Carr Mountain via Three Ponds and Carr Mtn. Trails (White Mountain National Forest)
Hike Type: Out-and-Back
Distance: 6.69 miles
Elevation: 2,359 feet
Time: 4 hours, 29 minutes (4 hours, 5 minutes moving)
Hiking Challenges: 52 With-a-View (delisted)
The Hike
After a big day yesterday (roommate's graduation, Eurovision finals, and a graduation party at Trillium Brewing in Canton), I was up at 4:20am to drive up north and tackle my second delisted 52 With-a-View, Carr Mountain! I had a remarkably sleepy drive to Hooksett where I christened the bathroom and got a couple of breakfast sandwiches. Later, once off of I-93, I had to take care of a code brown pseudo-emergency in Plymouth and then finished up my drive along the beautiful Stinson Lake. It was mostly cloudy overhead with a few patches of blue poking through. I made it to the trailhead at 7:05am, it was 52 degrees, and the mosquitos were PRESENT. Thankfully, they weren't biting at all, but there were MANY of them hovering about.
[7:14am - Start of Hike on Three Ponds Trail]
The hike began on the Three Ponds Trail, which began right at the lovely parking area with a trail sign and a kiosk. I realized I really haven't been in this corner of the National Forest outside of some one-off mountains (i.e., Stinton, Black, Blueberry), so it was fun to be in "new territory." The Three Ponds Trail seems to double as a snowmobile trail in the winter with well-maintained culverts and bridges on a wide trail.
[7:16am - Mt. Kineo Trail jct.]
There was a short but steep push to the junction with the Mt. Kineo Trail before continued to steeply climb up the trail. There were a couple of bugs in my ear at this first climb, but aside from the car, the bugs wouldn't be much of a bother for the rest of the hike. There were a couple of bridges over water bars on the climb and soon the trail flattened out and crossed a wet spot at the corner of the national land (marked by a red cairn and signage).
The Three Ponds Trail continued past a grove of at least 50 painted trillium (which, as of writing this, I leanred that painted trillium are NOT the same as white trillium. Painted trillium have the purple innerds, while white trillium are all white) and then crossed over a slippery bridge that almost took my life (not really, but I did slide down the back side on one foot). My initial pace was fast, but I was enjoying the flowers and reminded myself to calm down and take my time to enjoy them (little did I know the condition of the Carr Mountain Trail was make me slow down indefinitely). I was curious how many flowers I could identify, either with my brain or the Seek app!
The Three Ponds Trail slightly descended to another wet spot and then arrived at the Carr Mountain Trail junction!
[7:25am - Carr Mountain Trail]
Now on the Carr Mountain Trail, it was time for an adventure! The Carr Mountain Trail left the road grade on the left and began as a narrow footpath. I immedaitely heard a grouse thumping, but thankfully never met the beast in question. I passed some more painted trillium, some of which had near-transparent pedals (not sure why). The trail got a little cozy with the undergrowth and descended, leaving my ankles a little wet with dew. What I originally thought was dogwood flowers on top of queen anne's lace turned out to be flowering hobblebush just before the river crossing.
The Sucker Brook was FLOWING. The guidebook did state that the crossing could be tricky in high water, and the combination of springtime and recent rain solidified that detail. After pacing around a bit - checking upstream and downstream for a rock-hop route, I ultimately decided to take off the socks and shoes and wade across, which was definitely the right move. The deepest spot was maybe 2', so I felt fine. I tried off with a knit hat on the other side, and continued my journey!
I read about a Sucker Brook bypass along an old logging road and the Three Ponds Trail, but once I crossed the logging road in question, I was reassured that I made the right move suffering across the brook. The logging road was very wet and very grassy. I could deal with wet (as I was about to for the remainder of the hike), but grassy usually means ticks, and I canNOT deal with ticks. After crossing the logging road in question, the Carr Mountain Trail passed a couple of snowmobile signs ("ONE WAY: Snowmobiles: DO NOT ENTER. Enter at Stinson Lake baot ramp. Experts Only" and "DO NOT ENTER. Please Enter From Stinson Lake Boat Ramp. ONE WAY"), and then began to climb up with muddy, messy footing.
Ironically, my feet were now soaked from the wet trail. At least it was also super green! I passed some small white flowers growing in a conical shape, which I now know were creeping foamflowers (I took photos of all the flowers and used the Seek app post-mortem to identify to save phone battery - also becuase I hadly had service on this hike).
