Mount Carrigain: much farther than expected
Usually I don’t have many conversations with people on trail, and I never ask how far we are from the base or the summit of the mountain, but for this hike, it was necessary.
Mount Carrigain was my first hike where everything initially went according to plan. It was the exact date I had originally scheduled, the exact mountain, and I was hiking with the person I had planned to. It was all going well, until we realized the hike was going to be a bit longer than expected.
Getting to the trail head was easy enough, although the parking lot was small and crowded. Similarly to Little Bigelow, the trail head was across the street, so it took a bit of searching to finally find it. Although the parking lot was crowded, we were not sharing the trail with many hikers. We soon found that everyone had started much earlier than us, because the hike was not 10 miles like I had originally thought, but almost 13.
The beginning of this hike is not strenuous. It involves a slight incline and two to three river crossings, but nothing too crazy. At a certain point, it becomes pretty steep and the trail becomes quite rocky and you can tell you finally made it to the mountain, but don’t worry, there is no scrambling involved. After about 6 miles, you will come across your first view. Make sure you stop here because you won’t see much for a while, and this is truly a view you don’t want to miss.
The trail zig zags for a while near what we thought was the summit. After a few conversations with other hikers going back down, we learned that there is a saddle on the mountain and then another mile and a half to the summit. For those of you who don’t know, a saddle is a section of the mountain, almost always a part of the ridge-line, that scoops down and looks like a saddle. Once we finally made it to the saddle, it was absolutely breathtaking. There are areas of the trail that break out into lookouts, and once you step out onto the lookouts, you will realize you are standing on a huge cliff.
The saddle is a great time to stop for lunch before you make your final ascent onto the 4,682 foot summit. We stopped for about twenty minutes to take in the view and eat, and then we went right back to the trail and continued our hike to the summit of Carrigain.
The last mile and a half of this hike to the summit was the most difficult trek I have done this summer. It was not technically difficult, we weren’t scrambling up boulders or anything, but after the almost 6 mile hike we had before we got to this point, the constant uphill to the top was grueling.
Once we made it to the summit, we climbed the thirty foot observation tower to take in the 360 view of the surrounding Mountains. Trust me, if you decide to hike Carrigain, the short walk to the top of this tower is worth it. The tower is wide enough for about ten people to sit comfortably and eat lunch or a snack, and you will with out a doubt see your fair share of wildlife, so it is also a great place to stop and eat.
The hike down was miserable, but only because it was getting pretty late and our phones had died, so we didn’t know how far we were from the end. When finally got to the parking lot, ours was the last car there, so it wasn’t difficult at all to get out, which is aways a plus. If you are planning to hike this mountain, I definitely recommend it, but remember to start early, and bring plenty of snacks and water for this long trek.
For Those Who Wander 