Climbing Mt Carrigain Again

Between June, 2016 and June, 2018 I climbed all 48 of New Hampshire’s 4000-foot mountains. This is called “peak-bagging” by local climbers. Most of my climbs were solo, but sometimes I hiked with a friend or two

I ended up creating a series of blog posts in which I described, chronologically, the ascent of each of these peaks in words and images. And in each post I shared, also chronologically, reflections on my work in international development during the MDG era: what it was like in the sector as it boomed, and evolved, from the response to the Ethiopian crisis in the mid-1980’s through to the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015.

After finishing climbing all 48, with the ascent of Mt Jefferson on June 28, 2018, I have revisited many of these mountains – often in different seasons and using different trails. I’m writing these climbs up separately.

This post collects later climbs of Mt Carrigain (4700ft, 1433m), in reverse chronological order.

My first climb had been solo, on July 20, 2016. Along with a description of that climb, in my original post I shared how we finished the restructuring of Plan International in the early 1990’s. Regionalization was complete, and Plan’s International Headquarters had been right-sized, and so now we needed to finish the job and review how Plan was structured in the field, at country level.

March, 2023

I climbed Mt Carrigain for the third time on 29 March, 2023. This was a winter hike and, since winter hikes are typically a bit more challenging, and I was hiking solo, I didn’t do the long loop that I had done in earlier visits. Even so, going up-and-back, it was a long round-trip of 14 miles, without seeing any other human beings, for almost 8 1/2 hours.

Here is a GPS record of my climb that day:

I arrived at the parking area around 10am, and parked just off of Rt 302 (A, on the map). Walking up Sawyer River Road (which is closed in winter) to the Signal Ridge Trailhead (B), took about an hour.

(In the map it’s evident that I deviated near the beginning of the hike: on the way up, I took a path along the Sawyer River for some distance, and then climbed up to the road; on the way down I took the road all the way back.)

The hike from there up to Signal Ridge was long and steep (in parts), but thankfully the trail was well-packed, so was able to walk with micro-spikes only.

Thanks to earlier hikers who had walked in snowshoes, packing the trail nicely. I did see many post holes from earlier hikers, mostly slightly off the trail. Those of you who have hiked in snow know how tiring it is when you fall into post holes repeatedly, up to your knees or even your hips. They are evidence of much human suffering!

In fact I was able to get all the way to the summit without additional traction, but later on the way down, as temperatures had risen and the trail had softened, I started to post-hole myself. So I switched to snowshoes, which had gone for a ride on my back up to there!

I arrived at Signal Ridge (C) a bit before 2pm, and had lunch there. It’s a beautiful spot, with views of the Presidential Range and Crawford Notch:

The hike up to the observation tower at the top of Mt Carrigain took me about an hour, arriving there at around 3pm. The views were priceless:

Here is a view of Mt Washington and Crawford Notch, from the observation tower:

From the summit, you can see Signal Ridge, where I had eaten lunch, down below:

The tower itself:

The hike down was quicker, of course: I arrived back at the trailhead (B) at 5:30pm, and then finished the long, long, but fantastic day at the parking area (A) at 6:15pm.

June, 2019

I climbed Mt Carrigain a second time nearly three years after my first ascent, which had been on 22 June, 2019. This time I walked counter-clockwise: up Carrigain Notch Trail, ascending Mt Carrigain from the north, and then descending Signal Ridge Trail.

I left Durham at around 7:50am, and got to the same parking area I had used two years before, at just after 10am. But this was a Saturday, so the parking lot was much more crowded – full, in fact.

But it was a fine day, cool and mostly sunny, but (different from my first ascent) there were lots of mosquitoes. So I applied generous portions of insect repellent and set off.

As I walked along Carrigain Notch Trail, north up towards the Nancy Pond Trail and then west to reach the bottom of Mt Carrigain, I noticed dozens of beautiful “Moccasin Flowers” – they were in bloom, both pink and white flowers. They hadn’t been there (at least not in bloom) when I had passed through in the other direction, two years earlier:

I reached the summit just before 3pm, and the views were stunning:

From the top, I walked down Signal Path Trail, and arrived back at the parking lot at 5:40pm. It took me 7 hours and 35 minutes to loop around and over Mt Carrigain. A beautiful, strenuous day out!

Here are links to all the posts in this series. There is one post for each of the 48 4000-footers, covering my first climb of that particular mountain and also reflecting on a career in international development. And there are several other posts covering subsequent, repeat climbs which are usually done on alternate routes in different seasons:

Mark McPeak

"Peace is not the absence of conflict. Peace is the ability to cope with conflict" – Gandhi

Climbing Mt Carrigain Again

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