July 4, 2024

Start/End: Great Gulf Trailhead, Rt. 16

Peaks: Middle Carter (4,610'), South Carter (4,430'), "Hight" (4,675'), Carter Dome (4,832'), Wildcat A (4,422'), Wildcat D (4,050')

Elevation Gain: 6,220 ft

RT Mileage: 17.40 mi

Duration: 9 hours, 59 minutes

Rock Difficulty: Class 1

For Fourth of July weekend I wanted to get the Carters-Wildcats Traverse, my longest hike of the summer, out of the way. Of the four-day weekend, the Fourth of July itself looked to have the best weather, so that's the day I decided to go for it.

Waking up at 3:30 AM, I was on the road by 4:05. I arrived at the Wildcat parking lot in Pinkham Notch at 7:00, where I stopped to leave my bike, then drove a few minutes further up the road to the Great Gulf TH. I started hiking just after 7:15. After crossing the street, I shortcut through Camp Dodge and an old logging road to reach the Imp Trail, where the real hiking began.

I took the Imp Trail up to 3,200 ft, from where I took the North Carter Trail the rest of the way up to the ridge. It was a steady, nontechnical ascent, and I maintained a constant pace the whole way. Upon gaining the ridge, I took the Carter-Moriah Trail southwards to Middle Carter. The trail briefly opened up a couple of times on the ridge, but the summit of Middle Carter itself was wooded. I summited just after 10:00.

From Middle Carter, it was another 1.2 miles on the ridge to South Carter. It was late morning by this point, and it was a rather warm and humid day even up on the ridge, so the rest of the hike was a little slower and more uncomfortable than it needed to be. I summited South Carter just before 11:00.

From South Carter, I descended 600 vertical feet to Zeta Pass, the col between South Carter and Carter Dome. Instead of taking the Carter Dome Trail directly to the summit of Carter Dome from the col, I decided to stay on the Carter-Moriah Trail and summit Hight on the way. Hight is not a 4,000er, but it has the best views in the entire Carter-Moriah Range. I summited Hight just after noon, where I took my first real break of the day.

From Hight, it was a gradual descent to the unofficial col between Hight and Carter Dome, and a more moderate ascent to the summit of Carter Dome. I summited the tallest 4,000er in the Carter-Moriah Range at 12:45 PM, but since I had just taken a break on Hight I didn't take one on Carter Dome.

Now came the steep descent into Carter Notch from Carter Dome. Most of the descent was actually fairly standard, but the final 500 vertical feet were just as steep as advertised. For this part, I was throwing my poles down each steep section to free my hands, but I stopped after an (unimportant) piece broke off one of my poles. Carter Notch was very busy and for some reason there were people wearing America-themed merch. Wonder why.

The ascent to Wildcat A out of Carter Notch was just as steep as the descent into the notch had been. I was already pretty tired by the start of the ascent, and I found myself stopping every few hundred vertical feet. I finally gained the summit of Wildcat A just before 3:00. I was pretty exhausted by this point, so I decided to take a quick break. The only unobstructed view from the summit was of Carter Dome, and I've set that view as the cover photo of this post.

The 1.5-mile ridge walk from Wildcat A to Wildcat D seemed to take forever, first with some pointless ups and downs, then a rather rocky descent to the col, and finally the 300-vertical-foot ascent to the summit of Wildcat D. I summited at 4:30.

The Polecat ski trail on Wildcat D has a gravel road running over it, so I thought the descent wouldn't be too bad, but for some reason I hadn't considered that the gravel road wouldn't make the trail any less steep. In the end, my experience was pretty similar to my experience descending the Waterville Valley ski trails on Tecumseh last October. If nothing else, the descent was fast, and I was at the Wildcat parking lot by 5:30. At this point, 4,000ers #35, #36, #37, #38, and #39 were technically in the books, but I still had to bike back to the Great Gulf TH.

In hindsight, a bike spot is definitely the move for this hike. The 3.4 miles on Route 16 from the Wildcat parking lot to the Great Gulf TH is nearly all downhill, and it ended up one of the most fun bike descents I've ever done. I plugged my recording into Strava later and found that my max speed was 33 mph and that I sustained 30+ mph for 0.4 miles at one point, all without pedaling. I made it back to the Great Gulf TH just before 5:45, concluding a long but fun day in the mountains.