Date: 2008-08-09
From: Carter Notch Hut

To: Wildcat Peak D
Miles today: 3.0

Carter Notch hut to Wildcat Peak D gondola3 milesMy first night's stay at an AMC hut wasn't exactly a positive experience. It was great to arrive there so cold and wet and get inside the warm steamy stone building to warm up, and it was good to be inside on such a frigid night. However, the leftover food we were given didn't impress me at all. If it had been warmer outside we could have gone out by the lake to cook, but if it had been warmer or drier we would not have been staying at the hut in the first place. The dining room floor where we slept was dirtier than most shelter floors we have slept on, and the practice of sending the through hikers out of the dining room while the paying guests eat seems downright barbaric. We were told by the northbound thru hikers that the other huts, being larger, have an alternate room indoors where the hikers can wait during mealtimes. Perhaps this is so, but sending cold damp hikers out to sit in cold rain, or barely sheltered under the small porch on the bathroom (of all places), which is where we were told to wait, just didn't sit right with me. Especially as one of the hikers was telling us how she had been detained for 4 hours earlier in the day by the AMC Visitor center because they thought she might be in the first stages of hypothermia. Does it make sense that employees from the same organization would hold someone for so long down in the warmer valley, then later in the same day, and in wet clothes at a much higher altitude another would send the same person out to sit still in the cold rain for a couple of hours?We actually woke to sunshine this morning, but it was very brief. While we were waiting outside during breakfast it clouded up again, became foggy and a light rain started. Though I had been warm and dry overnight, my clothes had not dried, and the wait outside it damp clothes made me cold enough to not be able to move again. After eating the again insufficient leftover food offering I dig into my foodbag for oatmeal cookies, a protein shake and some hot coffee/cocoa. The final straw in my hut discontent was the water quality test report that I noticed on the message board as we left. Apparently the well water here recently tested with fecal choliform bacteria, and had been remedied by the addition of chlorox. You would think that someone that has been drinking out of streams and lakes for the past 2 months would not care about that, but we had been trusting that the water here was potable without treatment. The sign above the drinking water faucet indicated so, and I personally don't think that posting a report on a message board constitutes sufficient notice to the patrons of the hut that the water may not be as clean as expected. At the very least the report should have been posted over the faucet, next to the "water bottles can be filled here" sign. Finally I warmed up enough to get packed up and hiking. The sun was out again briefly a few times during the steep mile long climb up out of the ravine, but by the time I got to the top I was back in a whiteout fog. A few minutes later it was pouring with rain again. The hiking in the Whites differs from that in Maine because there is less of the "straight up a mountain, straight back down again" hiking, and more hike up, walk along a ridge, hike down. So we were traversing the Wildcat Ridge, a series of 5 peaks, the northmost, or first, being the highest. From there, we went down about 100 ft, back up 50, down 200, back up 100, etc. It was muddy, windy, cold and wet. This was the first day of hiking where I just couldn't get my hands and feet warmed up, even while hiking. Numb hands and feet make for difficult climbs, and I struggled with several of the slickrock cliffs. At one stage I was clinging to an incline with the tips of my fingers when my feet started to slip. I clutched for a higher handhold and my right hand landed in a clump of moss which promptly came loose. I was sliding backwards down the rock, certain I would fall, when my elbow jammed hard into a crevice and slowed my slide enough for me to regain a hold. I have a nice elbow bruise, but at least I didn't slip all the way down, or even worse, fall backwards.As we approached the final peak we heard shouting and cheering, as well as the mechanical whirring of the ski gondola. Amazingly the sun also came out again. The cheering was for biathlon competitors who were completing a run UP (yes up) the mountain to their finish line. Seems crazy to me, but they seemed equally bemused by our desire to backpack along the top of mountains! At the finish line they were given fruit and liquids, a few were posing for photo ops with their waiting families, then everyone rode the ski lift gondola back down the mountain to the restaurant and parking lot below.I have a confession to make here. Despite the fact that the sun was now out, the wind had picked up very strong, and it was in the low 40s on that mountaintop. Across the valley to the north it looked like a nice sunny spring day (despite the fact that it is the middle of summer). To the south were ugly grey rainstorms. Want to guess which way the weather was coming from? So we had a choice. We could continue on over the final peak and down the remaining 3 miles steeply down into Pinkham Notch in the rain, or, we could join the crowd and hop on a gondola for a 10 minute ride down to sunshine, warmth and cheeseburgers. There are no prizes for guessing which way we got down. The cheeseburgers were overpriced, but fairly good, and best of all, my clothes dried out for the first time in four days in less time than it took to cook them!   Instead of returning back up the mountain we got a shuttle back to Gorham. The rainstorm did move in, even down here in the valley. It's much easier to deal with from a warm dry hostel in warm dry clothes though. I have some thinking and planning to do. I want desperately to continue the hike in a contiguous walk, but the weather has become a definite negative factor. This terrain is tough enough, without the added difficulties we have been battling. I was too close to hypothermia for too much of the past four days. I'm not prepared to risk my health or life for a hike that is supposed to be enjoyable. I would also like to see some of the beautiful scenery I'm hiking through, not just the inside of a cloud. The weather forecast is the same or worse for the next week or so. I have a couple of options for continuing south, so I'm going to take a couple of days rest to consider them all carefully. I'll let you know what the decision is.