Wildcats Carters Wild River Long Loop

Manitou’s Revenge 54 Mile Ultra was on my mind from the day I signed up in February of this year. Steep terrain, unfamiliarity with the course/area, and potentially warm weather all were factors in this race’s difficulty as well as already knowing about its notoriety from other runners accounts before. My wife and I decided to make it a destination race this year, bringing the kids, and use it as an opportunity to explore the Catskills area of New York for the first time. It would be good to have people cheering for me and assisting me at key spots in the race to help me get through the day and in good spirits.

Manitou's Revenge 54 Mile Ultra profile, 13,500' of climbing

A big preparation run for me was in order a few weeks prior to the June 18^th race date and I planned out a loop exploring some different areas through the Wildcats and Carters range of the White Mountains in NH. I wanted to attempt a route that would have around 10-12,000’ of climbing and would take me anywhere from 10-12 hours to complete, and the loop that I put together did not disappoint on both factors. The plan was to go up the Wildcat Ski Area trails and across the Wildcat Ridge Trail to Carter Notch Hut, following the Appalachian Trail up Carter Dome, Mt. Hight, and the remaining Carters to Moriah Brook Trail on the side of Mt. Moriah. Then I would head down a 5 mile downhill into Wild River Valley before coming back up about 3,000’ to Carter Dome via the Black Angel Trail. From there, I would repeat the first section I came across from Carter Dome back to the Wildcat Ski Area.

I got to the trail head at 3AM and started my trip out in style by forgetting that I took my map out of my bag and placed it in the van. Thankfully I remembered that fact about a half mile in, headed back downhill and got my map only to start over on the trip. After retrieving the map, I started to make my way up Wildcat’s Polecat Trail in the less than 20’ visibility through fog. The temperatures were balmy at 64 to start and light winds, with the forecast being in the clouds for part of the day and a low threat of rain. The trail was pretty easy to follow although I did take one wrong turn on a different trail and just kept going up before meeting back up with the Polecat Trail. I made it to the top of the mountain in 45 minutes at a decent pace and came across the Wildcat Ridge Trail in the dark over the wet rocks and roots. Getting to the vista at Wildcat A before sunrise didn’t offer any views except of someone sleeping in their bag, whom I tried not to wake.

Carter Notch Hut, from later in the day

I made my way down from Wildcat A to Carter Notch and the hut to fill my bottles quietly and head out on the next climb to the highest point of the day at Carter Dome (4,832'). This climb I have done one other time in 18" of snow and was prepared for the ~1,500' steep slog. Once arriving at the summit I planned to visit Mt. Hight, home of the best views in the Carter Range. At Hight I encountered an irate Ruffed Grouse and kept my distance, since I've heard these animals can chase people down if you get too close.


 

Carter Dome summit clearing in the clouds

Presidential Range in the distance above the trees at Carter Dome

Ruffed Grouse, or mountain chicken, strutting around near the summit of Hight

Presidentials clearing from Mt. Hight 

Clouds blanketing the Carters

Daylight piercing through clouds along the Carter-Moriah Trail

Typical trail conditions along the Carter-Moriah Trail

More views somewhere between Middle and South Carter Mts.

Sea of clouds covering the Maine line

Nice section of bog bridges approaching Imp Shelter

Wild River Wilderness border, just as I dropped down 3,000' into the Wild River Valley along the Moriah Brook Trail

Moriah Brook

Painted Trillium along Moriah Brook Trail

Moriah Brook widening at one of the many crossings, as it approaches Wild River

Lady Slipper

Great section of the Black Angel Trail heading towards Carter Dome

The rest of the way across the Carters along the Carter Moriah Tr./AT was uneventful as I made my way towards Moriah Brook Trail and the long drop into the valley. The trail through is here is much less traveled than any others I've visited before and the last maintenance done on some sections of bog bridges/logs placed over wet sections seemed like it was done quite a few years prior. That is part of the mystique that intrigued me about the area, and it did not disappoint. This was such a scenic and lush section of woods that, although it was slow moving through, had me guessing whether I was on the trail still or not. I did not see another person from Imp Shelter all the way to the junction of the Wild River Trail and the Highwater Trail and it was as meditative an area as I've ever seen in the wild. Taking note of the tree cover change from spruce and fir at the top elevations to nice beech and silver maple glades with jungle-like ground cover flowers, I picked my way down to the Highwater trail which continued to have me questioning whether I was on a trail. It was relatively easy to follow except for a couple turns that I had to backtrack a bit on.

After 8 or so miles of wandering in the Wild River Valley and it's many river crossings, I made it to the Black Angel Trail and the start of the 5 mile/~3,000' climb up to Carter Dome's flanks. I hiked this section uphill at a pretty slow pace after already having 20 miles on my legs and before I knew it I was joining back up with the Appalachian Trail/Carter-Moriah Trail and making my way back to the start of my run over the Wildcat peaks. Filling up water and grabbing some of their high-calorie gooey chocolate oatmeal snacks at Carter Notch Hut, I talked with one of the Croo members about ultrarunning, which he was into. I told him about the fun I had that day along this wonderful route and mentioned that he should run the Wapack and Back race my wife and I organize. Making my way across the Carter Lakes section and back up Wildcat A, I knew that almost all the climbing was over with and I coasted across the ridge and back to the top of the ski area. The footing along the access road was a relief and I made good time coming down the mountain in around 28 minutes.

