Hiking in the White Mountains and Adirondacks: February 2010

Date of Hike: 2/13/10

Nineteen-Mile Brook Trail: 1.9 miles
Carter Dome Trail: 1.9 miles
Carter-Moriah Trail: 6.8 miles
Wildcat Ridge Trail: 2.7 miles
Polecat/Tomcat Ski Trails: 2.5 miles
Total Miles: 15.8 (6,200 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- Left RI at 3am, on trail at 7am, finished around 3:30
- Temps in the mid teens to high twenty's, wind gusts around 25mph out of the NW above 4,000 feet. Cloudy skies until noon then clear skies with 75 miles plus visibility!
- Made good time up Nineteen-Mile and Carter Dome trails. Carter Dome Trail has a series of seven switchbacks on it which are pretty annoying, two of which are really long and boring!
- At Zeta Pass I switched from microspikes over to snowshoes and booked it over to South Cater, however as soon as I started over to Middle Carter the trail was hard to follow with some snow drifts. Unfortunately the White AT blazes on the trees that you always see when you don't need to see them were few and far between but I stayed on the trail except for one part and was able to get to Middle Carter summit without much of a problem
- Once I got back to South Carter I finally started running into a bunch of people, a dozen over to Carter dome and another eight or so down to Carter Notch
- The hike up to Carter Dome was a struggle at times, the trail was very choppy and narrow and the winds picked up near the summit
- Switched back to microspikes for the hike down to Carter Notch and on the steep parts I glissaded down being careful not to lose control and go into a tree, rock, or over a very long drop!
- Stoped in at Carter Notch Hut to refuel, warm up, and energize myself for the steep climb (1,050 feet in .7 miles) up to Wildcat A Peak
- In the "It really is a small world" outside the hut I bumped into Bill who was the guy who picked me up when I was trying to hitch-hike last month! We then set off for Wildcat and bumped into Jeremy (Rocket 21) who I met on Franconia Ridge in December, and Eric and we all set off to tackle the Wildcat Ridge. Both Jeremy and Eric have done a single season Winter 48 in the past which is a pretty amazing accomplishment!
- The Hike over the Wildcat Peaks was great and the views of the northern presidentials were kick ass!
- Once we got to the Wildcat Ski Area we descended the Polecat trail and enjoyed the close up views of Tucks and Huntington Ravine as skiers and snowboarders zoomed by us
- Back at the Parking lot Jeremy had his truck and let Bill and I get a lift along with him and Eric back to the trailhead which saved us a boring dreadful road walk!

Pictures: Click here for all pictures

Carter-Moriah trail

Carter Dome from Wildcat A Peak

Mount Adams and Madison

Mount Washington from Wildcat Ridge trail

Wildcat Ski Area

Views while hiking down Polecat ski trail

Video: Walking down polecat with skiers going by

Date of Hike: 2/6/10

Lincoln Woods/Wilderness Trail: 4.7 miles
Bondcliff Trail: 6.1 miles
West Bond Spur: 1.0 miles
Bondcliff Trail: 6.1 miles
Lincoln Woods/Wilderness Trail: 4.7 miles
Total Miles: 22.8 (4,700 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- Left RI at 3:30am, on trail at 6:30am, Bondcliff summit 10:30am, Bond summit 11:25am, West Bond summit 12pm, finished 5:15pm
- Weather was in the high single digits to low teens, no wind until descending when it started picking up to about 25-30 mph. Clear skies 100 plus miles visibility
- Bare-booted until Bondcliff Trail, then switched to micro-spikes until Mount Bond summit and used snowshoes to West Bond summit
- Didn't warm up until Bondcliff trail, the flat Lincoln Woods/Wilderness trail makes it tough to get warmed up resulting in my eye-lids trying to freeze shut every time I blinked
- Ran into a group of three hikers on Bondcliff trail just below the rock scramble doing a Bond-Zealand Traverse. Ran into another group of eight in-between Bondcliff and Bond coming over from Guyot Campsite. They hiked in the previous night fighting through 70 MPH wind!
- Views from Bondcliff, Bond, and West Bond were phenomenal! Bondcliff Ridge is almost bear without any snow from high winds and lack of a significant snowfall for the previous month
- Hike down from Bondcliff back to Lincoln Woods/Wilderness trail was boring but fast, Hike back to parking lot once back on Wilderness trail was beyond awful, exhausting, and those awesome old railroad parts were buried under the snow meaning there would be no rusted trash to look at! Only highlight was running into the group of eight from Guyot, two guys hiking into Bondcliff pulling a sled to camp out, and a lady (Miriam) with her hyper giant poodle dog who was sporting doggy boots (and a sweater!) as they hiked in to meet up with her husband who was doing a Pemi Loop!
- Winds started to whip up pretty fast and steady above at higher elevations as I neared the parking lot
- First hike this year at 100%, after battling two colds and being sluggish on a past few hikes at about 70-90% it felt good to go 20 plus miles and be able to kick it into another gear without sucking wind

Pictures: Click here for all pictures

West Bond, with Mount Garfield, Lafayette,

and Lincoln in the background