South Carter Mountain (4445). Carter Dome (4840). Town, NH. 2024-11-12 (Tuesday.)
Via 19 Mile Brook Trail, Carter Dome, and Carter-Moriah Trails. Approx 11.5 miles round-trip.
Cold, but invigorating.
40 dF at the trailhead, 25 at South Carter summit, 20 dF at Carter Dome summit, 25 at Carter Notch hut (warmer inside, natch) 30 dF back at my car. Winds were, at times, as fast as 5-10 MPH in the trees on any given trail; about 25 MPH at the Carter Dome overlook with gusts to 35. Clouds throughout.
Trailhead: 0830. South Carter summit: 1130. Carter Dome summit: 1300. Car: 1630.
Carter Range… weather or not. Gah!
Sometimes you need to just get out, even when you look at the forecast and your bones don’t want it. I’d looked at the Higher Summits Forecast, and the wind on the old rock pile was slated to rise up through the 80s and 90s, with gusts around 100 MPH. My list wants some attention to the northern Presidentials, so there was some aggravation there. I’ve been on Madison when the wind was whipping, but it was a fair bit lighter of a wind. And I was still getting tossed around.
I was banking on being mostly sheltered from the winds by the trees, and overall, this was the plan. Imperfect, but it was a plan of sorts. For the most part, it panned out decently, but the Carters feel windy when it’s windy. The trees will slow it down, but never enough. Such is life.
These are odd mountains in my recollection. When times have been tough, I come back feeling beaten. That feeling tends to stick around awhile. But times have also been really good up there. Make no mistake, the path from the Wildcats to Moriah is long and arduous. Most of it’s in the green tunnel — the views you should have tend not to materialize. In places, they do materialize, and if you look around here and there, you can see so much more than you expect. Roll with it. I think in sum, there’s more good than bad in my experience.
Bucking up, moving on
Notably, I made my way up 19 Mile Brook, and then onto Carter Dome Trail, aiming for Zeta Pass. Something I’m just wrapping my head around is that Carter Dome is a real outlier, and in Smith and Dickerman’s book, I agree that “massif” is an appropriate term. When one studies the topography of that area, the dome truly sticks out. Really, a view from (perhaps) the Howks on Madison, or (less likely) Adams or Jefferson might reveal the truer nature of that part of the Carter-Wildcat range (including the profoundness of the notch) but even on a map, you get the sense that Carter Dome is special.
Academics aside, even just hiking up the mountain itself, you feel the difference. I think of the effort as being more moderate, but somewhere closer to hard. Not terribly much so, but the ‘dome ranks 9th on the 48 list as far as its highest summits go. South Twin is the only other true “four thousand footer” (at about 4,900 feet) before Lincoln’s 5,089 foot peak. The trail may be quite forgiving, but you do get your steps in.
On the ridge, things were pretty snowy. It had been spitting precipitation for most of the morning, but not that you’d call it a decent snowfall. Up high, the ground wasn’t covered by a blanket of snow… more like a Kleenex. Thankfully not enough to make it totally greasy, but the scenery was pretty, that’s for sure.
One down… more moving on to go…
I got to South Carter’s unremarkable summit, took a selfie, and hiked back to Zeta thinking back to hiking on Moriah, with its wonderful ledges that gave commanding views of the Wild River Valley. This day, I was glad to see anything at all, with the clouds reaching down into any valley it could. But hey, it’s a meditation.
Heading up Carter Dome, I skipped past the climb to Mt Hight. The clouds were such that the extra effort would have been wasted, so I just concentrated on the dome. It was a long but steady uphill, and yet, not terribly difficult. Steady effort, but just plugging away was all it took. By then, I was in a groove, and the trail felt really good. The trees began to get shorter, the wind more pronounced. Before long, I was up on top.
Starting the day, I was looking to knock Carter Dome off my list. Realizing partway up that I had South Carter on my list, I did some quick back of the envelope math, and realized I had time to bag it as well. So topping out on the dome left me feeling really accomplished for the day. I have 15 left for this month, which is nice, especially as there’s still two weeks left to knock a few more off. Better yet, many of the remaining hikes are “two-fers”: Liberty-Flume, Lincoln-Lafayette, the Kinsmans, Whiteface-Passaconaway, and the Wildcats. Not bad. Achievable.
Poking around a bit
Coming down, I spent some time looking around the little reservoir for the Glen House, and followed its driveway back to the road. By then, my legs were feeling a little cooked, and I was appreciative of the much smoother ground. I don’t think the slope was that much different, but at least I wasn’t picking over rocks and roots. Better still, I was exploring ground I’ve not visited yet.
As it turned out, for at least a short bit, I was on the old Aqueduct Path, that appears in AMC guides from 1928 until 1972, where it was listed as closed in 1971 — a year that will go down in infamy! Finding these places is a treat, and I’m certain it added to my feeling very positive about the outing. If nothing else, it gave me a lot of impetus to dig through some of my old AMC guides.
And so, in total, this was a very nice outing. Looking back, I get the sense that about half of my time in this range is hit or miss. Many of them are in snowy or cloudy conditions, but certainly the ones with clement weather find me having a blast. So I really need to readjust my thinking, it would seem.
As always, stay safe out there.
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