Wildcat A and D - 8/20/22
4422 feet (A) and 4070 feet (D) - 8.4 mi
I had been wanting to do a camping trip with a couple friends, and I also wanted to bag another 4000-footer or two this summer. Fortunately there is ample camping in the White Mountains. My friend Spenser and brother Bill were on board with the idea of a camping trip with a day hike, and so after some discussion, and some changes of plans when we struggled to find a campground that wasn't totally booked, we settled on Dolly Copp Campground and hiking the Wildcat Ridge trail.
The Wildcat Ridge trail crosses 5 peaks, Wildcats A through E, all of which are higher than 4000 feet; only Wildcat and Wildcat D have the minimum 200 feet of prominence to make the list of 4000 Footers. This trail is 8.4 miles out and back, starting from the trailhead on Rt. 16 at the foot of Wildcat E, and ending on A before doubling back. It was described as steep and rocky, with some chimneys and scrambling. It sounded like a fun time and a good opportunity to get 2 peaks in 1 hike.
Spenser picked me up on a Friday afternoon and we headed to the campsite, with Bill planning to meet us early the next morning since he had to work that night. Our plan was to get there in time to set up camp and then run out and buy some food to cook for dinner. Instead what happened, and could perhaps be considered foreshadowing, was that there was an accident that caused Rt. 16 to be completely closed just south of Conway. After waiting in standstill traffic for half an hour, we had to turn around and detour many miles back to take a different route into Conway to meet back up with Rt. 16. We elected to get dinner at a Burger King and keep driving, and managed to get to camp and set up our tents just as it was getting dark. We got a fire going, and Spenser had a couple PBRs and began taping the empties together end to end into what he called a Wizard Stick. I think PBR (and all beer, really) takes like garbage so I sat that night out. We went to bed on the early side to be ready for the next day.
An uneventful night led to an early morning, and we got up and had some poptarts and fruit for breakfast while we waited for Bill. He arrived around 7:30am, and we did some last-minute prep and then got going. Somehow it took longer than anticipated, and it took us an hour to get to the trailhead despite it being about 10 minutes down the road.
The trail begins with an underpass to cross Rt. 16, and then turns left along the road. Turning right will bring you along a stonework path to a platform at the base of nearby Glen Ellis Falls, which is cool to check out if you have the time. We checked it out because Bill assumed I knew where I was going and didn't mention the sign saying the Wildcat Ridge Trail turned to the left. A quick backtrack brought us to the correct trail and the edge of the Glen Ellis river a few yards above the falls. Here you have to cross the Glen Ellis river, which apparently can be diffult or impossible if water is high. There's a slightly longer route you can take from the Pinkham Notch visitor's center that has a bridge over the river and adds a mile to the route, but water was low enough that we hopped across the rocks with little difficulty. In the woods on the far bank, the trail continues over mostly flat terrain for less than a quarter mile before the fun begins.
Imagine the scene from Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, where Gollum and the hobbits climb the Stairs of Cirith Ungol. For the next half mile, it's kind of like that. Craggy, near-vertical, handholds cut into rocks. Chimneys, ledges, perilous cliffs. In a word, "punishing". Definitely not for the beginner climber, or the acrophobic. However there are a number of lookout points with beautiful views across the valley to the Presidentials, and we could clearly see the summit structures of Mount Washington, with views of the Tuckerman's and Huntington's Ravine headwalls, as well as the parking area just on the other side of the road. There also were abundant lowbush blueberry plants alongside the trail, though it's a little late in the year for blueberries and most were gone.
After the first half-mile, it mellows out again for a while, though there are occasional scrambles. Enjoy it while it lasts because there is another steep portion to reach the crest of Wildcat E. It is not as long or quite as steep, but it's far from easy. Finally, we got over the top of Wildcat E, and descended briefly to the top of the chairlift of the Wildcat Mountain Ski Area, in the col between E and D peaks. Here there are picnic tables and plenty of open space. I found a handful of blueberries as well as some wild raspberries, and we took a quick snack break here. The true summit of Wildcat D was up a knoll on the other side of the col, not very far, and we reached the observation platform there right around noon.
It took us a bit under 4 hours to do around 2 miles, which was a painfully slow pace. I was a bit worried that the rest of of the hike would have the same slow pace, and told the guys that if we didn't hit Wildcat A by 3pm at the very latest we were going to need a plan for hiking out at night. We didn't waste a lot of time at the summit of D.
Now that we were on the ridge, the trail was much less steep on average, though still occasionally involved climbing up or down small craggy parts as we crested Wildcats C and B. There was also a lovely boggy section with some wooden footbridges and a nice fairytale vibe as we approached our turn-around point at the summit of Wildcat A.
The summit of Wildcat A is wooded, and there is a sign pointing off the main trail to a veiwpoint. The true high point is marked by a tiny cairn in the woods and can be reached by a well worn but unmarked side path. The view off the cliff overlooks Carter Notch and the AMC shelter there, as well as a small pond and the cliff-like slope of nearby Carter Dome, another 4000-footer.
A potential option for an alternate exit route would be to continue on the Wildcat Ridge Trail down into Carter Notch, and then take the Nineteen Mile Brook Trail back out to Rt. 16 a few miles morth of where we parked. This is what I would have suggested if we were late getting to Wildcat A, but we made much better time across the ridge and arrived there by 1:30pm, well ahead of our time limit. We stopped for another snack break at the lookout point before turning aound to go back the way we came.
The walk back across the ridge was largely uneventful, though I started to have some issues with leg cramping. We were able to get a helpful water refill at the ski patrol station at the top of Wildcat D when we finally arrived back there, and took another break before we attempted to descend the steepest bit.
If we thought the ascent was bad, the descent was hell. Knees and thighs screamed the whole way down, having already been used for several miles of tough hiking. It required care and concentration to avoid slipping, and the fact that we were all pretty tired by this point made that more difficult. We picked our way down the mountainside, navigated the chimneys, stepped carefully on the wooden beams bolted to rocks, walked along the ledges and worked our way down the rock slides, until we finally reached the bottom. Another quarter mile or less and we were back at the Glen Ellis River. We jumped our way across that, and then safely on the same side as our cars, took off our shoes and socks and stuck our feet in the icy water. I also stuck my entire head in. Very refreshing.
With the hike complete, we headed back to camp. Bill finally set up his tent and informed us that he didn't have a sleeping bag. We had planned to go to the Walmart in nearby Gorham anyway to get food, so he resolved to buy a cheap one there. Spenser got the campfire going while we went to walmart and bought some meat to cook for dinner, as well as some supplies for breakfast in the morning.
Back at camp, the food started cooking and the adult beverages started flowing before we realized we'd forgotten a sleeping back at walmart. We managed to dig a blanket out of Spenser's car, and I lent Bill some of the warm clothes I'd brought, and he felt he'd be fine with that. We ate some steak and sausages and potatoes, and added to our wizard sticks and had a great time before crashing around 11pm.
The nexxt morning arrived with much creaking of joints. Over breakfast we all discussed the hike and unanimously agreed that camping was a great time, and the hiking was fun but maybe next time we could do a slightly easier hike.
For visualization purposes, here's a graph of altitude over distance created by an app on my phone that I used to track our descent from Wildcat E back down to the trailhead. The vertical is in feet and the horizontal is in miles, so keep in mind that the scale may be off, but it will give you an idea of how steep in got. You can see a couple small cutout chunks that approach vertical in the steepest section. The biggest was a substantial chimney, and the others are very steep scrambles or rock faces with bolted steps.
