Moriah - an easy end to winter?

[HikerBob]

For an easy end to the season Karen and I will once again be heading up the Carter Moriah trail from Bangor Rd on Saturday and welcome any speedier hikers (that is pretty much everyone else) to catch up, join, overtake and trail break for us

We'll be hitting the trail sometime 7:30 - 8:00 but can be easily caught by molluscs and faster lichen. We are s-l-o-w and won't expect anyone to keep to our pace unless they fancy a very leisurely stroll.

When I wrote up our last attempt I was convinced we got no further than Mt Surprise, being beaten by the trail breaking. However, looking at the map again I'm thinking we may have managed a little further.

Does anyone else who has been up there recently recognize this large hovering blowdown (looks like a gigantic stick insect) or the viewpoint ledge after this little gully where we turned around ?

Here's hoping we have great weather and a fun, safe weekend for everyone.

Bob

 

[sapblatt]

Saturday

Hiker Bob-

I may be interested in this...it would be my first winter 4k, and one om y remaining 30 I am trying to get in this year. I do have decent snowshoes but no crampons (besides the ones on my Tubbs) this should be OK for Moriah, right? I am not sure how fast I am these days...in the summer I am close to book time, but I am not sure what the snow and mediocre conditioning will bring. This would be along day trip (roundtrip from Peabody, MA) so the earlier the start the better for me.

I will keep you posted...

 

[HikerBob]

Michael,

Snowshoes alone should be all that is needed for Moriah by way of the Carter Moriah trail and no matter how slow you think you might be Karen and I will out-slow you, so no worries in that respect.

We'll be driving up and back from Western Mass on Saturday and Gorham is about a four hour drive for us, longer if there is fog on I91. We'll be leaving around 3:30am to aim for a 7:30-8:00am start. Could be a little either way.

My email is in my profile so keep me posted or just show up on the day.

Cheers,
Bob

 

[OCgirl]

Hi Bob - we were up in that area today and drove over to Bangor Road - the CM trail was unbroken as of this morning, however the stony brook trail from rte 16 looked broken(ie: as far as I could see down the trail it was).

 

[HikerBob]

OCGirl - thanks for the info!

We will stick to the Carter Moriah trail because we are curious to find how close we got last time. I swear we were way past Mt Surpise as I had thought.

Stoney Brook also has a steep final section that Karen might not be too happy with. A trail conditions report suggests that it is snowbound and an easy scramble, but I'll save that route for another day.

Bob

 

[sapblatt]

Saturday

Hi Bob -

Plan on me being there unless you hear otherwise Friday evening. I may be earlier out on the trail but I take lots of breaks. I hope to make it to the summit....but conditions will dictate. Looking forward to hinking with the two of you...

 

[SherpaKroto]

HikerBob: spot a car at Stony Brook. The final scramble is not that bad, about 50-60 feet. It's nothing real steep, tough, or scary. My dog made it up (no now). The views from The Carter Moriah trail sout h of Moriah are worth the trip! As far as CMA is concerned

sapblatt: nice meeting you today! Hope we get out together soon. Good to hear that I now have another reason to climb Jackson again

You folks are going to have a blast! We'll wave from "down the ridge"

 

[sapblatt]

greetings

SherpaK- Very nice to meet you and we will hike! Mount Jackson on October 9 perhaps? It is the Sunday of Columbus Day weekend...we could have a party on the summit! Hope to hike with you before number 48...

Hiker Bob- If Sherpa's idea of the car spot interests you let me know...I am sure we could work that out.

 

[HikerBob]

I know Karen will be happier sticking to the original plan and as others might join in I'm going to stay with C-M in and out.

I still need Middle Carter so I have it in mind to do a loop in on the Imp and out by way of Stony Brook. Not sure when yet.

Bob

 

[sapblatt]

ok

sounds good...i will be at the Carter Moriah trailhead by 7:30am.
I need Middle and South sometime this year...

 

[SherpaKroto]

Car spot idea is for the "just in case" scenario... If you have 2 cars, dropping one off at Stony Brook is a good fallback.

HikerBob: my .02 on Middle Carter loop that you describe: go up Stony Brook to North Carter, not down. It's a steep little wrench of a trail section! Exiting Imp is a nice way to get some late day views.

sapblatt: October 9th sounds good to me!

 

[HikerBob]

Sherp - thanks for the info on the other loop (for sometime later in the year)

I'd go for the stony brook loop and car spot if we'd had a little more prep time and perhaps a larger group. I know how bad the snow depths were on Carter-Moriah last time and can only imagine how they might be in the more sheltered valley that Stony Brook follows. Going up and back the Carter Moriah will give us known good, doable conditions for the hike out.

I've also never hiked Stony Brook, not that I haven't done loops in unknown territory that have turned interesting before

Here's hoping for some of the same weather we've been having here in Western Mass the last few days

Bob

 

[bobandgeri]

Hiker Bob should have titled this - "My April fools joke". We arrived at the trailhead ready for an easy hike since we were going to hike Sun at 1 AM on Waumbek. It certainly started out nice - well packed trail - sunny warm day. But then we came to the point that Hiker Bob turned around last weekend - he didn't quiet get to Mt Surprise We passed where he turned around last week 40 minutes into the hike!

We spent the next 5 1/2 hours breaking trail to the summit. There is now a well packed trail, however it doesn't alway follow the real trail as we lost it several times, but with some creative bushwacking (why go around a false peak when you can go straight up nad over it) we found our way to the top.

Great to meet everyone Saturday - good team work! We look forward to seein gyou all again.

 

[HikerBob]

In my defense I did put a question mark at the end of the title and Karen and I last tried this route February 12th, not last week

It was a fantastic day out and we really appreciated all who showed up to break trail.

Next time, I'm going the Stony Brook route. Maybe April 1st...

Bob