Signal Ridge Trail to Mount Carrigain

Hiked it yesterday, great hike with very limited yellow markings.Need to pay attention to trail so you don't get off. Tricky brook crossing if water is high. Great views from the warden's tower. 360 degree views. I'd do this hike again but in the summer.

Hiked this yesterday & Sawyer River Road was open. Took me around 5 hours total. The trail itself was pretty with the fall foliage but psychologically tough because most of it is uphill through the woods with few views. Since it was a clear day it was worth it to see those 360 degree views from the deck though.

This was such a great hike, and it was even better with the changing of the leaves! Tree cover for most of the hike, until you get the ridge. We had such a gorgeous, and clear view. If you're lucky, you may be greeted by a few Gray Jays at the top of the watch tower. They polished off more of my trail mix than I did...And as people have stated, Sawyer Rd is open, and it's a beautiful drive down the road!

Tough hike up to the tower. Not many views due to cloud cover but had some breaks enough to get an idea of what it must bring on a sunny day. Will probably try this again on a better day

Sawyer river road is open. My fiend and I drove up the road Oct 3 2018 to the parking lot at the trail head

The first 2.3 miles was a brisk walk then starts increasing its incline steadily for the rest of the way. Going to the observatory was a little foggy because it was cloudy, but there was still a beautiful view at the summit.

Views are amazing. Sawyer River Rd. is open.

Great hike with wonderful views as you approach the peak. Nice tower at the top to catch a little break and chat with some fellow hikers. The trails is in great shape with many opportunities to dip in the creek.

hiked this Saturday, road was open

did this as the carrigain loop, went counter clockwise on carrigain notch trail (very easy) to desolation trail(steep 1.8 miles!!!) and down signal ride trail. there are a lot of great camping spots before the desolation trial. 360 degree view at the top is unreal!!! loved it

Sawyer river road is still closed, added 4 mile total to our trip for~ 17.5 total miles

Did this as part of my Vose Spur - Carrigain linkup and I’m glad I did. Signal Ridge Trail is a beautiful stretch of trail. It’s very well made and easy to walk on, when you’re nearing the summit, the is a small alpine clearing that has great views into Carrigain Notch. The summit is densely wooded but you can see the entire range from the observation deck. There is one river crossing before the junction with Carrigain Notch Trail that could be problematic in high water. Definitely would recommend this hike to anyone who loves the White Mountains, it’s a really cool part of the Pemi that is worthy of exploration.

Great hike with beautiful 360 deg views from the top.

Writing this quite some time after, but on 7/29/18 Sawyer River Road was still closed due to a road washout. This will add another 2 miles each way bringing the total length of the hike to just over 14 miles.

Sawyer River Road is still closed. This additional 4 miles to the hike makes for long day. Got to parking lot around 9:00 on a Saturday and got the last spot. Others after me had to Park on Road. Great hike. As someone said earlier just short of 4K ft. elevation from lot. Majority of the vertical in in the last 3 miles which makes it a challenging climb up and down.

IMPORTANT: The access road is closed for resurfacing as it will be until the spring of 2019 or later. It is still possible to hike but you will need to walk an additional 2 miles along the access road each way (for a total of 14.8 miles of hiking).

The first 2 miles of the hike (not including the access road) are mostly flat and have no net elevation gain, making for a fairly boring walk. The next 3 miles are steep with 3,500 feet of elevation gain.

The trail is in bad condition and is suffering from erosion in the steep sections.

The ridge climb is about half a mile and not very interesting. There is no scrambling, just a mildly steep walk across the ridge with mediocre views. The peak is wooded and you must climb the tower to get any views. Dogs are unable to climb the tower. The views from the tower are good, but not worth the climb in my opinion. I have done about 30-40 hikes in the past three years, most of them more difficult than this one, some of them easier, and some of them the same difficulty, and this is one of my least favorites.

You may enjoy this hike if you like hikes that are entirely wooded, but if not this trail is not for you.

first things first. The 4000 Footers. Com website needs to update their notes to indicate the access road is not open. this will add a boring 4 mile dust walk to your hike.
Trail is easy to moderate but just watch for the turns as the trail is not marked. we took the wrong turn at the fork about a mile and a half in. just head down about another couple hundred yards and the turn is marked. Ridge and Summit views are probably some of the best in the Northeast so well worth the hike just probably would not do it again due to the access road closure.

