Mount Moriah...well, not exactly

[sapblatt]

I left the Boston area this morning at 4:30am for the trudge up route 16 ( I agree with Dr. Wu...I hate route 16...I am often tempted to take 93 even when I am heading to the Pinkham area) for what was to be a momentous day; my first winter 4000 footer and my first hike with others from VFTT.

I met peakbagger, Terri, and bobandgeri at the Carter Moriah trail head in Gorham and we headed out. The first 1.5 miles were easy going, broken trail, easy grades. After that we had to break the trail...I use this expression lightly as after I planted my face for about the 50th time I did not do anymore trail breaking as the others in the group took sympathy on me. Others caught up with us and made the trail breaking a little easier. As this was my first mountain snowshoeing I had a lot of difficulty as the trail got deeper...all of the VFTT folks really helped me along. I learned a lot about snowshoeing today that I was never going to learn in a local park. It started to get a little easier when I finally got the kicking and planting down but by the time we hit a false summit after 4 1/2 hours on the trail (well, this was actually off the trail as we bushwhacked a bit when we lost the trail) I decided to pack it in. I knew there would be at least another hour ( we were at about 3400 feet, so we had another 700 feet to go) and I did not feel like I would have enough energy left to get down in one piece. So I said goodbye to all and tried to assure them that I would be fine (and I was) I began my descent.

This part of the day went a lot smoother for me, although I did do a bit of out of control sliding on the steeper sections, but it kind of made me feel like a kid again. Also, if the FBI ever needs a print of my butt they could certainly check out the few 50 + foot sections that I slid down! After a while I decided to take my pack off and have lunch. This is when I met the illustrious post holer who single handedly did his best to ruin the freshly broken trail for all of those who broke it. I do not know why I was so nice to him...if I ran into after the difficulty I had later on the descent I would not have been so kind...there were many large holes all the way down. A little further down I met HikerBob and Karen who were making there way up.

All in all...no summit but a great day and I am ready for a couple of more Advil and off to bed!

Bobandgeri...did you get to Waumbek before spring?

 

[bobandgeri]

Michael - Great hike on Moriah! of the 12 people that started the hike on Saturday, 5 of us reached the summit. It took 6 hours with about 5 1/2 hours of breaking trail.

Yes - 7 of us did the Waumbek hik starting at 1:30 AM and returning to the trailhead at 6:13 before enjoying a well deserver breakfast.

Pics of the hikes will be on our Web Page later tonight or Monday.

Great to meet you!

 

[HikerBob]

Repeated thanks for coming out to trail break for us It was a pleasure to meet you all and I'm sure our paths will cross again, although in my case that usually means being overtaken on the way in and on the way out

A really fantastic end of winter hike, summit or not.

Bob

 

[SherpaKroto]

sapblatt: welcome to the wolrd of VFTT hikes where it isn't so much about the summits as it is about the friends you meet on the way.

 

[sapblatt]

Thank you all

Thaks for all of the nice comments...it was nice to meet an hike with all of you. Summit or not, I had a great day out there...it was a great expereince!

 

[HikerBob]

SherpaK said :

welcome to the wolrd of VFTT hikes where it isn't so much about the summits as it is about the friends you meet on the way

Damn it Sherp, I almost had a Hallmark moment tear there Well said!

Bob