Day 158: The Wildcats

Day 158
Pinkham notch to Carter notch hut

Miles Hiked: 5.9
AT Milage: 1878.5

Today we spent the morning in town, starting with the hot tub first. Next was breakfast, showers, and sorting out gear stuff. We got back on trail around 11am and began our short day of hiking to Carter notch hut.The first mile was pretty flat and easy and it went past a beautiful pond. After that, the trail became almost vertical. I put my trekking poles away because the next 4 miles consisted of mostly hand over hand bouldering. Some parts were pretty exposed and it felt like it would be so easy to fall right off the mountain. If I didn’t have to balance a 35 pound pack on my back, the hike would have been a lot easier. As soon as I loose my balance with that much weight on my back it’s easy to tumble forward or backward. I did weigh my pack at the visitor center with all my food and water and it came out to 35 pounds.

Eventually, after two hours of close to a vertical ascent, we summited Wildcat D peak and then continued to Wildcat mountain. Wildcat D peak had a ski lift at the top of it. The whole day we had a view of Mount Washington and the surrounding peaks.Around 5pm we made it to Carter Notch hut. They had a work for stay available so we picked up micro trash around the hut for an hour in exchange for dinner and a place to sleep on the dinning room floor. The hut was small and a school group was staying at it for the night. I was happy to be in a considerably warmer place but I had to stay up really late waiting to go to sleep. Happy to have had a short hike today.