Pinkham Notch Visitor’s Center 1874.9 to Imp Campsite 1888 (13.1 miles, 862.6 total miles)
It was a late start morning. Though Sunshine and Papa Sunshine had arrived in Gorham at 6AM, it took Catchup and I a little longer to get up and have everything packed.
We met Sunshine and her dad at McDonald’s right next to the Airbnb. They’d already had breakfast at the bbq place, but didn’t mind joining us to sit and eat.
I was so very happy to see Sunshine and have her back with us. I gave her the biggest hug I could. I had a very large breakfast and coffee, plus good conversation with everyone while Catchup and I ate our food.
Papa Sunshine drove us to Pinkham Notch, and after saying our goodbyes to him, got to the trailhead at 10AM. It was definitely a very late start, but sometimes getting out of town is like that.
It was a gorgeous day, all sun and blue skies with pretty white clouds floating by. We hiked around Lost Pond to start the day, and through a gorgeous area with large boulders and tree roots all over the trail.
Catchup and I wanted to hike with Sunshine for the first flat mile of the day. She said her throat was feeling better from the antibiotics, and her leg was for the most part.
Her head was hurting her, though. She’d been diagnosed with a mild concussion, after all, so it might take some time. She was really doing her best to put one foot in front of the other.
Every day I was with her I felt myself further impressed by her tenacity and resiliency. Reeling from the sudden death of her dog, and recent injuries, I could tell how hard things were for her, but she was amazing me at how she just wasn’t giving up. I’d never seen someone go through so much on the trail before.
I was really glad we had waited for her and she had her trail family to come back to. I could see how hard it was, and I knew from the experience of losing Frankie that it is so hard just to jump back into life and not have a buffer period to grieve. I hoped she could grieve on the trail, though, and heal as much as possible these next few weeks to Katahdin.
When we reached the start of the very steep incline up to the Wildcat D peak, Catchup and I ended up a little ahead. Our hiking paces were very well matched, and I remembered how much I used to wish I had someone to hike the same pace with me.
We talked and hiked over the next two miles, and 2,000 foot climb. We did stop several times at various ledges overlooking the Presidential Range that we had just come from to wait for Sunshine and make sure she was doing well.
At one overlook, we met a young girl with dark braided hair named Professor. She was hiking with New Shoes, Neo, and a couple others who were nearby. We chatted for a few minutes and she hiked near us for a bit.
We stopped for water halfway up the climb, which was quite stagnant and not flowing well. I did manage to wedge a piece of bark on a mossy rock and make a nice flow out of it, making things easier.
Wildcat D is a ski mountain, with a gondola on top. Catchup and I admired the view and checked out the ski run map while waiting for Sunshine.
New Shoes was hanging out on top as well. He is a quite well known YouTube personality documenting his hike daily. He was another one who had a lot of determination to finish out the hike even when he’d had some setbacks.
A little after Sunshine arrived, we all headed up trail together. We hiked up to a little platform overlook, then got turned around back to the peak. It was a short detour, and we got back on trail quickly.
We descended a bit, then had another 2 mile climb up to Wildcat Mountain, which was less steep. At the view, Catchup and I chatted with a couple hikers who were doing a section, then we headed down a steep 1 mile descent to Carter Notch Hut.
There were several hikers there already, and all the baked goods were gone, but there was potato dill soup available, which I had a big bowl of. It would be our last AMC hut in the Whites, and opportunity for that type of midday town food.
Sunshine headed out a bit before us, and I made a PB&J bagel to have for lunch as well. I’d changed up my lunches because I couldn’t stomach eating more pepperoni and cheese on tortillas at the moment.
The climb out of Carter Notch was a big one, though it was only 1.3 miles, it was a 1,500 plus foot climb and very steep. It seemed harder than Pinkham Notch.
I dragged up the first .4, but Catchup nicely waited for me a couple times. After the .4, I put on some music and was very surprised when the other .9 went by quickly and I found myself on the summit of Carter Dome.
Another mile further we had an easy climb to Mt Hight, where we caught up to Sunshine. I wasn’t expecting it, but there was an incredible 360 panoramic view around us, including an amazing view of the Presidentials right across from us, and apparently some of the mountains of Maine we’d be climbing soon, including the Mahoosucs.
We took a little break in the sun, and hiked on with 5.39 miles to go. It was definitely getting late in the day, around 5PM by the time we descended from the mountain.
There were a couple technical spots on the descent near the peak, but nothing too crazy. I did throw my trekking poles down ahead a few times.
We dropped down and climbed back up to South Carter Mountain, which wasn’t too difficult. We were all definitely feeling tired by then, it had been a big day.
Our last climb took us to Middle Carter Mountain, then some nice flat hiking in the pine forest to get to North Carter.
The climb off North Carter was quite intense, especially coming at the very end of the day. There was now a lot of me throwing my poles down the mountain, and scrambling after them through the steep rock faces.
My knees were not feeling great, but the last couple miles of the day were nice after the steep descent evened out some more. We were hiking through the golden hour, and the sunlight filtered through the trees around us.
At Imp Campsite, we found the last two spots, though Sunshine did have to sleep at a bit of an incline because her tent couldn’t be set up on a platform.
I was so incredibly proud of her, more than I could say, for the hiking she’d accomplished today on her first day back. It had been a hard day for all of us, but none more than her.
I watched the sunset through the trees as I set up my tent, vibrant pink and orange hues reflecting off my bug net. I had mashed potatoes, chicken, and cheese for dinner, which was a nice change from ramen and tuna.
I was impressed with the day we’d all had, even though we didn’t get to camp until 8PM. We had climbed seven mountains today, which was a lot for one day, especially with our late start. We’d have an earlier start tomorrow, though, and a new day of hiking ahead.