Appalachian Trail SOBO day 23 – Never doing Wildcats again!
18th August 2023
Imp Shelter (306.6) – Pinkham Notch (319.6)
Daily miles: 13.3
Total miles: 326.5
The shelter last night was quite the experience. We had 12 people squashed in there and it was definitely not my favourite night on trail! I am once again grateful for adding new ear plugs to my kit because someone started snoring really early.
I woke in the night and the woman next to me was so close I could feel her breathing on me. Gross!
One person had an alarm set and then snoozed it 3 times! It wasn’t making a sound but the phone was vibrating on the floor and the vibrations were amplified around the whole hut, all the wood was shaking. People who snooze their alarms in a communal setting should locked up for crimes against humanity.
Then the 2 old boys started chatting loudly about taking another trail to get to town, they were chatting for ages but the conversation wasn’t going anywhere, it was just going round and round in circles.
I woke early and it was too dark to get going. It was also raining (it had been all night) so I was having a serious debate with myself as to whether I should take an on trail zero and wait out the rain for the day. Then the thought occurred to me that if I was in this shelter again for the night it would be the same situation full of wet soggy hikers. So I packed up quickly and I was the first one out of there.
Morning at Imp Shelter
I put my toothbrush and toothpaste in my fanny pack and did my teeth on the move. When I got to the junction I had my morning wee and took off my rain coat – because I was already too hot – and put my umbrella up instead.
It was just drizzle to start with. Not so bad. Manageable. I was still getting wet from the car wash effect of all the pine trees so the umbrella isn’t a perfect solution, but it does stop the rain running down your neck which I can’t stand.
Steep, wet, slippery rock
Lovely views
Cal passed me and he agreed with all the sentiments of the shelter. An altogether not great experience!
The whole day was a slog, which I was expecting, I also knew I would walk straight through without stopping because it was too wet to stop. I had about 500ml of water and that’s all I drank all day because I didn’t want to stop and fill my bottle up, but despite that I still had to stop for 4 wees. What’s that all about?!
Alpine bogs
I had a long climb up to North Carter, then along to South Carter; both nondescript summits with no views and lots of bog boards in the bits in-between the summits.
Then another climb up to Mount High and Carter Dome; one of those had some very steep scramble sections when you had to get your hands involved and pray that you didn’t slip and die.
Very wet at the summit of Mt High
Happy to be here though
Then a big descent to Carter Hut (I didn’t bother going to the hut) which killed my knees, only to be followed straight away with a big steep climb to Wildcat Mountain. Although slow, at this point the ups are preferable to the downs.
A moody lake near Carter Hut
Still raining a lot
It had been drizzling fairly steadily all day and the umbrella had been up and down a few times – up more than down – but it absolutely poured down for about half an hour, really heavy rain. The trail was already full of puddles and mud but now the trail was full of supersized puddles and unavoidable patches of mud, plus the whole trail was basically now a creek and there was water just cascading out of everywhere.
During the stretch from Imp Shelter to Carter Hut were loads of stealth camping opportunities so I definitely wished I had hiked on yesterday, but it’s hard to make that decision when you just don’t know what’s ahead, especially in the rain.
I passed the summit of Wildcat Mountain, another nondescript summit with no views, and the sun was trying to make an appearance. It came out for about 2 minutes.
On the way to Wildcat Mountain
Looking back to Carter Hut and that lake
Enjoying a moment of no rain
I then went up and down and through submerged bog boards and huge patches of flooded trail and mud patches to get to Wildcat D peak. I slipped a couple of times on rocks and thankfully avoided real disaster which was only ever one slip or misstep away. I did fall over quite spectacularly on a flat bit. You think you’re ok to stop concentrating for half a second and, BOOM… you’re on the ground, in the mud.
Submerged bog boards
What the picture doesn’t shoe is how deep it is!
Feet were already soaked anyway
There is a ski hut at the top of the mountain which a few NOBOs had told me was open and heated if I needed to rest and dry out, but by the time I got there I was just ready to get down.
Wildcat D peak ski lift
Wildcat D peak ski lift
A chink of light through the clouds
This was by far the worst descent of the trail (and I have an overwhelming memory of the ascent of the Wildcats being awful, but it was also raining last time so I put it down to that) it was steep the whole way. It never let up. 2 miles of constant steep down, while the trail was also a creek and made every rock more treacherous that it was already.
My knees were screaming and I slipped a lot. I was just going so slowly; I could do anything else. I was also hungry and thirsty although more hungry than thirsty, I swear I had been getting moisture out the air. I had a Twix, a fig bar, and half a big bag of skittles today. It wasn’t enough food.
The trail was flowing
The descent continued on forever and the last half mile was probably the slowest of all. There was a view point and the weather had cleared up enough to be able to see down to the road and over to Pinkham Notch, it still took me over an hour to get there.
Even when the descent was finished the mile to Pinkham notch was not an easy mile. It was full of big boulders and mud and puddles. I can comfortably say that I will never ever hike up or down the Wildcats ever again. I felt like crying with relief when I made it to the road.
Sunshine!
Looking over to Pinkham Notch
I walked out onto the road stuck out my thumb at the first car and it pulled over. Result! Then I heard Cal shout over from Pinkham Notch. I asked my hitch if I could go and speak to him and she was fine with that.
He had a friend coming to meet him and would take him to town, me too if I wanted, but the lady pulled over and so I took the ride to be polite. She was so nice and said if she hadn’t been heading out of town I could have stayed at her house. How nice is that!
I got dropped in town and I wasn’t actually sure what to do, but then Cal and his friend Stretch came to pick me up and we all went to the same campground we had stayed in 2 nights earlier. I wanted to stay in the bunkhouse because I wanted to be inside but there were already 6 people in there and it sounded like a repeat of last night because it’s a really small space, so I decided to tent with the boys.
We pitched our tents and Stretch drove us to town to get food. We went to the brewery for a burger and it was nice but it was the slowest service ever!
Burger and fries
Stretch is hiking for a few days with Cal and they were sorting out logistics as I was trying to sort out my own logistics.
I’m tired and sore from the Wildcats. I haven’t had a real break yet – I don’t really count that day camped out by the river as a break – and I have a friend from the last AT hike who reached out to offer me a place to stay so I think I will go there tomorrow… sort my stuff out, regroup, have a wash, examine the very sore bit on my ankle, do some things I’ve been meaning to do for ages…
We went to Walmart so Cal could resupply because they want an early start tomorrow. I scouted the options and I’m actually looking forward to resupplying tomorrow because there was so much more choice here and it’s all so much cheaper!
Oh and Stretch kindly paid for the campsite tonight.
