I had given my legs two weeks to heal from the first hike of the season and it was time to break them down again before they got too big for their britches.  I wanted to close out the Wildcat range so I focused in on the remaining Wildcat, the bigger of the two, peak A.

I made the strategic decision to approach the peak from the 19 mile brook trail as opposed to the steep agonizing trail I had taken to the D peak in my last hike.   This trail was no stranger to me as it forks off to all sorts of Carters in its journey.  Its relatively tame at the beginning and follows a river for a while which can be very tempting on hot humid summer days.

After following the river for a ways and passing over some not so sturdy looking bridges, I came to a fork in the trail and stopped to check my handy White Mountain Hiking Guide(ding ding) which sent me off to the right which was a continuation of my friend the 19 mile brook trail.  Things got a little muddy before they got steeper but before long I was climbing onto the ridge trail where I stopped to gather my wits and a few sips of Gatorade.

The way ahead looked daunting and it wasn’t long before I realized the ridge trail was only a ridge trail in name but was more closely related to an elevator shaft.  I passed a few groups who were coming down and they all pitied the fool(me) going the wrong way.  After what seemed like hours, the trail finally leveled off and I reached the nicely shaded summit.  There was not much of a view at the true top but some voices led me off to the left and a nice ledge where I spent some time soaking up the views of the peaks in the distance.  33 down, 15 to go!!