Date: 2015-07-31
From: Pinkham Notch

To: Imp Campsite
Miles today: 13.1

Jeopardy, Poboy, Clank and I found a good spot to camp just past Pinkham Notch last night. We stayed up far too late making fun of each other and laughing like little girls. I'm going to miss nights like that when this is all over.Jeopardy and I yelled for the other to stop moving a few times before 7:00 AM. When I finally asked him if he was ready to head back to the Notch for a breakfast buffet it didn't take much convincing. The four of us had am amazing meal. Just what we needed to get up Wildcat today.I've been warned about the Wildcat climb by many many people. Mostly to the point where I was dreading it. When I finally put my pack on and headed up the mountain I remembered that I like climbing. It was insanely steep but I'll go up instead of down anytime. Yesterday's descent to Pinkham was way worse in my opinion. I have a feeling that the SOBOs would say the opposite. Getting down from either side was tough.Wildcat has five peaks (A through E) and we summited four (A, C, D, and E). Right before the first summit I grabbed a tree to swing around a ledge and the tree uprooted completely. As my hand slid off it got cut pretty bad and I eventually was sliding down the side of the mountain backwards. About ten feet later my pack lodged between two trees and I came to a stop. I took inventory and found only a bloody left hand. It could have been a lot worse and was my scariest fall to date.I made it to the gondola on top of Peak D around 11:45 and had a long conversation with the lift operator about the mountains and the weather. I mentioned the list posted at Mt Washington of everyone who has died in the Whites and he pointed across the valley to the exact spot a lady lost her life in February. Crazy. This place is no joke.Afterwards, Poboy, Jeopardy, and I left the top and headed down to Carter Hut. It was such a cool place tucked in the valley between Carter Dome and the Wildcats. We had lunch, filled up water and headed up the dome. It was a couple thousand feet and straight up. The end of the ridge on top is what I expect to be our last time above treeline here. We had a clear view of the Presidential range and could see exactly where we had walked (and how the trail went way out of the way to climb the Wildcats and Carter).Heading down to the campsite we saw a sign for 1.9 miles to go. At 6:00 PM I was pumped thinking we'd be into camp before 7:00. Then we started descending. I have no other word for it other than ridiculous. I literally think someone saw a cliff and put blazes on it. I spent the majority sliding down on my butt because falling would have probably added my name to the casualty list. Poboy heard me yell once and stopped at the bottom of one of the drops to film me coming down. I gave a long winded speech about proper trail building among other things.We've since made it to the campsite by 7:15 and I've paid $8 to pitch my tent. Ridiculous. Oh well, tomorrow is our last day in the Whites and we should be spending the night in Gorham. On the whole it's been great and I've met so many great folks in this stretch. It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow. Should make that eight mile walk pretty entertaining.   Maine is soon.