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| Wildcat Ridge Trail Head |
After what seemed like an eternity, my foot was finally feeling strong enough to test out on the trails. The great weather we have been having lately had my mind on the mountains, and I was happy to finally get back to hiking! It had only been a little over two months since I broke my foot on a hike up
Mt. Cabot, but those two months seemed quite long! My foot actually healed up quite well - and ahead of schedule - so I was confident that I would be okay hiking on it. I was getting tired of seeing pictures and reading blogs about other people out there enjoying the trails....my turn!
Paloma, my parents, and I decided to hike the Wildcats on Saturday. Out of all the mountains in New Hampshire, I have probably spent the most time on Wildcat, skiing. I love skiing on Wildcat because it is one of the less crowded ski areas and the views on a blue-bird ski day across to Washington are nearly unrivaled. Needless to say, I was happy to to be spending some more time on the mountain, this time for hiking. While most of our skiing is done on Wildcat (D Peak), the Wildcats are actually a set of 5 different peaks, uniquely named A, B, C, D, and E. Unfortunately, due to 4000 footer rules, only peaks A and D count towards the list, though the route we had planned would take us across all five anyways.
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| Crossing the River |
We headed up Route 16 towards the Glen Ellis Falls parking lot, located a few miles south of the Pinkham Notch visitors center, arriving at approximately 8:40AM. The lot was relatively empty when we arrived, but as we made our preparations for the hike it slowly began to fill up. The weather forecast was looking great - a mild 70 degrees with only a few clouds in the skies. We officially set out on the Wildcat Ridge trail at 9:00AM. The trail begins by heading underneath Route 16 through a man-made tunnel, and immediately crosses the quite active and deep Ellis River. The river was a bit difficult to cross so it took a few minutes for us to successfully navigate to the other side. Immediately after the river the trail begins a steady and quite rocky climb, which awarded us with excellent views of Mount Washington after only about twenty minutes on the trail. The trail continued to skirt alongside some open rock faces for a while and continued climbing steadily - at no point is the trail flat. What a great way to whip my ass back into shape!
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| Steep Climb! |
At some point we had summitted Wildcat E Peak, but given the absence of any type of markings, where exactly that was, I am not so sure. Just before we reached Wildcat D Peak (one of the ones that counts), we came into a clearing at the top of the Wildcat Gondola chair. Wow, this looks a lot different in the winter! Much like Cannon Mountain, Wildcat tends to attract summertime tourists who can easily get great views of Mt. Washington and the Presidential Range by simply taking a five minute Gondola ride to the top. Yuck! It made me feel great though to see a guy walking by with flip flops on reaking of Armani cologne while I was covered in mud reaking of MAN. Oh well. We took a few photos and continued up the short incline to the summit of Wildcat D Peak, reaching it at just about 11:30AM. After taking a few photos from the wooden lookout tower, we continued on our way. There were a few trails leading from the top of Wildcat D Peak, so we spent a few seconds trying to figure out the right one. Luckily we chose correctly (if looking at the stairs, the trail is to the right), and began making our way across the ridge to Wildcat C Peak.
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| Top of the Gondola |
The going across the ridge was actually a lot more strenuous than I had anticipated. You descend and ascend quite a bit over the mile or so to Wildcat C Peak, which took a lot of our energy. Given that we only had one car, our plan had been to do an out and back on the Wildcat Ridge trail, but the up and downs were not going to be easy on the way back so we modified our plan and decided to continue across all of the peaks and descend via the Nineteen Mile Brook trail (wise choice!). Unfortunately, the parking lot that this trail takes you to is located about five miles from where our car was parked, so one of us would need to walk or hitchhike back to the car and return to pick up the others.
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| Summit of Wildcat D Peak |
Much like Wildcat E Peak, we weren't quite sure exactly when we hit the summit of Wildcat C or B peak, but were able to estimate it pretty good. We reached Wildcat A Peak at 1:20PM, and sat down on a beautiful ledge overlooking Carter Notch and the Carter Notch Hut for lunch. We watched some other hikes way across the Notch while we ate. Luckily, there weren't many people on the outlook, only a couple of guys who joined us halfway through lunch. They too, modified there plans and actually had a friend giving them a ride back to the Glen Ellis Falls parking lot, so my mom bribed them with some fresh bing cherries for a ride back as well if we were to end up at the lot at the same time. We finished lunch and began the descent to the Nineteen Mile Brook trail at 1:40PM.
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| Summit of Wildcat A Peak |
The descent was quite steep to start, but once we reached the junction with the Nineteen Mile Brook trail it flattened out quite a bit. Knowing that we weren't going to have to deal with the up and downs on the Wildcat Ridge trail was quite settling. We kept a pretty quick pace going down, and the descent was relatively uneventful, but the trail was actually quite pretty at some parts where it weaved alongside a fairly rapid river. About a half mile from the parking lot we encountered an older gentleman walking up the trail. He indicated to my dad that he was just hiking up to meet some people on the way down. We didn't put two and two together that he was the person giving the two guys we met at the top a ride back to the Glen Ellis Falls parking lot. Whoops!
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| My Cool Parents! |
Needless to say, we got down to the lot before the two guys and their ride, so I jumped at the opportunity to hitchhike back to the lot some five miles away (call it a bucket-list item). My father decided to join, and before you know it we were walking up Rte. 16, thumbs stretched out. A few cars passed by without stopping, but shortly into our walk a pickup truck with an older man and two kids pulled over onto the gravel shoulder - we told them where we were headed and they obliged. My father and I hopped into the bed of the pickup and off we went. Thank god we got picked up because this five miles had a pretty steady incline at a few points - which frankly would have sucked after our long hike! We got back to the lot, gave the guy a five-spot for his hospitality, hopped in our car and went back to pick up Paloma and my mom. Success!
We were all pretty hungry so we decided to stop at the Moat Mountain Smokehouse for dinner. Aside from the families with one trillion starving kids who just got out of a day at Story Land, the dinner was quite tasty and the beer even tastier. All in all a solid hike!
Hike Stats
Trails: Wildcat Ridge Trail, Nineteen Mile Brook Trail
Total Time (Including Breaks): 7:20
Distance: 8.7
Elevation Gain: 3,150'
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