South Carter Mountain - 4,430'

Hike date: 09/20/2019-09/21/2019

Description: South Carter Mountain is located in the Carter-Moriah Range and has no views from its wooded peak. However, it does offer limited views from a nearby outlooks and grants hikers solitude as they walk through the forest. Due to their close proximity, Carter Dome, South Carter, and Middle Carter are commonly done together in a single day, or as an overnight trip if you include Mount Moriah. If you are doing these peaks as a traverse, which is what the route described below is, you’ll have several scenic highlights! You’ll have the opportunity to visit Carter Notch and the Carter Lakes, visit the Carter Notch Hut, take a side trip to Mount Hight, camp at a high elevation at a backcountry tentsite (Imp Tentsite), watch the sunset, peak bag four summits, and enjoy multiple opportunities for incredible views along the way. If that doesn’t get you excited for this traverse, then you really need to experience it to see how great it is!

Trails Used: Ascend via Nineteen Mile Brook Trail to the junction with Carter-Moriah Trail. Here, you can continue on Nineteen Mile Brook Trail for 0.1 miles to visit Carter Notch Hut. After a break at the Hut, return to the junction and ascend the Carter-Moriah Trail towards Carter Dome. Continue on Carter-Moriah Trail until the junction that gives you the option to get to Zeta Pass via Mount Hight. The optional side trip to Mount Hight is well worth it! After Mount Hight, continue staying on the Carter-Moriah Trail over South Carter and Middle Carter. If you are doing just the Carters, then descend via the North Carter Trail to Imp Trail to get back to the road (will require a second car, hitch hiking, or a road walk to get back to your car at Nineteen Mile Brook Trail). If doing the traverse, continue on the Carter-Moriah Trail over North Carter and eventually you will come to a junction with the Imp Campsite spur. Head down this spur path and spend the night here. The next morning, head back up the spur path and continue following the Carter-Moriah Trail. You will eventually come to a junction that will take you to the Mount Moriah summit. Descend via the Carter-Moriah Trail (make sure you don’t go down the way you came up) all the way back to the trailhead in Gorham.

Trail Summary: As a part of an overnight backpacking trip, we did Carter Dome, South Carter, and Middle Carter on Friday and Mount Moriah on Saturday. We spent the night in the backcountry, staying at the Imp Tentsite. We really recommend this route as it’s a fun way to get a bunch of peaks all at once, especially since they are all in close proximity to one another and long/hard to do as a day hike. Note that the route we will describe is a traverse, so you will need to have two cars (one for each trailhead) or use some sort of shuttle service or hitch hike. We parked our car at the Libby Recreation Area (the recommended spot for parking vehicles overnight) in Gorham and then hitched a ride south down Route 16. Nineteen Mile Brook trailhead is only 10 minutes away, and we had no issues getting picked up. This is a lopsided backpacking trip, with Day 1 being challenging and Day 2 being leisurely. Still, it’s a really fun route and there are plenty of excellent views!

The trailhead for this hike is the Nineteen Mile Brook Trail located along Route 16. The Nineteen Mile Brook Trail offers a very gradual route to Carter Notch. The trail starts out at a slight incline as you hike along the Brook. The trail will cross the Brook, but there are bridges so it is not an issue. As you’re hiking along, you’ll see a dam in the Brook, which we thought was pretty cool and interesting to see. After hiking for 1.9 miles, you’ll come to the junction with the Carter Dome Trail. At this point, you’ve gained about 850 feet in elevation. You’ll cross the river a few more times again (over footbridges) and start to gain elevation more steeply as you get closer to the junction with the Wildcat Ridge Trail. To this junction from the previous one, it’s another 1.7 miles and about 1,000 feet of elevation gain. After the Wildcat Ridge Trail junction, the trail drops quickly as you reach the Carter Lakes. in 0.2 miles, you’ll come to the junction with the Carter-Moriah Trail. Before ascending this trail, you can make an optional side trip to Carter Notch Hut, which is only 0.1 miles away. If you get there after they have finished serving breakfast, they may have extra food that you can eat (something Adam took advantage of)! They also have yummy baked goods for sale usually. After resting at the Hut for a bit, return to the junction with the Carter-Moriah Trail and begin the ascent up to Carter Dome. This portion of the Carter-Moriah Trail is extremely steep, climbing 1,550 feet in 1.2 miles to the summit of Carter Dome. The steepest part of the trail climbs mostly up rock steps, making the ascent not seem as bad as it should (it is still steep though!). After about 0.3 miles, there is a shor side path that leads to an awesome outlook over Carter Notch. The trail continues to climb steeply over rock steps, but then begins to ease up and become a more moderate ascent through the woods as you near the summit. When you reach the junction with the Rainbow Trail and the small clearing, you’ve reached the summit of Carter Dome! If you keep going for about 30 yards, there is a clearing that offers a limited view to the west towards the Presidential peaks.

