Gracepoints and I were planning to hike Carrigain on Saturday, and we checked with Boghollow to see if he was interested in joining us. He had hiked Carragain a few days prior, but February is a new month, so he took us up on the offer. We got the last parking spot at the Sawyer River Rd lot, although a few cars that arrived later were able to get creative on the sides of the entrance without blocking the driving lane. The walk down Sawyer River Rd went by pretty quickly. There was a good amount of snowmobile traffic, which left the surface a little soft, but we were still able to bare-boot with no problem. Further up the trail, we switched to snowshoes so that we could take advantage of televators for the long climb up to the ridge.
The forecast was for sun with a windchill around 0 at the summit. When we reached the open ridge, the wind was stronger than what had been forecast. The first view spot was a little sheltered, so we stopped to add layers. The exposed portion of the ridge isn't too long, maybe 2/10 of a mile, but the wind was in our faces.
The view to the northeast when we hit the open ridge
Starting across the open ridge, with the summit in front of us
We tried to get across the ridge as quickly as we could and into the shelter of the trees before the last climb to the summit. I was chilled when we got into the trees, but the remaining climb was just enough to warm me up. There are some views from the summit without climbing the tower, but the tower does give you a 360 degree view. We went up the tower and took a few pictures, but couldn't stay long due to the cold and wind.
Looking up at the tower on the summit
The view to the southeast from the tower
The view to the southwest from the tower
We dropped a little off of the summit to a spot in the sun that was also blocked from the wind for a short break, before starting the hike out. The hike out was uneventful, and we enjoyed stretches of open woods allowing the sun to shine on us, while we were also out of the wind. The trail surface seemed a little softer on the way out, making snowshoes ideal. After seeing more clouds than sun in January, the first weekend in February was off to a good start!