PETCH
New member
Date: 04/3/10 (Saturday)
Cast of Characters: Just me
Peaks/Trails: South Moat, Middle Moat, North Moat; then Middle Moat, South Moat via Moat Mountain Trail
Trail Conditions:
Moat Mountain trail up to South Moat wet in areas with run off flowing over the ledges. Nearly snow free with exception of a few patches. From South Moat to Middle Moat, a combination of snow and rock. Some postholing. From Middle Moat to North Moat, snowshoes essential.
All stream crossings were rock hoppable. Lots of blow downs between Middle and North Moat.
Commentary:
Well, with the impending ridiculous heat I didn’t want to get into any type of post-holing escapade. So I opted for some non-4K stuff that had recent trail beta of being nearly snow free. I have never been up on the Moats and decided to take a little solitude hike on that range.
The temps were in the lower 40’s at the trailhead, and there was only one other car in the lot. The trail started off a little wet and then transitioned to a smooth wider trail (would be great on mountain bike), then transitioned to a rockier trail as it ascends South Moat.
Look Mom, no snow!
Early morning fog over in Maine
It wasn’t long before I took of my pants
, and was hiking in shorts with tall gaitors. Just a few patches of snow to the summit of South Moat. I ran into the other hiker in front of me, Bob Drescher. We talked and hiked over to Middle Moat. From South to Middle, there were sections of snow, but not enough to warrant snowshoes (which I did bring). Bob and I, at this point parted ways (nice meeting you Bob), as he headed back and I decided to add some miles to this adventure and head to North Moat. There is a relatively deep col on the way to North Moat, but hey it’s just another peak, right?
North Moat, me, Big George, and Carter Notch
Well, this is where things started to get interesting. As I descended, I could not seem to find the trail, or any evidence that anyone had gone this way recently. I did find a few footprints, but they meandered and seem to end. The combination of rock, snow, and no tree blazing, made it difficult to find where the trail took off. Even with my GPS, the trail did not want to show itself. So, I put on my snowshoes and headed off figuring I would cross the trail at one point or another. I kept going down but heading in the right direction.
I’ll call this section: The attack of the “Black Chicken”: As I went along, I spooked a bird and I heard it take flight. I figured it was a partridge or grouse. I don’t hunt and I don’t pretend to know much about the bird varieties in this area. Well, instead of scaring the bird away, it flew towards me and landed on a branch quite near. I took out my camera and tried to get a close up of it. As I got closer, it jumped to the ground and started running around violently. I figured it was protecting a nearby nest. The bird was the size of a chicken, black, and was a redhead. The whole ordeal was quite strange. From what I gather, it is a spruce grouse. And one of generous proportion, I might add.
The killer Black Chicken! Do those chickens have sharp talons?
I continued my quest of the “Third Moat”, and continued bushwacking. I did get to the top of the hill with the junction with the Red Ridge Trail. Then tried to find the Moat Mountain trail going left off the rock slab. No dice. Started bushwacking again in the approximate direction. Things started getting very thick, so I decided to try to get up to the nearby ridge, to get a better view. My GPS told me I was still near the trail, but the accuracy at the time was 30ft. So, I started going up this very thickly forested ridge. It was hard going, and it was really putting a drain on my energy reserves. Somewhere in this area, I lost my Red Sox cap, and a bottom section of one of my hiking poles. Once in a while during a hike, you reach a point where you stop having fun. This was that point. As I gained the ridge, I could still see North Moat quite a ways off.
I believe I picked up the trail again. No foot traffic, but a depression path in the snow. No blazing of any kind, so who really knows. I began climbing what I thought was the final steep section up North Moat. At this point I removed my snowshoes, and placed them near some rocks- as I would be returning the same way. I barebooted up the rocks. Then things leveled out, and I realized I should have put the snowshoes on my pack, because the actual peak was still a ways off with lots of snow in the way. Normally, I would feel bad about post-holing a trail. But, today, that was not the case. With the snow melting as fast as it is, the fact that no one seems to come this way, and not really knowing if I was on the trail to begin with……I did some post-holing. Guilty as charged, sir.
Take a seat on the way to North Moat
North Moat
I finally made it to North Moat and was rewarded with some great views. I didn’t hang out long, as I had quite a haul back and had wasted a lot of energy on my bushwacking adventures. I doubled back and with a lot of effort made my way back to Middle Moat. I was beat and took off by boots, which were thoroughly soaked. I changed socks, shirt, ate some more and headed back towards civilization. Since leaving Bob earlier (hours ago), I hadn’t seen a soul. Well, there was that black chicken….. But I could see a lot of people over on South Moat.
Up and over South Moat and the home stretch back towards the trailhead. I passed several folks going both up and down, including Tom and Atticus. Nice meeting you guys.
I wanted to add a 4th Moat to the day (Moat Brewery), but decided to head back instead. The temp at the car on return was 80.
Hiking stats: about 10.8 miles, about 3900 ft of ele gain.