After taking a break at the Carter Dome summit, it is time to continue on the Carter-Moriah Trail. In 0.4 miles, you will come to a junction where you can either continue straight on the Carter Dome Trail, or continue following Carter-Moriah Trail over the summit of Mount Hight. Mount Hight is not an “official” 4,000 footer, but this peak has the best view of the entire trip and is well worth the short detour! The trail climbs moderately to the bare summit of Mount Hight and you can enjoy the incredible views of the Presidential Range. Continuing on the Carter-Moriah Trail after enjoying Mount Hight’s summit, you will descend at a steep grade off the summit and reach Zeta Pass in 0.4 miles (the trail drops almost 600 feet in this short stretch). After this junction, you will then descend easily for 0.2 miles before reaching another junction with the Carter Dome Trail. Now it is time to start the ascent towards South Carter! The trail will make a small descent, then begin to climb moderately, before climbing steeply as you reach the summit (you will climb about 550 feet in 0.8 miles). South Carter is a wooded summit, marked by a small cairn on the side of the trail - it is easy to miss, so if you start descending, you know you’ve gone too far! There is a small side path right near the summit of South Carter that leads to a decent lookout.

After a quick stop, we continued hiking on towards Middle Carter. The trail descends easily into the col between the two peaks, before climbing easily towards the wooded summit of Middle Carter. You’ll gain about 450 feet of elevation over 1.3 miles on this section of the trail. Like South Carter, Middle Carter has a small cairn on the side of the trail marking the summit, which is easy to walk right by if you’re not looking for it. There is an outlook right near the summit with limited views, but if you continue on the trail 50 yards further, there is an even better outlook with views to the north and west. After a quick break, you’ll descend moderately off of Middle Carter. There are some nice ledges that offer good views. This section of the trail has a lot of “bumps” in it, making for a lot of minor up and down. After 0.6 miles, you’ll come to the junction with the North Carter Trail. If you are doing JUST the Carters as a day hike, this is the trail you would take to descend back to the road. Doing the overnight, continue straight on the Carter-Moriah Trail. In 0.3 miles, after a small and easy ascent, you’ll reach the summit of North Carter (not an official 4,000 footer). This summit is marked by a cairn and has limited views. The descent after North Carter’s summit is where the fun begins! The trail descends at a steep grade over very rough terrain for about 0.5 miles before evening out and continuing for another 1.4 miles with minor ups and downs until you reach a sign that marks the spur path to the Imp Campsite. From here, it is 0.3 miles and about 150 feet of descent until the Campsite, where you can set up and relax for the night. Imp Campsite has a shelter, a number of tent platforms, and a privy. There is also a water source, though when we were here, it was dried up. We had to rely on some trickling water further downstream as our water source (make sure to filter your water!). There is a nice sunset view from a spot near the cooking area (there is a wooden bench there).

After enjoying a hearty dinner and a good night’s rest, we were ready for the second day of our trip! Looking at Adam’s GPS, we could see that our platform (number 4, if we remember correctly) was actually pretty close to the Carter-Moriah Trail. So instead of going back up the spur path to the junction just to descend again, we did a short bushwhack through the woods. The woods are pretty open for the most part, so navigating through the trees wasn’t too difficult. This saved us about 0.5 miles and 170 feet in elevation gain and 210 feet in elevation loss. Of course, if you are not comfortable doing this, just head up the spur path and continue along the Carter-Moriah Trail! From the Imp Campsite spur path, it is 0.7 miles until the next junction with the Stony Brook Trail. This section of the trail has some minor ups and downs, and ultimately drops about 250 feet. Continuing along the plank that makes up this part of the trail (still following the Carter-Moriah Trail), you will come to yet another junction in about 50 yards with the Moriah Brook Trail. Continue on the Carter-Moriah Trail and begin the long ascent towards Mount Moriah. The trail ascends steadily and passes two nice outlooks. After about 0.4 miles and ~500 feet of elevation gain, you’ll be at the top of the southern part of the cliffs which offers an excellent view. You will continue to climb steadily over a number of ledges and outlooks before entering the woods. After another mile, and about 400 feet in elevation gain, you will come to a junction with the Kenduskeag Trail. Here, continue to stay on the Carter-Moriah Trail by taking a left and ascending a series of steep ledges. You will then come to a junction with the Mount Moriah summit spur path. Take a quick climb and it will put you at Mount Moriah’s ledgy summit with excellent views all around. After a nice break, it is time to start the descent! Go back down the summit spur path back to the Carter-Moriah Trail and take a left here. The trail will drop steeply for a bit, then begin to go over several bumps, creating lots of little up and down. The trail continues to descend at a moderate grade over very rocky terrain. You will come to a section with a series of ledges (which offers great views) that you’ll descend at a pretty steep grade. After the ledges, the trail becomes more gradual until you reach Mount Surprise, 2.5 miles from the summit of Mount Moriah (which doesn’t offer much of a surprise, since there are obstructed views). After Mount Surprise, the trail becomes much more gradual and moderate, with easier terrain. We flew down this last 2 miles because of the slight decline and minimal amount of rocks. Once back at the trailhead, we walked down the street (which is in a residential neighborhood) then took a left to cross the footbridge over the Peabody River. After the bridge, we took a left and walked down the street to get back to the Libby Recreation Area, where the car was parked. Overall, this was a really enjoyable backpacking trip with lots of interesting terrain and great views!

Alternative routes:

We have not yet done any alternative routes to the summit of South Carter. This page will be updated once we have!

We have not yet climbed South Carter in the winter, but once we do, we will update this page with our full report!

Questions? Comments? Want to share your take on this hike? Get in touch with us using the contact page!

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