Amazing views from the tower and ridge trail. Long hike, lots of time in the woods kinda uneventful. Not blazed very well. Blazes are in the spots you need them in the beginning, but could be much better .

The views from the ridge approaching the summit are spectacular. And the 360 degree view from the fire tower are equally amazing. The access road to the trail head is closed due to a washed out section of road, this adds a pretty boring 2 miles each way from the parking lot at 302. The trail starts off pretty flat, but then you pay for it. It levels out at the ridge, and then a final ascent to the summit. No views whatsoever on the way up until you hit the ridge. Lots of water toward the bottom and thankfully a trickle coming out of a mossy rock wall about 2/3 the way up where we were able to refill. The views always make the hike worthwhile in my opinion, but at 14 miles, I likely won’t be doing this one again. Encountered 6 people total, so probably a good choice if you like to avoid crowds.

Great trek as others have stated. Sawyer River Road not open yet so did the 2 mile hike up to the trailhead. Continued up Signal Ridge for 5 miles to summit. A good hike in that when you start from Rt 302 you get another 500' or so gain which puts you at about 3,900' gain to the summit. Not that many 4K footers where you can say you trekked 4K to get to the top (my Garmin actually read 3999' at the fire tower!). Continued down Desolation to the Stilwater area to camp. Wanted to do more than just peak bag this one. Nice camping options in the Pemi there. Read in Steve Smith's book how Brutus the bear (450 lbs) terrorized campers back in the day, when there was a shelter in this area. That was nice to know as we dozed off! Returned via Nancy Pond which is amazing! Try this, you'll like it!

360 views can't be beat

Tough in the winter but still a great hike! We left the lower parking lot (sawyer river rd is un-plowed) at 9am and got up to the trail head at 10:15am. Made it up to the switchbacks right before the ridge around 2:30pm and decided to turn back. Got back down to the parking lot at 6pm. The snow made it very strenuous and we definitely made the right choice to turn back. We will definitely be back in the spring to get to the summit!

In the winter Sawyer River Road is generally closed, adding 2 miles each way to the hike. Pretty challenging ascent in snowshoes, will definitely be feeling it tomorrow.

We went throughout the notch to the Desolation Trail and Ascended the back side, then down the Signal Ridge Trail for 13.4 miles. There was quite a bit of mellow hiking, but you pay for it on the way up the back side!

Signal ridge trail is great; beautiful scenery and clearly visible. The desolation trail is cool because it’s technical toward the top, but once you leave the alpine zone there are trees down, no blazes, and lots of spur trails leading nowhere, so pay close attention if you make a loop of this. Very cool trail, though. 360 panos from top make it worth the push!

Hike up was pretty tiring for me. I was quite sore by the end of the day. But not so much that I couldn't move my arms and legs the next day. Not to many insects trying to eat you thankfully. However I did go fully covered head to toe with insect repellent on me. It wasn't busy at all. For 85% of the hike up my husband and I were the only people hiking. We met a few people on the way (about 10 total up and down). There is a watch tower like construction built all the way to the top where you can see EVERYTHING ! It's so so so quiet. Couldn't even hear birds or insects singing. Weather was amazing so we spent about 20mins soaking up the sun and silence. I expected the view to be better though. Wasn't disappointed but not as amazed as I wanted to be.

One of the best in the whites!

one of the best in the whites!

Decent hike. First two miles are flat and easy and the remaining three miles, while a fair grade, were along a narrow and rocky trail, which was difficult to navigate at times.

I'll start off by saying the sights at the top make everything worth it. Absolutely breathtaking-- 360 degrees of beautiful views of mountains while you gaze on top of a fire watch tower. 5/5 experience once you reach that ridge and up to the summit. However, the path there is a SLOG. The first mile is a stroll through the forest with beautiful views of creeks and waterfalls (we even dipped in at the end of the hike). The next three miles are a long, steep journey mostly on broken rocks with very little to no views because of the thickness of the surrounding forest-- this really detracted from our experience. Despite this, though, we could hardly be angry with how gorgeous the view at the top is.
We also brought a medium sized dog who handled the trail very well.

Breathtaking views !

Completed my last 48 4000 footer on Carrigain. Beautiful hike! There's an awesome ridge prior to the summit and a fire tower at the very top. There is a small creek towards the bottom to cool off in afterwards. Great 360° at the top and an awesome way to finish this epic list!