Outdoor Diversion: Spring Conditions on a Hike to Mount Moriah

It's that time of year when the hiking gets interesting. There's the usual wet, muddy, soft snow trail conditions. A check of the weekend weather forecast had Saturday looking like the better day for hiking with temps in the 60's, slightly cooler at the summit. I would be joining Jill and Larry for a hike up Mount Moriah (4,049'). There were no trail reports for the Stony Brook approach so we would be going up the Carter-Moriah Trail for a nine mile up and back hike.

It had been raining last night and was still very cloudy this morning when I left the house. Driving to the trailhead I saw a couple of moose beside the road, not unusual as they're starting to move around and coming out of the deep woods. Just as I got into Berlin there was a problem with live power lines across the road. That required me to turn around and take a twenty mile detour. I was a little late arriving at the parking lot, Jill and Larry were waiting for me. We decided to take both snowshoes and microspikes assuming there would be deep, soft snow at the higher elevations and probably some ice along the way.

We started out on a dry and bare trail. It didn't take long before we saw the first patches of ice and snow but they were easy to walk around. There were a few good blowdowns that we had to navigate over, under and around as we made our way up the trail. When we got to the icy sections of trail it was time to put on the microspikes. We were now ready to ascend the ledges just below Mount Surprise. There was a combination of soft snow, ice and bare ledge as we made our way up.

As we continued up the soft snow got deeper and a step off the middle of the trail would result in postholing. The microspikes were working well for the ascent but we all agreed that snowshoes would be best on the way down. Just below the summit the summit sign was almost buried with the snow level up to the bottom of the sign. We went up onto the small summit area and there were three other hikers already there.

When the other hikers began their descent we briefly had the summit to ourselves. The clouds were constantly moving with the views coming and going. The temperature was comfortable and there was no wind. We ate lunch and got some photos before starting our descent. One other hiker arrived as we were leaving the summit. When we got off the bare ledge of the summit we put our snowshoes on as we had planned. It was definitely the right decision as it allowed us to easily descend without postholing in the soft snow.

Arriving back down at the ledges we changed back to microspikes in order to safely descend the icy sections. Once again it was the right decision. It wasn't long before we were back to bare booting as the snow and ice disappeared. There were sections of running water on the trail that were easy to get around. As we arrived back at the trailhead the temperature was noticeably warmer. A short road walk and we were back at the parking area.

Once again I'm glad to report that it was better-than-expected weather and trail conditions. As we get further into Spring hiking the snow on the trails will continue to be replaced with water and mud as melting continues. Mount Moriah was my last hike for this month as April is quickly coming to an end and May will soon be here. It was a fun hike with Jill and Larry!

Enjoy the photos!