Night Hike of South Carter and Carter Dome, 9/8/2019

South Carter and Carter Dome

9/8/2019

11.6 miles round trip

Around 4000 feet of elevation gain

Hey there, everyone!  I know it's been a while since I have posted a standard blog post with pictures and comments.  I would like to start doing that again in addition to the YouTube videos because I enjoy writing up these reports and I missed regularly making them.

When we can, we night hike on the weekend now, which is helpful since I have so much work this year already.  I was excited to start but also nervous thinking about the possibility of getting out too late; I had this image in my head of us arriving at the second summit while the sky was pitch black.  This did not happen, though, and we reached Carter Dome (our second and final summit for the day) around the time of sunset.  Unfortunately, it was cloudy, so we didn't see as much as we expected.  I hope the view is better next time, but I still enjoyed the hike and how adventurous it felt.

Sage and me on South Carter!

Carter Dome pics ahead!

Pumpkin-flavored Whoopie Pies are truly heaven...

Coming down in headlamps the whole way was an experience!  We have hiked in the dark before, though, so we are used to it by now.  Occasionally I think I see Slenderman in the woods, but I guess my imagination will never turn off when I have to be somewhere dark.

The bright moon through the trees...

The pond by the hut looking mysterious at night... 

Done!

A car was passing by...

I had a great time on the hike!  We got back to the car at 10:30 pm.

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.

We could see pretty lights from a nearby town.  This picture does not do the sight justice, but the photo is decent for an iPhone SE.

This shows the time:

Heading back down...

We got back down around 10:00 pm!  We did the whole hike in about 4 1/2 hours (8.6 miles round-trip).  We will probably hike again next week.