Alex in the White Mountains: Night Hiking Wildcat A, 2/3/2018

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Wildcat A

2/3/2018

Nineteen Mile Brook Trail and Wildcat Ridge Trail

8.6 miles round-trip

2,950 feet of elevation gain

I can't believe it's February already! Time has been flying by for me all year. It has been a month since my 15th birthday, but it feels like it could have been a week ago. The busier you are, the more difficult it is to not let your days slip away from you.

Sage is recovering from pneumonia, so she will not be able to hike for a few weeks; she will not be with us on some of our future hikes. We will miss her, but it is important she rest for now.

Mom and I decided to do a spontaneous night hike of Wildcat A yesterday evening. I thought, "Why not?" We thought it would be a good idea to hike before the scheduled snow storm was supposed to hit. I was excited to lead an entire hike in the darkness; it sounded like an adventure! This hike was only my second time night hiking (starting a hike in the evening and intending to be out into the night). The first time was when Mom, Sage, our friend Samantha and her boyfriend, and I hiked Eisenhower and Pierce to see a lunar eclipse (click on the words to see Mom's post on her blog, Trish, Alex, and Sage).

When Mom and I arrived at the trailhead, there were some friendly guys who had just finished hiking a Wildcat traverse. They were very supportive and wished us good luck with our hike. It wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be, and I started off in my wind-proof jacket, hat, and gloves.

We reached the first intersection after hiking for about 45 minutes.

The trail was well-packed-out.

After the second intersection, we had 7/10 of a mile of steep trail to go before the summit.

Selfie in the dark!

We crossed the slide with no problems.

We got to the top of Wildcat A faster than we thought we would! We started at 5:35 pm and arrived at the summit at 8:00 pm, so we took around 2 1/2 hours to hike 4.3 miles up the mountain. Please note: we have our hands on our heads so our headlamp light is blocked for the picture.