Mount Moriah

A lot of things have happened since Katy and I tagged the top of our most recent 4000 footer. Most notably, we got married! After years of dating, a long engagement, and much planning, we finally tied the knot on June 12, 2010. It was a perfect ceremony, a whirlwind reception, and an incredible day. And it probably goes without saying that we've been busy over these last few months! When we originally looked at our summer and possible weekends that we could use for hiking, this past weekend was one of the few that was free. We actually had grand visions and tentative plans of doing a single day, half Presidential Traverse with Patty and Mike. However, when those plans fell through, we decided to knock off a single peak nearby instead: Mount Moriah.

On Friday night we threw a bunch of camping gear into the car and took off for the 3+ hour drive to the campground at Moose Brook State Park. The truth is that we almost didn't go at all because my knee has been giving me some significant trouble over the past few weeks. Without a lot of other hiking opportunities coming up, though, I decided to give it a shot and see how it goes. Much of the ride was done in the rain, but when we arrived at the campground after 10PM, the rain had finally stopped. We set up our tent, and tried to get a small fire going, but most of the wood in the forest was very wet, and it was hard to find dry wood in the dark. We got a small flame going for a bit, but quickly retired to sleep after that.

By 10AM Saturday morning, we were at the trailhead for the Carter-Moriah trail in Gorham, NH and began the 4.5 mile trek to the top. The first couple miles of the trail were moderately steep but with a very persistent incline. We reached the minor summit of Mount Surprise just over an hour into the hike. After this, though, we quickly encountered some long sections consisting of large rock slaps that required some considerable scrambling to navigate. The trail was mostly dry which was fortunate because in wet conditions the rock slabs would have been much more difficult to scale. I say mostly dry, though, because we also encountered a few sections at the higher elevations of deep mud. All in all, it was a moderate hike and we reached the summit at about 1PM.

We ate our lunch at the peak and collected some cloudy views before heading back down the way we came. By that point my knee was quite swollen and sore but I made it down without too much issue. Throughout the whole hike we only saw two other groups on the trail, one of which asked if we were "knocking one off today". Indeed we were! We were back at the car by 4PM and enjoyed an evening by the fire at the campground afterwards to conclude our trip.

With a busy rest of the summer ahead of us, it was good to get another mountain done. Hopefully we'll find some time in the superior hiking months of September and October to knock off a few more!