Around the 0.9 mile mark I wrote that trail conditions improved, but that hardly lasted for long. The rest of this hike would be 80% sopping wet trails, 10% standing water, 5% wet rocks, and 5% lovely. I did find flower #4, though, red trillium! Flower #5 was soon after - Rose Twisted-stalk. It had a single stalk with leaves and little drooping flowers underneath - I hadn't seen this one before, so that was super fun!
In a nicer section of trail I could hear some underground streams flowing. Then the trail became miserable again - classic! This lower stretch of wet trail had vegetation growing in on the footbed, so I wonder how it will look in a month or so. I did start following some moose prints in this area, though!
The moose seemed to had bailed on the trail once it reached a dreadfully wet, eroded, steep stretch. Thankfully, the sun did pop out as I was suffering uphill! I found a precious red eft and found my next flower - Marsh Blue Violet. They resembled the lesser periwinkles that I know from the Blue Hills. I noticed some highly obstructed tree views off to the side after another horribly wet climb (I imagine the tree views are quite nice in winter), and then the trail continued a gentler climb through basically a streambed.
In a brief moment of bliss, I enjoyed both a flat, dry trail and a light breeze. I noticed a slug munching on some shelf fungi. All was right in the world... until I hit a blowdown that acted as a gate to another horribly wet section. I had to go around because the mud underneath the blowdown was at least 6" deep. Dreadful. One thing that I kept reflecting on was how I took the time to carefully cross Sucker Brook and dry off my feet afterwards - a wasted effort.
A quote from my notes: "this trail is kinda dreadful i get why the moose bailed."
I heard another grouse doing its springtime thumping as the trail made a right turn off of what I believe is another snowmobile cooridoor (it was marked with a strip of pink flagging tape. Somewhere around here the White Mountain Guide states "The USFS plans to clear a helicopter landing zone beside the trail at about 1.9 mi." I passed some closed Yellow Trout Lillies (my final flower, #7) and another blowdown which soon led me into a coniferous forest around 2.18 miles - it smelled wonderful!
Once in this coniferous forest the trail condition switched from wet and muddy to wet and rocky, which was unfortunately a massive improvement! I was back in a grove of painted trillium and noticed a significant temperature drop and increase in wind around the 2600' contour. The trail did meander through a visually beautiful but dreadful-on-the-foot area that was a little tricky to follow, but it was well blazed in this area (the guidebook said the trail was sparsely blazed, so I was thrilled at how well it actually was blazed).
My stomach churned when I reached another abysmal stretch of trail, but thankfully I was soon rewarded with a whole 50 feet of dry, flat trail! It felt like a blessing from the powers above. I passed two dark-eyed junco birds fighting over something in this stretch, and then I was soon back to hiking through a miserably mossy stream. There were some patches of post-winter carnage (i.e., sticks and branches on the ground, pine needles everywhere, etc.) from here on out and continued the alternating pattern of steep-stream-climb and awful-wet-flat, eventually landing in a neat, mossy, bouldery area. The last time I remember hiking on a trail this dreadful was to Stoddard Pond Lookout in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont (the hike that involved climbing over a rotting lamb carcus).
At the 3300' contour, I entered a cloud, which kind of felt like insult to injury... I climbed over a blowdown, and then another, and then traversed some sketchy, rotting bog bridges. I skirted around another blowdown and then over some more bridges, the last of which ended just a bit too early - I sunk my foot into a pool of wet moss which felt... not great! Thankfully, the final bridge soon led to the summit spur path. FINALLY.
[9:30am - Carr Mountain Summit Spur]
The summit spur was maked by the Carr Mountain Trail sign. The spur itself was a bit of a wet carwash with a wet floor and a few more rotting bog bridges, but I simply did not and could not care anymore. I blasted through and soon landed at the very unique summit of Carr Mountain!
[9:32am - Carr Mountain Summit]
The summit was marked by four large concrete footings, a concrete staircase, and three-to-four "summit knobs." I was fully encased in a cloud, so no standing views were available. The White Mountain Guide states "The USFS plans to install a small radio repeater between the fire tower footings." The 52 With-a-View guidebook noted that the fire tower stood here from 1929 to 1948.
A quote from my notes: "man that sucked."
