch and over to Cater Dome, the highest peak on our trip. Before descending down all the way into the Notch, I had to pay attention to some hot spots that had developed in my boots. However, tape and mold skin do did an excellent job and so I would not be bothered too much by hot spots during the rest of the night. When I was ready to go I realized that Hector was asleep (taking a cat nap). However, he got up straight away but probably still asleep because he immediately lost his balance and fell into the bushes. This was the fist sign that we should have rather gone to bed than going on another hike. The descend was fairly fast, but when we got to the bottom we were surprised that we had spend already three hours for the first 5 miles. We found an unexpected lake, which we did not recognize immediately because the reflections of the moon made it look like snow. Although, snow in summer?? What were we thinking! Climbing Cater Dome seemed to take ages. We started to lose track a little bit of where we were, why we were there and where we were going. As the temperatures were still decreasing we wouldn't even think of stopping and just kept going. Finally, we reached the top but couldn't see much, because it was cloudy and the trees were blocking any possible views. However we had done it. We had climbed 4700 feet total elevation gain, it was 12:49 a.m., and we could still walk. Ahead of us only a five mile descent along the Cater-moriah trail and Nineteen Mile Trail to the trailhead, and then we would just hitchhike back to the car which was 4.5 miles away along route 16 at another trailhead, and then we would be done! So we hiked down slowly and swaggering a little. We talked about our experiences with long hikes and other endurance activities (why??), as we saw the signs of fatigue and sleep deprivation appearing. Once Hector wanted to go asleep and choose me as a pillow when he fell towards me but I was still standing strong though also pushing my body close to the limit. Finally we arrived at the trailhead and were looking forward to the easy ride back to our car. Have you ever tried hitchhiking at 3.30 a.m. in the morning? In New Hampshire? On a Sunday ? On the Laborday Weekend? Obviously not because you cannot!! The fist car went by after a wait of 15 minutes. He would not even slow down. The second one took only a wait of 8 minutes and instead of ignoring us, it completely changed lanes, but, of course would not stop. Cars 3,4,5, .15 didn't stop either. And that were all cars we saw during our 1.5 hour walk/zombie back to our car. Moral of the story don't try to hitchhike at 4 am in the morning and don't park your car 400ft elevation higher than your trail ends assuming that you can easily hitch a ride back. Nonetheless, I want to encourage people to try new stuff. You do not even need to get screwed like we did in the end! But get out there and experience the outdoors. Most likely you will have an excellent time! And if you encounter problems you have something you can mention in you report to MITOC. ;) Cheers, Karl (with valuable contributions from Hector, who only had slept 5 hours the night before) (total distance was 11.3 miles plus 4.5 miles on the road) Lessons by Hector: hitchiking (take 2 for hector) is harder at wee morning hours. I suspect that during weekdays is a bit easier since there is more commercial traffic. I (HB) have successfully hitchiked around the pinkham notch area. Hallucinations by fatigue are very fun, sure beats doing drugs, it is cheaper, and usually has no permanent side-effects (assuming you dont fall on your face) and is not addictive :) STANDARD DISCLAIMER: for the record I have done many moonlight hikes, and many long hikes. This hike in particular does not afford many exits, so in a way it is committing; I would definately would not like to go down the wildcat ridge trail; If you want to push yourself for the first time, I would recommend something easier, and/or with more exits where you can bail if need be. This was not hard, but the fact that I had 5 hours of sleep and just did 10 flat miles, made it a bit harder |