Climbed Saturday, August 16, 2008 by Tim & Valerie via Lost Pond Trail to Wildcat Ridge Trail, then down the ski slope
The weather forecast wasn't perfect, but we'd been waiting for perfect all summer, and it had never come, so we decided that the Wildcats were the most sheltered of our planned summer hikes, so we would give it a try.
We got on the trail about 8:30AM. The Lost Pond Trail was muddy (to be expected) and rocky. The pond itself was really beautiful and the weather was great! We took the Lost Pond Trail from Pinkham Notch in order to avoid the crossing of the Ellis River. With all the rain we've had so far, it seemed that this was a necessity, so we never even checked the river as we drove by. We learned later than other people had been able to successfully forge the river by taking off their hiking boots. Tim planned for this on the way back, since road-walking would be quicker and easier than Lost Pond Trail.
At the 1.0-mile-mark, we turned onto the Wildcat Ridge Trail. Immediately, the trail became very steep. It stayed that way for *ever*. We got some great views to Mount Washington, and we had a couple scary moments (for half of us anyways) on the ledges. We spoke with several thru-hikers on the way up this trail. This must be some of the hairiest hiking in the Whites. It's very steep and has a couple places where losing your balance would be all it would take for you to tumble down the hillside.
As we approached E Peak, suddenly Mt Washington started looking stormy.
It continued to get worse as we headed up to Wildcat D. Thunder started rumbling in the distance. There were all sorts of people on the top who had taken the Gondola up. The operator was trying to hustle all of them back onto the Gondola so that they could get down before the lightning arrived. We hiked past the ski stuff and out to the summit of Wildcat D at the observation tower (mile 3.0). There were a lot of other hikers out here. Some were AT thru-hikers and others were trying to get to Carter Notch Hut for an overnight.
Here, we had a dilemma. We'd misjudged the time it would take us to do this hike. We never travel at "book time" - usually 2/3 to 3/4 of book time. BUT today, we'd taken all of it and maybe a little more due to the rough terrain. If we went for Wildcat A, that was 2 more miles out, and then 2 miles more back, then we'd still need to get down off D Peak. This seemed crazy considering the weather was worsening. We did not want to descend via the Wildcat Ridge in the rain and thunderstorms. We had convinced ourselves to turn around right then, and leave A Peak for another day. Then a gentleman and his son (& dog) came bounding up the ski trail. They raved about what a great and easy walk it was. The Gondola operator gave us a map, pointed out the route (Upper Polecat, Middle Polecat, Lower Polecat) and told us that we could be down in 40 minutes.
Well, we knew that 40 minutes was too optimistic, but it did give us an option now to go for Wildcat A (with its 4 extra miles and seemingly endless Pointless Ups and Downs) and still get out before dark. We made the trip out and back in the drizzle, cold and general thunder/lightning. We never saw any severe weather. The lightning didn't get close to us really at all. We spoke to a group of guys who had been hit by a hailstorm on Wildcat A and needed to hunker down and wait it out, and we heard from a couple who had waited out the hail at Carter Notch Hut. We somehow managed to bypass it.
Carter Dome and the hut were visible from Wildcat A's "vista". I thought it was funny that the "vista" sign was right below this wallowing mud pit. On the return trip, it was just a cold, muddy trudge with occasional moments of excitement due to thunder.
When we got back to "D", we were both surprisingly cold. Mild hypothermia even in August. We went under the deck for the ski lodge, changed into warmer clothes and watched as the rain finally ended. We headed down the 2.8 mile ski slope at a quick pace.
The ski slope was just incredible. Wildflowers and signs of animals were everywhere. We saw two huge "beds" - do moose "bed down" in the grass? If not, it must be a whole bear family. The sun came out after about 20 minutes, and it really warmed up. Twice we stopped to shed some clothing. The slope was mowed, so we made really good time down the hill, and the views were to die for. We saw a really white owl sitting on the top of a pine tree. Unfortunately for you, time was a-wasting and we didn't stop for pictures. We were down in about an hour, and then still had a few minutes' walk from Wildcat parking lot to Pinkham Notch, where the car was.
A young man stopped to ask if we needed a ride while we were walking on the road, but his car looked so clean, and we were so dirty from many hours of hiking in mud and rain, that we politely declined.