That was a tough climb up Black Angel

Mountain Splits

Wildcat D (Ski Area 4,062'): 45 minutes, 2.7 miles

Wildcat A (4,422'): 1:21, 4.4 miles

Carter Dome (4,832'):  2:15, 6.4 miles

South Carter (4,430') : 3:06, 8.4 miles

Middle Carter (4,610') : 3:28, 9.5 miles

Moriah Brook drop down: 4:38, 12.8 miles (after stopping at Imp Shelter)

Start of Black Angel Trail uphill: 6:41, 20.4 miles (slow through this section)

Carter Dome (visit #2): 8:35, 25 miles

Wildcat A (visit #2): 9:57, 27.6 miles

Wildcat D (visit #2): 10:33, 29 miles

Total trip: 10:59:21 total of 31.5 miles, 11,870’ climbing

Strava route info here

I feel this route and training run was a success and I thoroughly enjoyed getting out of my head for a long period and just experiencing the trail in front of me. It got me ready for the pace and footing I would encounter at the Manitou's Revenge 54 mile race, which I will be writing up a report about soon. I used the same shoes and socks that I was prepared to use at the Manitou's race, the Darn Tough Herringbone and Inov8 Roclite 315s, and in tandem they worked great on the wet rocks/swampy trail areas and I had no blisters at the finish. I would highly recommend this route to anyone that wants to bag a few peaks as well as do some remote wilderness wandering in one of the nicest areas I've seen in the White Mountains so far. Plenty more to explore though.

TARC Wapack and Back 2016 - RD Report

Section of the Wapack Trail along New Ipswich Mtns.

Start line of the 21.5 miler (race starts with 1/8 mile of pavement before the Northern Terminus of the Wapack Trail)

For the second year in a row I did not run the TARC Wapack and Back Trail Races, but instead my wife and I organized the event. After witnessing so many people cross the line after completing a favorite trail race of mine and being inspired by their drive and focus on goals, we continued to put on the event this year. Compared to last year, this year was so much easier due to familiarity and being more prepared for the day-of activities.

Laying out the gear into 5 aid stations

All the TARC stuff fits well in the box truck

The permitting process and planning for the food purchases went smoothly since I had an idea this year what I was doing and we decided to plan our logistics better with getting all the TARC gear from Hale Reservation. Instead of getting the rental truck (that I need to bring each aid station’s gear to each location) the day before the race like last year, we decided to gather all the TARC gear the weekend before and sort it out to see what we needed to buy for food ahead of time. This allowed us to get a plan together for the purchases ahead of time and helped to control waste after the race was through. We decided to go mostly cupless as some (or all) of the other TARC races are doing, and in turn cut our trash in half. This made the packing at the end of the race a breeze and it made everything much less messy to clean up.

Snacks taking over the dining room

A beaver dam flooded the trail about 500 feet into the race

Ben Thompson after cruising to a course record time

The race conditions included cool temps in the 40s and 50s with a misty rain most of the day, while last year the conditions were very dry and temps reached the 80s in the afternoon. Despite the wet rocks, there were some fast times up front for both races. The 21.5 mile course record was lowered this year to 3:19:36 (9:17/mile pace) by Ben Thompson and Loren Newman came close to the record for the 50 miler (8:51:34) coming in at 9:10:56 (11:01/mile pace). It was exciting to see how the race played out from our vantage point.

This year we had Ian Torrence testing out the course as a comparison to the Zane Grey 50 to see which was the tougher 50 miler. His interesting write-up about how our East Coast gnarly course stacked up to the Southwest Zane course can be found here. It was nice to meet him and his friend Emily Harrison at the race and I'm glad they enjoyed our New England rocks and roots. 

It was great to see some of my friends and running partners have great races. Tim Connelly, Phil Carcia and Jason Gray especially had good times that were a reflection on how well their training through the spring went. Tom Graves, Mike Barrett, Anthony Tieuli all had good races as well and it was fun to share some training runs with them this spring in preparation for the race. My wife and I love to see each and every runner accomplish what they set out to do and it is with great satisfaction to watch them come across the finish line.

Keeping with last year’s tradition, we decided to try to take photos of each finisher at the Mt. Watatic gate and posted them to the Facebook page. Here are a couple photos of some finishers and winners of the different races:

Ben Thonpson with his prized slab of wood

Loren Newman, 50 mile winner, finishing up the run in a third fastest ever time of 9:10:56

Joanna Wang, 1st place in the 21.5 Miler with a time of 5:00:13

Meredith Marx, 1st place in the 50 miler with a time of 11:20:54

The final results for the 50 miler are here

The final results for the 43 miler are here

The final results for the 21.5 miler are here

Since my wife and I knew how pre-occupied we would be at the race and setting up, we sent the kids to their grandparents’ house for the weekend so we could put all our concentration into the race. Being a local race to where we live, the kids came up to visit us at the start/finish line with my parents and got to see all the runners coming into the finish and everybody having a good time hanging out and talking about how the race played out.

Trillium Fort Point went down easy after the LOOOOONG DAY

Thank you to all the volunteers for making our jobs look easy and really stepping up and running each aid station well. Secondly, the runners who sign up for this race each and every year to keep such an awesome event going are great. This year’s race registration opened on February 1^st and the capacity sold out in less than 8 hours. I am very grateful to my wife for all she does for me, allowing me to follow my passion in trail running and getting out into the mountains for training when I can. Without TARC’s gear and assistance, I personally would not be able to organize the event. Allowing me to use the gear for the race, and pillage snacks from the late April race at the Spring Classic in Weston eases the logistics on our end.

I'm really looking forward to next year and hopefully will be able to convince my wife over the next year that I can still run the 21.5 miler and perform duties as an RD (we'll see how that conversation goes). Next year's registration for the race will be live on February 1st at midnight, per tradition and will be on the day before Mother's Day, May 13th.