There's a river crossing at the very beginning of the trail. The 4K book said if the water's too high to get across the river, you have to go a mile up the river to cross over, so we attempted crossing. I was able to make it about half way hopping on rocks, before the rocks ran out. We looked to see if there was an easier spot to cross. Not finding one, we then decided to take our boots off and try to walk across. I hopped to the half way spot again then walked through the water on smooth river rocks. The water was so freakin' cold, I thought my legs would turn to ice. They were almost ceasing up. I promptly got back on a rock and screamed until the feeling came back. It was colder than the ocean in Maine. Moss was attempting to cross the whole thing right through the water. I watched from my rock perch as her legs went further and further under water. We decided to go back to that point a mile upstream and start from there. It was a nice trail, winding through a bolder field and following the other side of the river. It was a little frustrating though because it added another mile and an hour to the hike. I was getting whiffs of delicious smells every now and then.
Sweet and purfumy. Musky and fruity.
Sweet and purfumy. Musky and fruity.
The trail was also covered in mica and quartz. Not long after getting under way, I fell on a big rock and smacked down hard on my side. My 2 water bottles that were in the side pockets of my pack went flying, into mud. I kept saying to Moss "that's gonna bruise" and it did, big time. A nice technicolor circle about 8" around.
The first part of the Wildcat Ridge Trail is really steep. The book said all the work would be at the beginning, then the trail would level off at the top. There were a lot of sheer rock faces and at parts, they had wood blocks secured to the rocks acting as steps. I don't know how they were secured but they were pretty handy. I was glad we were doing a loop though, I wouldn't have wanted to go back down that route. The rocks were
wet and covered with slugs. She is kind to inchworms but she may have killed a couple slugs, but not on purpose. There were a couple of ledges where you could see Mt. Washington across from us and Route 16 below. It gave the impression that we were closer to the top than we really were, there was plenty of more climbing to do.
The first part of the Wildcat Ridge Trail is really steep. The book said all the work would be at the beginning, then the trail would level off at the top. There were a lot of sheer rock faces and at parts, they had wood blocks secured to the rocks acting as steps. I don't know how they were secured but they were pretty handy. I was glad we were doing a loop though, I wouldn't have wanted to go back down that route. The rocks were
wet and covered with slugs. She is kind to inchworms but she may have killed a couple slugs, but not on purpose. There were a couple of ledges where you could see Mt. Washington across from us and Route 16 below. It gave the impression that we were closer to the top than we really were, there was plenty of more climbing to do.
There are 5 Wildcat peaks; A, B, C, D & E. None of them were marked, except D with a viewing platform, so I couldn't really tell where we were at any point. When we got close to D, we could hear the gondola that goes up to the top of the ski hills. There were maybe 10 people who had taken the gondola to the top and were walking around taking pictures. 
When we got to the summit of D (the viewing platform was closed), we met up with a couple who had passed us earlier. They were really nice. They live in Germany and take a vacation every year to visit her family and to work on the 4K footers. They've been at it as long as we have and have bagged a couple more peaks than us. They were taking the ski trails back down because they had already done peak A.
When we got to the summit of D (the viewing platform was closed), we met up with a couple who had passed us earlier. They were really nice. They live in Germany and take a vacation every year to visit her family and to work on the 4K footers. They've been at it as long as we have and have bagged a couple more peaks than us. They were taking the ski trails back down because they had already done peak A. 
We continued on and it was getting late in the day. This part of the hike seemed to take forever. It was just up and down, up and down. It took about 3 hours and 20 minutes to our next trail intersection, Nineteen Mile Brook Trail, and at that point we still had another 4 miles to go to get back to my car. We had passed the summit of peak A, but we don't know where exactly. When we finally came to the intersection for Nineteen Mile Brook Trail, I yelled out "alleluia!" and some weird guy came out from behind some trees. He was camping in the woods and was like, "hey..what's going on?".
It was 6:20 at this point and getting dark. It was down hill but still rocky so we didn't go as fast as I thought we would at this point. Luckily, it was the day before the summer solstice so we had a lot of daylight to burn. We ran out of water at 7:30. Moss had a water filter and we stopped at a river so she could filter some. I took a couple pictures while Moss pumped away on the filter. After what felt like a long time, she held up the water bottle and there was about 3/4 of an inch of water in there. "Does that seem right to you?" she asked. It didn't. I said "lets just take a couple swigs and go without until we get back to the car, I have water and Gatorade in my car". Time was a-wasting. To make matters worse, the trail follows a river so you can't hear the highway. Usually, you can use that as a gauge as to how close you are to the road. I was thinking "how much further can I go?" "how much more can I take?" and some how just kept walking...and walking....and walking. I started yelling that I was going out of my f#$%ing mind at one point. Moss said "go ahead". We finally had to put on head lamps. Luckily, it was only for like a half hour. The mica in the soil sparkled. We finally got to the car at 8:58. Almost 12 hours of hiking!
It was 6:20 at this point and getting dark. It was down hill but still rocky so we didn't go as fast as I thought we would at this point. Luckily, it was the day before the summer solstice so we had a lot of daylight to burn. We ran out of water at 7:30. Moss had a water filter and we stopped at a river so she could filter some. I took a couple pictures while Moss pumped away on the filter. After what felt like a long time, she held up the water bottle and there was about 3/4 of an inch of water in there. "Does that seem right to you?" she asked. It didn't. I said "lets just take a couple swigs and go without until we get back to the car, I have water and Gatorade in my car". Time was a-wasting. To make matters worse, the trail follows a river so you can't hear the highway. Usually, you can use that as a gauge as to how close you are to the road. I was thinking "how much further can I go?" "how much more can I take?" and some how just kept walking...and walking....and walking. I started yelling that I was going out of my f#$%ing mind at one point. Moss said "go ahead". We finally had to put on head lamps. Luckily, it was only for like a half hour. The mica in the soil sparkled. We finally got to the car at 8:58. Almost 12 hours of hiking!
I stopped at McDonald's on the way home and ended up leaving before I got any food because they didn't have any fries ready and I was too tired to wait around. Driving home was a little scary, I kept nodding off a little and had to shake my head to wake up. It was so nice to be home in my own bed though, it was worth it.
Peak D marked our half way point of peak bagging. 23 more to go!
Peak D marked our half way point of peak bagging. 23 more to go!
