The Wildcats (Wildcat D & A)

Date: 9/3/2022

Wildcat D Elevation: 4,070’

Wildcat A Elevation: 4,422’

Miles: potentially 10.2?

Time: 7 hours, 23 minutes

Trails: Wildcat Ridge Trail

Labor Day weekend was my first White Mountain hiking weekend in 2022 and boy did I send it. If flying across the country from LA simply to spend all weekend hiking doesn’t tell you how much I love New Hampshire and the Whites, I don’t know what will. Originally I had no plans to do any of this, but one thing led to another and I wound up on an amazing solo day on the Wildcat Ridge Trail.

So to back it up a bit…I’ve actually gone home to New Hampshire a lot this summer, but haven’t had a chance to make it up to the Whites. Remember when my original plan was to do all 48 in a single summer? Turns out it gets a bit tougher after you move to the west coast. So in mid-August I found myself with no 4,000 footers under my belt since July of 2021 and around this time I realized that I had a credit for a night in one of the AMC huts that was going to expire if I didn’t use it this summer. Most of the huts close around mid-September, so with the long weekend coming up and some leftover JetBlue credit it was an easy decision to book a trip home.

I reserved a bunk in the Madison Spring Hut for Sunday, September 4, and prayed that I would have good weather to make it up there. As Carole Bibeau always likes to remind us, the weather is very unpredictable in the Whites, so of course, as I checked the forecast the week leading up to my flight home, I watched it change from sunny, to cloudy, to stormy. What a freaking BUMMER!!

My hiking partners and I were still determined to make it to Madison on Sunday even in the rain, but I knew that I didn’t come home for no views!! Saturday was a beautiful day, so I decided to knock off some more peaks and hit the Wildcats solo.

After a pumpkin iced coffee from Dunks in Littleton (can you tell I reallyyy leaned into the New England aesthetic this weekend?), I parked at the Glen Ellis lot and hit the Wildcat Ridge Trail around 8:15am. Other hikers be warned, there’s a river crossing at the very beginning of the trail that I was not expecting and it was trickier to cross than you would think — especially when you’re not warmed up yet. But I made it across and started up the *very* steep trail that gets you up to the ridge. After all my hiking in SoCal, I had forgotten just how gnarly the trails in the Whites are. SoCal hikes are easy on your feet without rocks and roots to get in your way and inclines usually aren’t so horrible. The Wildcat Ridge Trail really got me right back into New Hampshire hiking and it was great.

Around 9:45am I made it to the top of Wildcat D, which is also the top of the chairlift of Wildcat Mountain Resort. There’s an observation deck a little bit further down the path that offers even better views, so after a quick stop there I continued onto Wildcat C, B, and finally A, which is the only other peak on the ridge that counts towards the NH 48.

There’s some good ol’ pointless-ups-and-downs between D and A, but after another hour I made it to the second 4,000 footer. I met some super friendly hikers on the lookout point there, a couple of whom were continuing onto the Carter Range either that day or the next. The Carters wrecked me last year, so I was very happy to not be combining them with the Wildcats. From the lookout though you can see over all the Carters with the Carter Notch Hut below. I had told myself I was going to make it to the hut before turning around and going back over the ridge, but seeing how far down I would have to hike reallyyyy made me reconsider. (If you’re doing this with a hiking buddy you can do a car spot with a second car at Nineteen Mile Brook trail, which I’d recommend to avoid the out-and-back.)

The infamous baked goods of the huts made me continue though and I regretted my decision within a few hundred feet of descending. I could tell it would be a brutal climb up from how steep it was and I knew it would hurt, especially with my hike the following day up Madison. But I #persevered and my decision to hike down was almost immediately rewarded with FREE peach cobbler at the hut. There were also free peas, but I decided to leave those for the AT hikers instead…

The views from the Carter Lakes outside the hut also redeemed the hike down and I ultimately couldn’t resist jumping in for a swim. What can I say, I’m a sucker for an alpine lake. It was freezing but helped cool me down for my hike back up to Wildcat A, which actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It was back over the ridge from there and I was down to my car by 3:30.

I am so happy I went home for this :)