dom15931
New member
Mt. Moriah 6-13-2009. My 27th B-day! 
Mt. Moriah is now my favorite White Mountain summit when it comes to views of the Presidential Range. I could not believe that a summit with a height like that of Mt. Tecumseh would turn out to be one of my all time favorite hikes for rewarding views.
I got up at 3:30am on June 13th 2009. It was my 27th birthday and the sun was already coming up on what would a memorable day for me. This was on messing around. As a bit of a birthday gift/wish Meghan granted me another pass to do a solo hike. J I did not think it would be wise for her to go as her feet were still healing from Algonquin (ADK’s) and the previous day’s trip to Arethusa Falls. (see my other post) This poor girl is still having problems with blisters and boot sizes even after getting them from a specialist.
The delicious brews and food we had consumed at Moat Mountain the night before actually seemed to give me the strength to operate on only several hours of sleep! We did not go to bed very early. I could not resist eating a piece of the leftover BBQ chicken pizza.
Now I would get a real test of endurance. I recently quit smoking several weeks ago. I had a bit of a problem with this worthless habit, smoking about half a pack a day for 18 months merely because just about everyone else I worked with did and I asked for a cigarette one day and went from there. I had quit with no problem out of mounting disgust and shame at myself. That made it easy. I wanted to know if my wind was back. I would find out it was.
I drove from North Conway to the Stony Brook Trailhead arriving at 4:35am. I hit the trail at 4:50am enjoying the fact that it was already light. (it’s not at this time in western PA). My first few pictures are a bit grainy during this time period. I was the only person on the trail and the only car in the lot. The trail starts off looking a bit less traveled, closely following the brook after the initial bridge. After a little ways it dropped down and crossed the stream. This actually took me a few minutes to figure out. Shortly thereafter it starts up what appears to be an old logging path. The path has some logs across it where the trail enters and follows it for a ways. This section is nice for making great time. Straight, not very rocky, and slowly and steadily upward. At about two thirds of the way to the Carter/Moriah ridge junction the trail jumps back across the creek. I took a ten minute break here, being only 50 minutes into the hike. I would unfortunately discover that my sandwiches were spoiled . Good think I ate that slice of pizza I thought.
I continued upward noting my progress on my GPS. There were what I believe to be moose droppings on the trail. Luckily I didn’t stomp right down in it. I made it to the ridge crest in nice time arriving at about 6:40. I noticed there are discrepancies between the trail distances at both end of the stony brook and the White Mountains map. The map distance is totals 5.0 mi. to Moriah each way…but as my pictures show the trail signs conflict each other and don’t add up. There is a slight jog along the ridge where another trail breaks off. This is only about 200’.
I would take my time from here to the summit. The little view *’s on the map are there for good reason. This mountain and it’s ridge offer some of the most, if not the most impressive views of the Presidential Range. I was amazed at the scenery and the views. What a birthday gift I thought. This will be one I won’t forget…and right now I am by myself! The weather was excellent and it was not even 7am. In the five months I spent in 2005 hiking around the Northeast this day may beat each and every hike of that period of time. It was almost surreal. The Presi’s look so remote and rugged from the vantage points along the ridge. The views in all directions just kept getting better as you approach Moriah’s summit. My camera is pretty much new and I was trying different setting to get pictures to as close to the visible eye as possible. It was a bit tough with the low angle of the sun behind me even facing away, but I got some real beauties.
After all the picture taking I finally summated at 7:40. The summit itself is a small cake class 2 (the only real hands required area on this whole trail) up a 15-20 foot rock crevice and then right up to the summit, which provides outstanding views in all directions. Picture taking was limited to the east from the low angle position of the sun as mentioned. I spent 20 minutes here enjoying the views and the crisp, comfortable conditions. Again, as I found out days earlier, it seems the bugs don’t like you after you’re stationary a bit and they begin to swarm and feed.
I left the summit at 8:00am. I moved pretty quickly about a half a mile then stopped, checked my pack, took a few pics, put the camera away. I shifted into high gear. At 8:45 I was at the Stoney Brook trail junction. Trail running briefly at times, particularly on the what I believed to be the old log path section, I made great time. I only passed one person on the way back, near main crossing of the brook. At 9:41am on the dot I was standing in the parking lot.
What a day! The views from this mountain were absolutely incredible and put icing on my “birthday cake“. I would highly recommend that Mt. Moriah be a mountain climbed as an “awesome” weather hike. It is definitely no mountain to save for a rainy day because of it’s low elevation compared to many neighboring peaks. Keep in mind it starts out very low. My GPS was reading in the high 800’ range at the parking lot. Afterwards Meghan and I would go to the Auto Road parking lot to Mt. Washington and take some pics and then head to the Maine coast where we had a splendid time on the ocean and enjoyed some “real” seafood at an ocean side restaurant called “The Lobster Shack“. (These pics are interesting if you like coastlines, they are in the Maine Coast album under my web shots account)
Here are the pics from my Mt. Moriah hike. Some have glare…some are just fantastic!