Slideshow ^
Hiking Pictures:http://picasaweb.google.com/mpetcher
Ascent List:http://peakbagger.com/climber/climblistc.aspx?cid=1767
GPS tracks:http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=827745
Petch
Cast of Characters: Just me
Peaks/Trails: South Moat, Middle Moat, North Moat; then Middle Moat, South Moat via Moat Mountain Trail
Trail Conditions:
Moat Mountain trail up to South Moat wet in areas with run off flowing over the ledges. Nearly snow free with exception of a few patches. From South Moat to Middle Moat, a combination of snow and rock. Some postholing. From Middle Moat to North Moat, snowshoes essential.
All stream crossings were rock hoppable. Lots of blow downs between Middle and North Moat.
Commentary:
Well, with the impending ridiculous heat I didn’t want to get into any type of post-holing escapade. So I opted for some non-4K stuff that had recent trail beta of being nearly snow free. I have never been up on the Moats and decided to take a little solitude hike on that range.
The temps were in the lower 40’s at the trailhead, and there was only one other car in the lot. The trail started off a little wet and then transitioned to a smooth wider trail (would be great on mountain bike), then transitioned to a rockier trail as it ascends South Moat.
Look Mom, no snow!
Early morning fog over in Maine
It wasn’t long before I took of my pants
, and was hiking in shorts with tall gaitors. Just a few patches of snow to the summit of South Moat. I ran into the other hiker in front of me, Bob Drescher. We talked and hiked over to Middle Moat. From South to Middle, there were sections of snow, but not enough to warrant snowshoes (which I did bring). Bob and I, at this point parted ways (nice meeting you Bob), as he headed back and I decided to add some miles to this adventure and head to North Moat. There is a relatively deep col on the way to North Moat, but hey it’s just another peak, right? North Moat, me, Big George, and Carter Notch
Well, this is where things started to get interesting. As I descended, I could not seem to find the trail, or any evidence that anyone had gone this way recently. I did find a few footprints, but they meandered and seem to end. The combination of rock, snow, and no tree blazing, made it difficult to find where the trail took off. Even with my GPS, the trail did not want to show itself. So, I put on my snowshoes and headed off figuring I would cross the trail at one point or another. I kept going down but heading in the right direction.
I’ll call this section: The attack of the “Black Chicken”: As I went along, I spooked a bird and I heard it take flight. I figured it was a partridge or grouse. I don’t hunt and I don’t pretend to know much about the bird varieties in this area. Well, instead of scaring the bird away, it flew towards me and landed on a branch quite near. I took out my camera and tried to get a close up of it. As I got closer, it jumped to the ground and started running around violently. I figured it was protecting a nearby nest. The bird was the size of a chicken, black, and was a redhead. The whole ordeal was quite strange. From what I gather, it is a spruce grouse. And one of generous proportion, I might add.
The killer Black Chicken! Do those chickens have sharp talons?
I continued my quest of the “Third Moat”, and continued bushwacking. I did get to the top of the hill with the junction with the Red Ridge Trail. Then tried to find the Moat Mountain trail going left off the rock slab. No dice. Started bushwacking again in the approximate direction. Things started getting very thick, so I decided to try to get up to the nearby ridge, to get a better view. My GPS told me I was still near the trail, but the accuracy at the time was 30ft. So, I started going up this very thickly forested ridge. It was hard going, and it was really putting a drain on my energy reserves. Somewhere in this area, I lost my Red Sox cap, and a bottom section of one of my hiking poles. Once in a while during a hike, you reach a point where you stop having fun. This was that point. As I gained the ridge, I could still see North Moat quite a ways off.
I believe I picked up the trail again. No foot traffic, but a depression path in the snow. No blazing of any kind, so who really knows. I began climbing what I thought was the final steep section up North Moat. At this point I removed my snowshoes, and placed them near some rocks- as I would be returning the same way. I barebooted up the rocks. Then things leveled out, and I realized I should have put the snowshoes on my pack, because the actual peak was still a ways off with lots of snow in the way. Normally, I would feel bad about post-holing a trail. But, today, that was not the case. With the snow melting as fast as it is, the fact that no one seems to come this way, and not really knowing if I was on the trail to begin with……I did some post-holing. Guilty as charged, sir.
Take a seat on the way to North Moat
North Moat
I finally made it to North Moat and was rewarded with some great views. I didn’t hang out long, as I had quite a haul back and had wasted a lot of energy on my bushwacking adventures. I doubled back and with a lot of effort made my way back to Middle Moat. I was beat and took off by boots, which were thoroughly soaked. I changed socks, shirt, ate some more and headed back towards civilization. Since leaving Bob earlier (hours ago), I hadn’t seen a soul. Well, there was that black chicken….. But I could see a lot of people over on South Moat.
Up and over South Moat and the home stretch back towards the trailhead. I passed several folks going both up and down, including Tom and Atticus. Nice meeting you guys.
I wanted to add a 4th Moat to the day (Moat Brewery), but decided to head back instead. The temp at the car on return was 80.
Hiking stats: about 10.8 miles, about 3900 ft of ele gain.
Slideshow ^
Hiking Pictures:http://picasaweb.google.com/mpetcher
Ascent List:http://peakbagger.com/climber/climblistc.aspx?cid=1767
GPS tracks:http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=827745
Petch
