Date: 2018-08-15
From: Pinkham Notch 

To: Mount Hight (Stealth Campsite)
Miles today: 8.0

We got a 7:30 shuttle back to the trailhead at Pinkham Notch. Mary's been worrying about doing the section of trail up over Wildcat for some time now, but after a full belly of pancakes from the hostel she is as ready as she'll ever be. Wildcat Ridge Trail is another very steep trail with lots of rock steps and two or three areas of open ledge, some of which have some rebar you have to get over. Lots of thru-hikers on the trail this morning, many of which are doing a slack pack from Pinkham Notch back to the rattle run hostel which is 20 something miles, and a very strenuous hike. That's too much for us to do and there are very few bail out points, so we're doing it over two days with our full packs. With a little help Mary made it up and over the ledges and soon we were up on the ridge bouncing along towards the gondola. As we neared the summit of Wildcat and climbed up to the viewing platform we started to hear some rumbles of thunder and saw dark clouds off to the north. We didn't linger long on the peak, but started making our way across the ridge to the other peaks. The storm never really reached us, and soon the weather started to look a little better but the trail didn't, lots of ups and downs many of them with bare rock that was quite slippery and had long steps for short legs. When we made it to Carter Notch Hut we decided we would use our orange card that the AMC gives out to thru-hikers when they stay at a campsite. An orange card entitles thru-hikers to 50% off future campsite stays, and a couple of free baked goods at the huts along with a free bowl of soup. Carter Notch was being staffed by AMC volunteers who were former caretakers in the past. They didn't seem to know anything about the orange cards, but gladly gave us a bowl of soup with fresh homemade bread. They also cut the dessert for the evening, making sure they had enough for paying guests, and gave us each a one of the chocolate chip cookie bars. It was fun talking to the older gentleman as I'm sure they were reminiscing about the old times when they worked as caretakers. It sounds like many of them were caretakers 20 years ago. Snow angel, a new thru-hiker we recently met, was at the hut along with Crush when we got there. Also at the hut was a young hiker from Germany that we met at the hostel. He is hiking the White Mountain section of the AT and is staying at this hut as well as a couple of the other huts.The weather looked okay so we decided we better try to make a few more miles before we were done for the day. We started up the long climb out of the notch up Carter Dome. About a quarter mile up the climb I realized I left my wallet sitting back at the hut so I quickly dropped my pack and ran back to the hut to get it. I actually did run back to the hut and grab my wallet and started running back up the trail when I met the hiker from Germany, he seemed dumbfounded that I was running on the trails. As I started back up the climb I met , Chaco, Calves and Godfather who we're just coming into the hut, I didn't stop to talk long because I wanted to catch up to Mary. We made it up to Carter Dome, down into Zeta  Pass and then up to Mount Height. We figured we would set up camp for the evening. We found a small area just prior to the alpine zone, when we arrived Snow Angel already had her tent setup there, and we decided to join her for the evening. We quickly setup then decided we would cook dinner up on Mount Height and enjoy the view and possibly a sunset. We ate, but it started to get quite cold and windy and it didn't look like the sunset was going to be all that great so we stayed for a while then headed back down to our tent. We settled in for the evening and soon the wind picked up. It wasn't long before we saw flashes of lightning and heard thunder. Suddenly were wishing we didn't camp up so high. I had phone service so I quickly checked the radar only to find out there were severe thunderstorm warnings in the area. I got out the to batten down the tent a little more securely and climbed in hoping it wasn't going to be too bad. Turns out the wind picked up, thunder rumble a little, and we had a brief downpour, but it never really got too bad. Tomorrow we'll finish the hike down into Rattle Run and then we'll be on to Maine.