Carrigain

Dec 29, 2019

Kat and I drove to the Sawyer River Road trailhead, hoping to ski this long approach, but unfortunately there was no snow available for that. We spiked up in the parking lot and remained in the spikes pretty much all day. We were greeted by the sunshine as we crunched along the icy roadway for 45 minutes until we reached the summer trailhead where the real hiking begins. This trail rose gently, and it too would have been a nice ski route with about 30 cm more snow on it, but we trucked along here as the occasional faster hiker would pass us. We came to an unmarked junction, with well trodden paths travelling in both options. I checked the map, which showed a junction almost where we were, but not quite, and we found it strange that there was no trail signs here. Nevertheless, the leftmost path was heading the direction we wanted to be so we followed it.

Icy road walk.

Some ruins along the way... maybe an old saw mill?

Hiking the approach trail. Wish we had skis and a whole lot more snow.

After a couple of easy rock hop stream crossings, we came to another junction with a marked trail. We continued up this, and one of the fellows that we had passed earlier was coming up behind us... our unmarked junction must have been a shortcut path. All good we continued on. Arriving at the bottom of the mountain, the trail became considerably steeper. Kat began to slow down so I sprinted ahead and paused to let her catch up every 500' of elevation. Even though the snow was bullet proof, I changed into my snowshoes at one point just for the heel lifters, which gloriously removed all the strain from my calf muscles. I stayed in them all the way up until we hit the ridge, and the angle of the trail slackened.

We now traversed along an open ridge with stunning views of Mt. Washington, as well as a clear view of the summit fire tower of the mountain we were climbing. I scampered ahead the last bit, arriving on the summit to a small crowd of friendly people and a couple dogs. I chatted a bit with some of the folks as I ate a sandwich and finally Kat arrived as I was finishing lunch. I waited while she took her break and then we both climbed the tower for the views.

Traversing the ridge towards the summit.

Lookout to Mt. Washington.

Kat on the ridge.

Summit included some butt sniffers.

Top of Mt. Carrigain.

The breeze on top made the stay short, and then we saddled up for the descent. Hiking down went much quicker than up. Again I scooted ahead and waited up occasionaly. As we got down to the bottom the last guy from the summit passed us and we were now in the sweep position for the day. The last five kilometers of ice hiking was a slog. At long last the road finally apeared, but that just meant we had another 45 minutes of crunching to go. We got back to the car just as darkness fell completing a nine hour day.

Coming back across the ridge.

The long walk home.

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