Sunday, June 16, 2019
Pinkham Notch to Stealth Camp (Wildcats)
5.7 Miles
Bruce dropped us off at Pinkham and we started hiking at
7:45. Again we had down-sized our pack
and left some of our unnecessary gear with Bruce.
The Wildcats are really wild – you’ve got mountain peak E
then D, C and A going up to ski slopes.
It is a long, long climb up rocks, but there were a few switchbacks.
Once we got to peak D we thought we wouldn’t go down so much between peaks, but
it was a pretty long down before we went back up to C.
The hardest area to navigate was a V-shaped notch between
two big rock slabs. You had to start up
the one on the left then switch to the middle, which was big stones wedged
between the two outside boulders.
Some places had wooden steps attached to the rock face. It was a wild place. Black flies were really bad. We wore headnets and long sleeves.
We got water at the spring before the bottom of the decline
because we were ready to try to find a stealth camp. We had tentatively planned ten miles today to
Zeta Pass but that ain’t gonna happen. We were exhausted after only 5.7 miles and
stopped at 4:45.
On a series of slippery, wet rocks going downhill, Wait-ups
feet slipped out from under him and he tumbled off that one rock onto the one
below. As he went down, a broken off
limb on a tree beside the trail hit the top of his head and skinned it. Thankfully it didn’t hit him in the eye. Happy Father’s Day!
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