It was a chilly 50 degrees with a breeze up here. My clothes were soaked - either from mud or my sweat. I threw on my windbreaker which was perfect for the time-being. I did take off my socks and shoes, not so much to let them dry but more to let my dogs air out. The sun was drying to work it's way out, but to minimal avail. There were lots of holes in the summit rocks, I assume for the former fire tower. I had my second breakfast sandwich and some pistachios, but more importantly, I put on dry socks. LIFE CHANGING. I remember vividly while sitting atop Mt. Bond with Gen years ago she said "you need to put on dry socks, it will turn you into a brand new woman" - she was correct, and that advise continues to ring true today!
I wandered about some looking for a potential summit disc (no luck). There were some hints of blue sky after 15-ish minutes of hanging out with very small peeks to the valleys below, but nothing of note. This peak was removed from the 52 With-a-View in 2001, so I imagine even without clouds there wouldn't have been much to see. I did start to get cold after watching another dark-eyed junco bounce around one of the concrete footings. Time to start the return slog! I suffered my shoes back on, and started the trip.
[9:51am - Carr Mountain Summiti Spur]
The summit spur was thankfully short and I nearly immediately got my new socks wet. Oh well!
[9:53am - Carr Mountain Trail]
At the Carr Mountain Trail sign I couldn't help but wonder 1) could the other half of the trail be as awful as what I hiked? and 2) how hard would it be to get a ride back to my car if I turned this into a traverse? I opted to stick to the devil I knew, and maybe hit the other side in the wintertime.
To fully christen my new socks, I plunged both feet into about 6" of mud just before the rotting boardwalks, and at one point I stuck my pole into the mud and continued to push it down until it stopped, about 2' down. Yikes. I continued down the trail, mentally switching between singing Eurovision songs to myself and stressing about my school schedule for next year. My neck was aching from looking down the entire time, but I will say that the descent was going better than I thought it would!
The sun gave up trying to shine through the clouds around the 5.0 mile mark, but I did get a medium-clear tree view to what I believe is Mt. Kineo. Mentally, I was solidly bonked. My body felt fine, which was good... I guess? I passed another eft who said "you're doing great!" which definitely helped!
And now... if the mostly viewless summit being in the clouds was the icing on the cake, the cherry on the top landed around 11:00am - it started to rain! At this point the hike felt like a mean prank that wouldn't let up. I ended up just angry hiking with my hand covering my camera, stomping through the mud, also keeping an eye out for the elusive moose.
Slowly but surely, I began to hear the roar of the Sucker Brook. I actually crossed paths with HUMANS at the 6.17 mile mark (after 4 hours and 10 minutes of just me and the birds). They looked as surprised to see me as I was them. I wish I asked them what they did for the brook crossing, but I had tunnel vision of being DONE. Oh, and a fun note, I was fully singing the Eurovision song "Bara Bada Bastu" by the Finnish band KAJ, who sang for Sweeden on the contest (and the song is in Sweedish, so I didn't know a single word). They must have thought I was crazy (fair).
The Sucker Brook crossing was next, and after starting at it menacingly, I plunged right in. I was grumpy about getting wet(ter), but being soaked from the hike and the rain helped. On the other side, instead of emptying my shoes and wringing out my socks I just power hiked back up the incline to Three Ponds Trail.
[11:32am - Three Ponds Trail]
I was wet, I was grumpy, and I was ready to be DONE. I turned onto the Three Ponds Trail and truly blasted off back toward the car. I couldn't even tell you if there were bugs, because if there were, they couldn't catch me.
[11:39am - Mt. Kineo Trail jct.]
[11:41am - End of Hike]
I descended to the Mt. Kineo Trail junction and continued to fly back to the car. Sweet relief! I was POOPED. It was now 60 degrees and the non-biting mosquitos were still abundant. I did the fastest quick-change of my life and then began my drive back home! WHAT a journey.
I stopped for a burger at Common Man Roadside in Plymouth, and in an act of self-care, also went grocery shopping at Hannafords. Once home, I showered and climbed directly into bed to keep reading The Lions of Winter: Survival and Sacrifice on Mount Washington by Ty Gagne. This was #2/7 for my Delisted 52 With-a-View!
Flowers:
Painted Trillium
Hobblebush
Creeping Foamflower
Red Trillium
Rose Twisted-stalk
Marsh Blue Violet
Yellow Trout Lily
Step-by-Step
- Park and start hike on Three Ponds Trail.
- At second jct., turn left onto Carr Mtn. Trail.
- Follow Carr Mtn. Trail to summit.
- At summit, retrace steps back to car.
