| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Carter Dome, South Carter, Middle Carter, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Nineteen Mile Brook Trail, bushwhack, Carter Dome Slide, Carter-Moriah Trail, Carter Dome Trail, North Carter Trail, Imp Trail, Camp Dodge Cutoff, Route 16 |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Sunday, October 10, 2021 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Spots available at 19MBT at 6:315-6:30am. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Mud - Significant |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
All crossings were readily rock hopable and I imagine that they will be in similar condition today and tomorrow at least until we get the heavier rain perhaps Saturday night. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
19 Mile Brook Trail is blazed in blue as it connects with the AT. Carter-Moriah Trail is blazed in white as it coincides with the AT. Not sure if Carter Dome Trail is blazed as it travels near the ridge but if it is, it's blazed in blue. All these trails are well beaten and easy to follow. Neither North Carter Trail nor Imp Trail are blazed. I'd say that both are easy to follow with the exception perhaps of Imp Trail where it makes a right hand turn around a wet, messy, eroded area partway down. No blowdowns on trail that I recall but that doesn't say much now.
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
If you trust your dog on bushwhacks, then some dogs may be able to handle a slide like this as it's revegetating. |
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 | Bugs: |
None |
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 | Lost and Found: |
None |
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 | Comments: |
My 8th, 9th, and 10th 4000 footers of the month out of 24 needed. Gridded out all three peaks. Cloudy day, at least in the morning, but clouds were high enough that we had views from the slide and the vegetation was dry. I did hear, however, that the other side of the mountain (Wild River side) was in cloud though I think clouds may have been coming in more broadly as fog was rolling in over the summit of Carter Dome as I was leaving the top. In fact on Middle Carter, I was treated to an undercast but only to my east.
It took us 45min to get to the jct with Carter Dome Trail. We took a right, continuing on 19MBT, immediately crossing a brook, then continued maybe 0.2mi to where the trail crosses to the south side of the brook that drains Carter Dome and the slides we were headed toward. Instead of crossing the brook, we headed to our left (southeast) and followed along the north side of the drainage. We found more human evidence, traces of brief herd paths, old logging roads, etc. than I would have thought. That said, I'd heard that there was a logging camp somewhere in there, though we never came to see any artifacts. The going was pretty quick and easy for a while, then we came to the "land of a thousand streams". There were many little drainages going this way and that, diverging, converging, etc. so we were not always 100% on which one we should take. Gaia helped here because it shows the main drainage, thus if we went the wrong way, I would see us getting off of it and we could correct. Definitely a time where a GPS was helpful. Looking back, I think we always stayed (or should have stayed) to the right though. So, generally speaking, there are other drainages to the left, and you should stay right.
I had heard that these drainages were real awful; blowdown strewn, and very difficult/unsafe to scramble up but our going wasn't bad. We were able to stick in the woods the vast majority of the time. The woods, in general were fine. Of course things got thicker the higher up we went and there were blowdowns but no terrible sections. Once the woods got thick and there was a real steep bank between us and the drainage, we dropped down into it. We got our feet wet and certainly exercised some caution in this steep, wet drainage, but it wasn't as treacherous as I found the drainage of the southeast slide of N Twin or the Dog Leg Slide's drainage on Osceeola. We took to the woods whenever there was a sketchy part. Partway up this, I checked Gaia and saw that we weren't along the main drainage anymore, and we were following the wrong one just to the east (a couple hundred feet at most, likely less) of the correct one. The wrong turn was made at 3600ft. We decided not to correct though as my friend checked satellite imagery earlier and noted that there are actually two slides that parallel each other. We were headed for the more northern one that appeared to be more open whereas the drainage shown on Gaia would take you to the smaller, southern one. Since we were already headed for the northern one and more open sounded nice, we continued on our current course rather than take to the woods and correct. That said, it probably wouldn't have been hard to do as they're so close together.
We soon popped out onto the slide at around 3800ft. I'd heard that it was revegetating but I'd seen a photo of it that I thought was just from a few years ago that showed it more sandy like Lincoln Slide, but this was nothing like that at all!! The vegetation was short enough that we still had great views but it was not sandy at all. All green. Still some looseness to it though. Minimal slab. I did go around one piece of it to the right. We came to the top of the slide around 4500-4550ft. I don't think it was too terribly long before this that the two slides converged. Sure enough, the other one looked thinner and even more grown in. We took to the woods heading due south, before naturally following the contours to the east, popping out onto the trail just south of the summit where the first cairn is. We saw some sheet metal just before coming out on trail by a herd path leading to a campsite. Must be remnants from the old tower on the summit.
Made my way over the Carters after a break on the summit where my friend went down Rainbow Trail. Threw on the gloves for a while. Ran into many people while out. Usual mud and such and running water on North Carter Trail which is also very eroded. |
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 | Name: |
Liam Cooney |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2021-10-18 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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