Middle & South Carter (NH #27, #28)

The weather forecast for the past week or so has been pretty gloomy, and Sunday's simply said 'cloudy'. I figured I'd take my chances and head up to the Whites for a hike. I parked at 19 Mile Brook trailhead and walked up Route 16 until I came across the AMC Camp Dodge volunteer center. There is a short cut to take almost a mile off the IMP trail, and allow me to make this a loop hike vs. an out and back. On the short cut, I found a series of these things...

I'm pretty sure that's a very fresh Moose track. Unfortunately, I didn't actually see the Moose! So, after about the first 2 miles the clouds were thinning, and the Sun was casting a dull light on the trail. I was very hopeful at this point that the weather would be better than cloudy. The sun started shining at about 3,500 feet just as the first signs of snow were present.

It was spotty to the summit of Middle Carter, and I'd guess it'll be completely gone within the next couple of days. About 15 minutes later, I reached the summit and though it's really small, I had some pretty awesome views. Below is photo looking north towards Mount Moriah.

I've seen lots of 'undercast' photos, but this is the first time I was able to experience it myself. The views North, East & South was just looking down on the clouds with a couple of summits poking through. The views to the West were a bit different...here is a panoramic view of the Northern Presidential Mountains.

And a couple of normal photos of the same...

After chillin' on the summit of Middle Carter for a while, I continued on towards South Carter. The snow coverage between the two peaks was much more constant, but still many spots that are bare. Over the ridge, there are many of these two planked bridges seen below.

Now, if they're dry and your feet are also dry, they're pretty nice to walk on. They're obviously there to help keep erosion to a minimum, but if they're wet, or your boots are wet they become very slippery. The summit of South Carter has less than spectacular views, so I took a photo of my boots on the summit.

And then more of these two plank bridges...

And here is the last photo I took, which shows one of the many rushing spring run-off. Other than the views from Middle Carter, the sound of the water running (and there was lots of it) was my favorite part of this hike.