BIGEarl
Well-known member
December 30, 2012: Moriah
Trails: Stony Brook Trail, Carter-Moriah Trail
Summits: Moriah
Hikers: Trail Trotter (Sue), John Gagne (jrgagne99 – VFTT), and me
Sue and I arrived to the Stony Brook trail head on Route 16 to meet the others for the hike. While there I found a message on my cell indicating most had pulled out of the hike due to the weather forecast for Mount Washington. We weren’t hiking Mount Washington, which is over 2000 feet higher in elevation. Moriah is barely 4000 feet. Quite often there is a significant difference in weather conditions with such a difference in elevation. It seems the forecast was indicating this was the case here. The National Weather Service White Mountains Summit Forecast was predicting winds at 2500 to 4000 feet of 30 mph in the morning increasing to 50 mph late in the day. They were also predicting winds at this elevation to be up to 50% less than those at the higher elevations (including Washington). I had seen the NWS Hourly Weather Graph for their point forecast of the area of Moriah and everything appeared well within our comfort zone. The late-day increase as shown would happen well after we were gone.
We waited for John Gagne to arrive, went through the usual introductions, grabbed our things, and started up. There were hikers ahead of us and a group of four that were planning to set off a short time behind us. After crossing the bridge at the start we were handed a nice surprise; we had almost a superhighway to hike. Over the past couple days the trail has seen quite a number of snowshoes. The trail was broken and generally tracked out. From trailhead to summit we had a beautiful snowshoe track with no ice. We put the snowshoes on at the trailhead lot and that’s where we took them off again.
The hike leading to the lower crossing of Stony Brook was the usual nice warm-up. We hit the crossing area and found the stream nearly completely bridged. We made the crossing and headed to the upper crossing. The rough trail leading to the upper crossing was completely hidden by snow and we were enjoying a very smooth trail (not a single posthole all day). At the upper crossing we met two others on their exit hike. From there the climb gets a little more significant and we all raised our heel lifts; then, just climbed.
In the course of the hike I noticed the trail had some soft places on the edges but stay on the main track and everything is fine. I had the extension tails on my MSRs. They helped on Jefferson the day before and I assumed they would help again. In fact, for the off-trail excursions to take care of “nature calls”, the added flotation made leaving the trail and returning much easier. I’m pretty sure making it easier to take a wiz wasn’t included in the MSR design criteria for these things, but loosening rusty nuts and bolts probably wasn’t part of the Coca Cola goal; a lot of people still drink the stuff and seem to enjoy it;
but I digress….
Roughly half way through the first steep pitch the group of four that were behind us went past. We continued at our seemingly slow pace. My legs were really sore from cramping on Jefferson the day before and I wasn’t moving very well at all. Sue and John were extremely patient with me as we made our way to the summit. In reality, our pace was only slightly over book time. We reached the final steep pitch leading to the Stony Brook-Carter Moriah trails junction and even I could hear the wind. We completed the climb to the ridge and at the big boulder just before the trails junction we stopped to add a layer, face masks, and warmer mittens. That’s all it took.
Soon we were climbing through the open sections to the ridge below the summit. When we were in the open areas there was enough wind to keep us moving but I believe the National Weather Service forecast was generally on-target at ~30 mph; we were also happy each time we went back into a sheltered section. The upper climb on CMT is a series of open and sheltered sections that we made our way through. The traction on the open slabs was great and we had no need for anything beyond our snowshoes. Eventually we were on the ridge and moving across the final open section; directly into the wind. John had his goggles out but I don’t recall if they were being used, Sue and I never pulled ours from our packs.
We continued through the final sheltered section, reached the Kenduskeag junction, made the left, and climbed to the summit. The snow that was in the air prevented any views and our time on the summit was short. We got the usual summit pictures, made our u-turn, and headed back down. On the climb, between the trailhead and the summit I believe we met around ten others on the same route.
The exit hike went as expected; we left the summit with cold hands from standing around and getting pictures, by the time we reached Stony Brook Trail we were all back up to temperature, the descent from the ridge to the upper crossing of Stony Brook generally moved us out of the wind, and the final cruise to the trailhead was quick.
Back at the trailhead it didn’t take long to pack up and hit the highway south. As we were leaving Gorham on Route 2 west of town the wind seemed stronger than anything we experienced all day.
Thanks for joining the hike John, I hope we hike with you again. You have your winter list started. Good luck with it from here on.
Thanks Sue – another good day. Hiking for the Grid month of December is done.
