| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Surprise, Mt. Moriah, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Carter-Moriah Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Saturday, January 2, 2021 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Bangor St was not plowed at 8am when I arrived. Oh the joys of hiking in a snowstorm. The road is flat so my FWD car with some clearance did just okay but if it weren’t for another car having already “brokeâ€â€™the road I’m not so sure how my car would’ve done. I parked in the power line spot. It wasn’t plowed by the time I returned around 3pm but the road had been. This meant I had to shovel out a spot for my car to get out by the power lines though. Another car had parked right by the trailhead. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Ice - Black, Snow - Trace/Minimal Depth, Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts, Snow/Ice - Postholes |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes, Light Traction, Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
None |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
The trail is marked regularly but not frequently in blue. There was one spot in the hardwoods (maybe shortly before the first ledges??) where I wasn’t sure which where the trail went and did a bit of wandering before finding it. The correct track is probably well consolidated by now but if it’s not it was the right branch (I think I branched two ways again but at this point I don’t recall which was correct). The area got a little snow today too so old tracks may be covered. There were some other spots on the ledges where I went the wrong way but found my way back without backtracking. I think I corrected these mistakes on the way back down except for perhaps one of them. I’m sure that the trail has seen much ore traffic now though and is likely broken out correctly. One very large blowdown in the hardwoods low down that someone (local Larry perhaps?!) put some large stick underneath for you to step up on so you could lore easily straddle it. Very nice! I believe there were some tiebreaker learners/widowmakers/duckunders higher up but I don’t recall precisely. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Didn’t see any but most hiking dogs could probably handle this trail although it does have some very steep ledge. They probably would’ve liked the powder but make sure they stay warm enough! |
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 | Bugs: |
Nothing flying but I have been seeing some spiders out! |
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 | Lost and Found: |
I picked up what looked like some neon orange clothe and packed it out. It was hung by a tree branch. |
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 | Comments: |
I knew it would be foolish not to get out today with such a busy month of gridding ahead of me but I also knew it would probably be foolish to travel any distance in a snowstorm without AWD so I stayed very close to my (new) home and hiked Moriah for January. Second hike of the month and my 4th 4000 footer this month bringing the grand total for January to 14 peaks.
I started out bare booting as there was minimal new snow but probably 1.5mi or so I started slipping as there was ice underneath the snow. I didn’t think my dull spikes would do much there particularly given the inch or two of snow on top so I threw the snowshoes on knowing that there’d likely soon come a point where they’d be warranted anyway. They worked well. New snow depth didn’t really seem to increase to much more than 4-6inches at most but there were some significant drifts at elevation that definitely warranted snowshoes. I was surprised at how large some of these drifts were as, unlike the forecasts predicted, there was next to no wind on my way up. It wasn’t until I was back at my car that there seemed to be any wind.
There were barebooters tracks that came up the Stony Brook Trail. Looked to me like they definitely should’ve been in snowshoes but since it was fresh powder hopefully people came up with shoes later and just smoothed it out. I met soem barebooters on my way down as well. Since new snow depth was minimal and I’d already gone through once with my snowshoes (and twice above the spot I’d want them) there damage seemed very minimal to me except probably up high where there were some drifts.
I fell several times on the way down. I’m going to blame it on the fact that there wasnminmail snow depth and my shoes had already consolidated things some thus revealing many rocks, roots, etc. I probably should have just taken them off part way down but I decided to bang up my body (and shoes) and leave them on until I reached the car instead. There was also some thick black ice underneath snow as well on the ledges. I fell on this some too but at least now the ice is visible for others 🙃 Now that I imagine the trail is well packed (although perhaps new snow today will werrabtbthem again) snowshoes may not be necessary but crampons probably would’ve be a bad idea to deal with the ice on these sections. Otherwise, spikes would be fine.
The beginning of my hike felt pretty wet in the snow but it stopped a bit earlier than predicted and made the second part of the hike more enjoyable with the fresh snow all around me :) Very slow going for me. The hike took me about 7hrs. |
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 | Name: |
Liam Cooney |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2021-01-05 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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