Mt Hight and Carter Dome

After a day off from the Kinsmans hike to rest my feet, I hiked to Mt Hight and Carter Dome. I went up via Zeta Pass and descended via Carter Notch. This is a beautiful set of trails and the 19 Mile Brook has a healthy amount of water flowing. It was obvious from the start that this is a violent place when the volume of water is high as with hurricane Irene. There was a lot of tree damage along the 19 Mile Brook trail although almost all of it looked pre-Irene. There was plenty of trail erosion in evidence: trail sections gouged to a few feet lower than they were or bank erosion where the trail was directly along the brook. At all water crossings there was some form of bridge although this is due to the excellant work by trail crews as all bridges were damaged or washed away by Irene.

The Carter Dome trail uses switchbacks to lift you up to Zeta pass where there is a bench to take a break. From there and then up the Carter Moriah trail to Mt Hight I met several AT thru hikers approaching from the south. All were raving about the view from Mt Hight (and they were right) and one looked a whole lot like my hiking buddy Mark. I had the open summit to myself for about 45 minutes. This is a spectacular spot looking across a valley at Mt Washington and the Northern Presidential range. Great timing for lunch and photography and general spiritual wellness!

Shortly after setting off for Carter Dome I could hear the first of three groups of high school students. Great to see kids getting to experience the mountains but I was happy to have had the quiet time on Mt Hight. Carter Dome's summit is wooded so I did not stop there and headed down the steep slope to Carter Notch which drops 1500 feet in 1.2 miles. That is very steep although it did not seem so until I reached a lookout with views of the notch and Wildcat ridge. Eventually you reach the hut which has a nice remote feel to it and two small ponds that one could cool off in mid summer. I stopped here for a welcome cup of tea and chatted with the caretaker (it is open off season but you bring your own food), a thru hiker and a woman training a service dog. Having made the steep drop to the hut, the hike out was a gentle grade with the sound of the brook even when you could not see it.

This is a great day hike to do when the forecast calls for clear skies for the view from Mt Hight.

More pics of hike and trail erosion.