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/573035113rdzfQE
-Dom
Mt. Moriah is now my favorite White Mountain summit when it comes to views of the Presidential Range. I could not believe that a summit with a height like that of Mt. Tecumseh would turn out to be one of my all time favorite hikes for rewarding views.
I got up at 3:30am on June 13th 2009. It was my 27th birthday and the sun was already coming up on what would a memorable day for me. This was on messing around. As a bit of a birthday gift/wish Meghan granted me another pass to do a solo hike. J I did not think it would be wise for her to go as her feet were still healing from Algonquin (ADK’s) and the previous day’s trip to Arethusa Falls. (see my other post) This poor girl is still having problems with blisters and boot sizes even after getting them from a specialist.
The delicious brews and food we had consumed at Moat Mountain the night before actually seemed to give me the strength to operate on only several hours of sleep! We did not go to bed very early. I could not resist eating a piece of the leftover BBQ chicken pizza.
Now I would get a real test of endurance. I recently quit smoking several weeks ago. I had a bit of a problem with this worthless habit, smoking about half a pack a day for 18 months merely because just about everyone else I worked with did and I asked for a cigarette one day and went from there. I had quit with no problem out of mounting disgust and shame at myself. That made it easy. I wanted to know if my wind was back. I would find out it was.
I drove from North Conway to the Stony Brook Trailhead arriving at 4:35am. I hit the trail at 4:50am enjoying the fact that it was already light. (it’s not at this time in western PA). My first few pictures are a bit grainy during this time period. I was the only person on the trail and the only car in the lot. The trail starts off looking a bit less traveled, closely following the brook after the initial bridge. After a little ways it dropped down and crossed the stream. This actually took me a few minutes to figure out. Shortly thereafter it starts up what appears to be an old logging path. The path has some logs across it where the trail enters and follows it for a ways. This section is nice for making great time. Straight, not very rocky, and slowly and steadily upward. At about two thirds of the way to the Carter/Moriah ridge junction the trail jumps back across the creek. I took a ten minute break here, being only 50 minutes into the hike. I would unfortunately discover that my sandwiches were spoiled
. Good think I ate that slice of pizza I thought. I continued upward noting my progress on my GPS. There were what I believe to be moose droppings on the trail. Luckily I didn’t stomp right down in it. I made it to the ridge crest in nice time arriving at about 6:40. I noticed there are discrepancies between the trail distances at both end of the stony brook and the White Mountains map. The map distance is totals 5.0 mi. to Moriah each way…but as my pictures show the trail signs conflict each other and don’t add up. There is a slight jog along the ridge where another trail breaks off. This is only about 200’.
I would take my time from here to the summit. The little view *’s on the map are there for good reason. This mountain and it’s ridge offer some of the most, if not the most impressive views of the Presidential Range. I was amazed at the scenery and the views. What a birthday gift I thought. This will be one I won’t forget…and right now I am by myself! The weather was excellent and it was not even 7am. In the five months I spent in 2005 hiking around the Northeast this day may beat each and every hike of that period of time. It was almost surreal. The Presi’s look so remote and rugged from the vantage points along the ridge. The views in all directions just kept getting better as you approach Moriah’s summit. My camera is pretty much new and I was trying different setting to get pictures to as close to the visible eye as possible. It was a bit tough with the low angle of the sun behind me even facing away, but I got some real beauties.
After all the picture taking I finally summated at 7:40. The summit itself is a small cake class 2 (the only real hands required area on this whole trail) up a 15-20 foot rock crevice and then right up to the summit, which provides outstanding views in all directions. Picture taking was limited to the east from the low angle position of the sun as mentioned. I spent 20 minutes here enjoying the views and the crisp, comfortable conditions. Again, as I found out days earlier, it seems the bugs don’t like you after you’re stationary a bit and they begin to swarm and feed.
I left the summit at 8:00am. I moved pretty quickly about a half a mile then stopped, checked my pack, took a few pics, put the camera away. I shifted into high gear. At 8:45 I was at the Stoney Brook trail junction. Trail running briefly at times, particularly on the what I believed to be the old log path section, I made great time. I only passed one person on the way back, near main crossing of the brook. At 9:41am on the dot I was standing in the parking lot.
What a day! The views from this mountain were absolutely incredible and put icing on my “birthday cake“. I would highly recommend that Mt. Moriah be a mountain climbed as an “awesome” weather hike. It is definitely no mountain to save for a rainy day because of it’s low elevation compared to many neighboring peaks. Keep in mind it starts out very low. My GPS was reading in the high 800’ range at the parking lot. Afterwards Meghan and I would go to the Auto Road parking lot to Mt. Washington and take some pics and then head to the Maine coast where we had a splendid time on the ocean and enjoyed some “real” seafood at an ocean side restaurant called “The Lobster Shack“. (These pics are interesting if you like coastlines, they are in the Maine Coast album under my web shots account)
Here are the pics from my Mt. Moriah hike. Some have glare…some are just fantastic!
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/573035113rdzfQE
-Dom