Pictures will follow.
Trails: Stony Brook Trail, Carter-Moriah Trail
Summits: Moriah
Hikers: Trail Trotter (Sue), John Gagne (jrgagne99 – VFTT), and me
Sue and I arrived to the Stony Brook trail head on Route 16 to meet the others for the hike. While there I found a message on my cell indicating most had pulled out of the hike due to the weather forecast for Mount Washington. We weren’t hiking Mount Washington, which is over 2000 feet higher in elevation. Moriah is barely 4000 feet. Quite often there is a significant difference in weather conditions with such a difference in elevation. It seems the forecast was indicating this was the case here. The National Weather Service White Mountains Summit Forecast was predicting winds at 2500 to 4000 feet of 30 mph in the morning increasing to 50 mph late in the day. They were also predicting winds at this elevation to be up to 50% less than those at the higher elevations (including Washington). I had seen the NWS Hourly Weather Graph for their point forecast of the area of Moriah and everything appeared well within our comfort zone. The late-day increase as shown would happen well after we were gone.
We waited for John Gagne to arrive, went through the usual introductions, grabbed our things, and started up. There were hikers ahead of us and a group of four that were planning to set off a short time behind us. After crossing the bridge at the start we were handed a nice surprise; we had almost a superhighway to hike. Over the past couple days the trail has seen quite a number of snowshoes. The trail was broken and generally tracked out. From trailhead to summit we had a beautiful snowshoe track with no ice. We put the snowshoes on at the trailhead lot and that’s where we took them off again.
The hike leading to the lower crossing of Stony Brook was the usual nice warm-up. We hit the crossing area and found the stream nearly completely bridged. We made the crossing and headed to the upper crossing. The rough trail leading to the upper crossing was completely hidden by snow and we were enjoying a very smooth trail (not a single posthole all day). At the upper crossing we met two others on their exit hike. From there the climb gets a little more significant and we all raised our heel lifts; then, just climbed.
In the course of the hike I noticed the trail had some soft places on the edges but stay on the main track and everything is fine. I had the extension tails on my MSRs. They helped on Jefferson the day before and I assumed they would help again. In fact, for the off-trail excursions to take care of “nature calls”, the added flotation made leaving the trail and returning much easier. I’m pretty sure making it easier to take a wiz wasn’t included in the MSR design criteria for these things, but loosening rusty nuts and bolts probably wasn’t part of the Coca Cola goal; a lot of people still drink the stuff and seem to enjoy it;
but I digress….
Roughly half way through the first steep pitch the group of four that were behind us went past. We continued at our seemingly slow pace. My legs were really sore from cramping on Jefferson the day before and I wasn’t moving very well at all. Sue and John were extremely patient with me as we made our way to the summit. In reality, our pace was only slightly over book time. We reached the final steep pitch leading to the Stony Brook-Carter Moriah trails junction and even I could hear the wind. We completed the climb to the ridge and at the big boulder just before the trails junction we stopped to add a layer, face masks, and warmer mittens. That’s all it took.
Soon we were climbing through the open sections to the ridge below the summit. When we were in the open areas there was enough wind to keep us moving but I believe the National Weather Service forecast was generally on-target at ~30 mph; we were also happy each time we went back into a sheltered section. The upper climb on CMT is a series of open and sheltered sections that we made our way through. The traction on the open slabs was great and we had no need for anything beyond our snowshoes. Eventually we were on the ridge and moving across the final open section; directly into the wind. John had his goggles out but I don’t recall if they were being used, Sue and I never pulled ours from our packs.
We continued through the final sheltered section, reached the Kenduskeag junction, made the left, and climbed to the summit. The snow that was in the air prevented any views and our time on the summit was short. We got the usual summit pictures, made our u-turn, and headed back down. On the climb, between the trailhead and the summit I believe we met around ten others on the same route.
The exit hike went as expected; we left the summit with cold hands from standing around and getting pictures, by the time we reached Stony Brook Trail we were all back up to temperature, the descent from the ridge to the upper crossing of Stony Brook generally moved us out of the wind, and the final cruise to the trailhead was quick.
Back at the trailhead it didn’t take long to pack up and hit the highway south. As we were leaving Gorham on Route 2 west of town the wind seemed stronger than anything we experienced all day.
Thanks for joining the hike John, I hope we hike with you again. You have your winter list started. Good luck with it from here on.
Thanks Sue – another good day. Hiking for the Grid month of December is done.
Pictures will follow.
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