Hancock Notch-Carrigan Loop 9/18 2009

Good morning! Yes, it's 3:42am and here we are at the end of the Sawyer River Road off route 302 near Crawford Notch. We played a gig at Gritty McDuff's in Portland tonight and I made good time getting here. The plan is to walk for a while and then setup the tent, sleep as long as I want and then begin a 23.7 mile loop hike through Hancock Notch, down the Cedar Brook Trail to the Wilderness Trail then up the infamous Desolation Trail up the back side of Mt Carrigain (4500') and finally down Signal Ridge back to the car. My only restriction was I had to be back by Saturday afternoon to play at the Acres Of Wildlife Campground's "Bluegrass Weekend" - I could start when I chose and camp wherever the end of my energy found me.

I walked for a little over a mile and came to a slightly confusing marshy area with a brook crossing I crossed and wandered around a bit and eventually came upon the trail leading onward just down from where I had crossed. I spied an ideal flat spot off the trail and setup my tent and quickly fell asleep until almost noon!  It was great!

I had some cereal - maybe even Frankenberry, which is nothing like when I was a kid and frankly it sucks.  I'm all about the Mini-Wheats these days anyhow... It was under 15 minutes from awake to packed and breakfast eaten and I was headed down the trail. The sky was overcast with occasional sunny breaks. I felt great and was making great time down the abandoned logging roads and railroad beds that the trail followed for most of the journey. After an hour or so it began to rain. Once I entered Hancock Notch it was raining in earnest and I just kept my pace up, stopping to eat and drink in the lulls in the rain. The route through Hancock Notch is a narrow path cut through dense scrub spruce high above the floor of the notch. The trees guaranteed I was good and moist - I felt like I was in a carwash at one point which made me laugh out loud.

After a few hours the rain came to an end.  Once you're soaked it's always fine anyway, you always eventually dry out. I kicked it into high gear as I made my way down the Cedar Brook Trail and by the time I had reached the Wilderness Trail my shirt was dry beneath my jacket and I stopped and swapped out my wet sock and insoles for my dry set, a trick I learned from Andrew Skurka.

I took this shot at the suspension bridge that used to cross the Pemi - it was scheduled to be removed the following weekend.

Pemigewasset River (pamijoassek) - Abenaki for "the river having its course through here."

I still had over four miles to make it past Stillwater Junction and the large no camping zone around it.  I planned to stop at the junction of the delightfully named Desolation Trail where there was a stream crossing and get water and make dinner and then head up the trail a bit to a legal campsite up the trail a bit. My one person tent is so small it can fit almost anywhere and I'm not hung up on a flat spot so it almost always works out fine.

As I followed along the river I heard some strange sounds, a loud crack like a gun going off and various vocalizations somewhere across the wide and raging river. Some time later, I came upon the source, a large campsite of several tents on the opposite side of the river complete with boombox, RAGING, ENORMOUS BONFIRE and the crack of trees being broken and dragged in to the inferno.
The fire smelled good at least.

It was becoming dark and I got out my headlamp and cruised along the former railroad bed at a great pace even as it was climbing steadily. I came out to a wide rocky riverbed and it took a minute to discover the path into the dense spruce thicket on the opposite bank in the dark. This one and a half foot wide pathway felt like some alpine hedge maze and it continued on for quite a bit. I reached Stillwater Jct and turned right and soon I was following the left bank of the river - up until this point the entire trip had been all new terrain for me. I remembered this section from a previous hike and knew I was close to the river crossing and dinnertime!

I got water and setup my cat food can stove (I just love saying "Fancy Feast Dahhhling?" every time I set it up) and began boiling water for tonight's freeze dried delight "Spicy Thai Chicken". It was very cold out and had been a long day - the hot food was just what I needed.  I ate it in the dark listening to the river and running through the mental slideshow of the days images. I had done 17 miles since noon and I felt excellent. I quickly packed up and made my way about ten minutes up the trail where I found a nice little bivy site in the woods. It was a long cold night, and I slept fitfully.

A cold night is always great motivation to get up early! I warmed up some water and made a bottle of 1/2 warm orange Gatorade which is nice to hold onto after tearing the tent down and fells good going down on a cold morning. The Desolation Trail held a fairly true course up the mountainside rising steadily.  It climbs 2500' in 1.9 miles!  I was feeling good and stopped only once to drink and snack. The sky slowly lightened and by time I reached the steep section I had been hearing about for years, I put away my headlamp.

It was very steep and quite a scramble in places, almost dead vertical in spots - there were good sized foot holds and various handholds but if you blew it you'd be toast. I was very conscious of my current location and situation and placed each step very carefully.

Soon it was over and I noticed the wind had picked up considerably. I saw a thick fog blowing across the ridge ahead of me. Soon the trees were coated with rime!

I was getting a bit cold but I knew the summit was very close and I wanted to keep moving until then.

 

I tried to climb the tower but it was an ice coated death trap

I was pretty excited about the white stuff and lingered on the summit as long as I dared.  I made my way down the summit cone to Signal Ridge, a nice exposed section the on a clear day provides great views, but not today. Shortly after re-entering the woods, I saw my first other hikers of the day, being a Saturday and all. I probably passed 25 hikers all on their way up the Signal Ridge Trail. I was making good time despite the rough, rocky trail. My pack was feeling light and I had great energy and it was getting warmer by the minute. I reached the final river crossing and had decided to try out the shortcut of the fire road back to the trail head, avoiding one or two mile road walk in the process.  The spot seemed very obvious so I turned right onto the obvious old road. I was easy to follow and brought me almost directly back to the car but for a wrong turn at the very end. I came to the road just slightly short of the trail head. I reached the car and went down to the riverbank and soaked by tired feet in the icy cold water. It hurt so good - eww did I just say that...

Hey, get a crew up here to install some more pointy rocks right away!