Call the wind Moriah
or
Not without peril
dateline 2004-05-07
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dateline 2004-05-07
I picked up Will at 8:40
We reached Wilfred's in Gorham at 11:15
We each had a turkey dinner.
We reached the trailhead on Bangor St at 11:55
I was wearing a t-shirt, shorts and my velco-fastening walking shoes.
The air temp was 60 and the sky 90% sunny, just a few clouds to the
south.
The wind was blowing about 10 MPH.
We began the hike at 11:59:23
The trail begins on the north edge of Moriah and leads SSE to the summit 4.5 miles away. The trail began on an old logging road, fairly steep. About a half mile up I noticed a white trillium, then a few more. Then came the maroon trilliums, at first a few then dozens, probably a hundred in all. There were several nice views toward the presidentials and down the peabody valley to the east. Mount Surprise provided a nice view West, North and East. The wind picked up to 20 MPH but sounded like 30 just overhead in the trees.
At 3000 feet we saw snow in a foot-wide gap in the rocks.
At 3400 feet we started see snow in the woods beside the trail.
At 3500 feet we occasionally had to step over small patches of snow which had turned to ice.
At 3700 feet we began to encounter measurable snow in the path, 12 inches in places, mostly frozen granular. While traveling uphill, we had to cling to branches on the sides of the path and hang out over the deeper snow in the middle of the path. At 3900 feet it seemed that most of the snow was in the path but the sides of the path were so dense with conifers that we could not bushwhack. We struggled on, at one point I broke through some crusty snow and my left leg disappeared, all 36 inches of it. I pulled it out while kneeling on the snow with the other leg and crawled to the next bare patch. Then I balanced on one foot while removing each sneaker and banging it on a tree. I probably emptied my sneakers 5 times during the ascent. Finally, we came to a sign which read, "Moriah summit 50 Feet ->". There was at least four feet on snow on that path. I found a rather solid spot, tamped it down and lunged for a rock on the edge of the trail. We then hung onto branches again while hanging out over the snow. Once we got past that pile of snow it was a simple scramble over large rocks to the summit. On the summit the wind was 30 MPH and gusting higher. The air temp was about 45. It was now 3:57. Elapsed time:3:57, distance:4.57. The book time is 3:50. We sat down, ate M&Ms and dreaded the return.
"Fortunately" I had studied all the routes to the summit. Only omitting snow depth from my studies. I knew the other trail up the mountain began in the west on Route 16 and reached a ridge 1 mile to the south of the summit. I offered Will the theory that a trail down the south-facing side of the mountain should have less snow on it. He could find no fault with that logic. The only obvious down-side was that this trail would be a half mile longer and leave us 3 miles from the car.
I changed my shirt and socks.
At 4:09 we started off. We had to return the 50 feet to the main trail and hurdle the 4 foot pile of snow there. We then dropped down a few 6-8 foot high rocks with just enough cracks in them to make it doable. We dropped down another ten feet into a bowl which was about 20 feet across and 50 feet wide. The trail went out the far end, 50 feet away. The snow looked solid, but it also looked deep. I tried to get to the far side where I could hug trees and skirt the worst of it. One step shy of the far side my left leg disappeared again. I pulled it out while "resting" on my right knee. I then scampered along the tree/snow border until reaching a flat dry spot. Will followed my path while avoiding the pitfall. This path went for over a half mile without dropping appreciably. There were several very snowy places, the sides of the path were forgiving. We finally came out on a rock ledge which slanted down at a good angle. The next 0.2 miles dropped 200 feet. We began to feel optimistic. After 1.4 miles we came to the Stoney Brook Trail which promised to take us down to Route 16. The junction was in a low shady spot. Within 10 feet there was 2 feet of snow on a pair of planks which had been installed to keep hikers out of the standing water. In a few spots the an edge of the planks was exposed. This snow was fairly firm and we danced our way westward. As soon as the planks ended, we came out of the sheltered spot and found a nice western exposure. From this point on there was no snow on the path although we continued to see occasional patches in shady spots of trail.
At 7:33 we reached Route 16. We hiked North on 16 for 1.8 miles, 43 minutes, 2.5 MPH. Then Right on Route 2 for 0.6 miles, 12 minutes, 2.7 MPH (tailwind). Then Right on Bangor St for 0.4 miles, 11 minutes, 2.4 MPH.
My car has never looked better. Air temp 40. We drove to McDonald's. I got an Apple Pie, Coffee Shake, carton of Milk and a small Hot Chocolate in a large cup. I added the milk to the Hot Chocolate and the resulting temperature was drinkable.
I got home at 12:15.
