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Wildcats, Carter Dome, South Carter - page 5 of 5

As I was leaving Mt Hight, the nice blue skies were beginning to fade, as clouds had begun to roll in from the south. The trail plunged steeply at first, then moderated, eventually reaching Zeta Pass, the low point between Mt Hight and South Carter. I had been drinking a lot of water, so I stopped in the Pass to filter some water from a little stream and refill my water bottles. It was nice and cold.

By now, the clouds were getting much thicker, and my tooth was acting up again, so I was beginning to consider not going on all the way to the Imp Shelter, which was still 5 miles and 3 peaks off. From Zeta Pass, I could make an exit via the Carter Dome and 19-Mile Brook Trails if necessary, but I decided to go on for now, at least to the summit of nearby South Carter.

The hike up South Carter wasn’t excessively steep, but the trail was in bad shape with a number of downed trees and eroded areas. After about 45 minutes, I reached the treed summit. Unlike the impossible to find Wildcat peaks, South Carter had a weatherworn summit sign to mark the spot.

While still considering whether to go on to the Imp Shelter or turn around and go back down through Zeta Pass and the Carter Dome/19-Mile Brook Trails, another hiker approached from the north. He inquired about the trails to the south and told me a bit about the trails he had hiked up. My tooth was still acting up and the weather was definitely getting cloudier, so I decided to turn around and walk with him, rather than risk a wet night in a possibly full shelter with a serious toothache and a limited supply of painkillers. (As it turned out, my tooth did get much worse later on, so I definitely would have had a rough night sleeping at the shelter without stronger painkillers.)

We hiked down to Zeta Pass in a half-hour, stopped for a quick water break, then continued down the Carter Dome Trail, which headed somewhat steeply down toward 19-Mile Brook, about 2 miles away. About halfway down this stretch, we reached a tributary of 19-Mile Brook, and the rest of the way down was in the company of rushing waters.

The guy I had met had just finished a Masters Degree and was in the process of looking for a job teaching English. He was thinking about working somewhere near or in the White Mountains so he could be closer to hiking. He currently lived in Dover, New Hampshire, which is near Portsmouth.

We soon reached the 19-Mile Brook Trail, which left another 2-mile stretch to Rt 16 at a point about 3 miles north of Pinkham Notch. After a short distance, I stopped to rest, eat a snack, and take a drink while he continued on. As I rested, I began to feel a few drops of rain.

The ground along the brook and trail was covered with flowers and flowering bushes, such as purple trillium, painted trillium, and hobblebush.

I finally reached the road, but had to get back to my car, which was still almost 10 miles north in Gorham. Since the 19-Mile Brook Trail met Rt 16 basically in the middle of nowhere, I had to hitchhike to Gorham. After walking about a mile or so up the road, and after dozens of cars passed me by, someone finally stopped. It turned out that he was another hiker, who had been up skiing in Tuckerman Ravine on Mt Washington. He said he had been in similar circumstances so was glad to give me a ride. He ended up taking me all the way back to my car.

By this time, my tooth was really hurting. I stopped at McDonald’s in Gorham to get supper, took several ibuprofen, then drove back to Pinkham Notch to look for a Carter Notch t-shirt in the AMC store. While I was at Pinkham Notch, someone reported a missing hiker who had not come down from Mt Washington as expected, and it looked like the AMC was going to call out a search and rescue when I left.

My tooth pain was off and on, and was seriously bad when on, so I drove home as quickly as I could, stopping only in Lincoln to pick up a couple of souvenirs, and at a couple of rest areas. Most of the trip back was in rain, but it had been a good trip and I was already planning the next one.

South Carter. Unlike the impossible to find Wildcat peaks, viewless South Carter had this weatherworn summit sign to mark the spot.

South Carter summit.jpg (237999 bytes)

North Branch of the 19-Mile Brook. From about halfway between Zeta Pass the trailhead at Rt 16, you hike next to these rushing waters. 

North Branch of 19-mile Brook along Carter Dome Trail.jpg (284999 bytes)

Hobblebush along the 19-Mile Brook Trail. This is a very common shrub at lower elevations.

Hobblebush.jpg (253646 bytes)

Painted Trillium along the 19-Mile Brook Trail. There was also some purple trillium a little higher up on the trail.

Trillium.jpg (279437 bytes)

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