Holt Trail up Cardigan

We got today off - a free Monday to go hiking! I was thinking about a bunch of different hikes including Monadnock, Lafayette, Flume and Cardigan. In the end I decided on Cardigan because the weather was a little iffy and I had done Monadnock last year. Mostly glad I went with Cardigan.

I left at like 7, knowing that it's only 2 hours to get there, and that it's not the longest hike. I did want to do the Holt Trail again, just because of the climb-y ness of it. I'm glad that I did! I looked at my previous posting and saw that there were three climb-y parts, but somehow I forgot to mention that the trail is a gradual uphill until you get to the climbing parts, and then it's very slabby and really uphill. It was really fun, even though a little of the rock was wet.

For some reason I needed to take a picture of the sign, even though I have it in the last post :) From the sign, it's a bit of a walk along a really pretty brook, with some nice waterfalls. It's uphill, with a few harder spots, but nothing killer. Then, I got to the crack climb that guy practically climbed over me on the last time - it was super fun! I did it a different way this time, and enjoyed it a lot more. After that was a lot of uphill, some boulders to climb over, and slab. Then the second big climbing bit - this time it was wet, but still fine. A couple times I had to pause to find my footing. Then, more uphill and slab. 

I remember the third climbing bit being the hardest last time. Which is probably why, when I got off route, I didn't look that hard for it - I could see the top and I remembered that the sketchy bit was close to the top, so I just bush whacked. Not the best idea, on a somewhat wet, rocky area, but I made it up! There was one spot in particular where I had to climb a boulder that was about 6 feet, a little wet, and not the greatest holds. And, it was kind of a no-fail zone because if I slipped it was like 20 feet down with no real holds. After that one, there was one other sketchy spot. I made it, though, obviously. I tried to take a picture, but not sure you can really tell how steep it was from the pic. Anyhow, note to self, next time just do the sketchy bit!

At the top I took a nice rest, and ate a pb&j on a bagel - I made the jam myself from raspberries in my garden, and it was delicious! I had an orange too, also so good. And, I looked at Lafayette and the 4000 footers over in that direction, and was glad that I didn't do them, since they were in the clouds.

After Cardigan I went to Firescrew - really nice ridgeline, and then down to the lodge where I cleaned up a little and used a nice, civilized bathroom. The lodge is at the end of a long and hilly dirt road in the middle of nowhere, which is important because when I was leaving I found this:

That is the only bridge out, with a giant truck sitting off the road in the mud. >sigh< You can see from the picture, they got it really wedged in. I waited for about an hour on the road, but it was stressing me out, so I finally went back to the lodge and sat around for about 45 more minutes until they got it moved. So I thought I would beat rush hour traffic, but I didn't completely. Still, the drive home was fine. I stopped and got an egg salad sandwich, just for nostalgia. 

I used my new backpack and I really liked it! It's made for women, and I like how the straps are a little less over my chest. Also, it was nice to be able to just tuck away my poles when going up the steep bits. Sad to not use my old friend the pack, but it is requiring duct tape, so it's felt the love.