This hike was one of many that Mike P, one of the "regulars" on the AMC Forum that I participate in, put together. The first of these hikes that I went on was 3 or 4 years ago and it was a relatively small group. Today's hike ended up being 15 people! I'm thinking Mike's ultimate goal is to put together a group larger than the entire AMC! The plan was to meet at Pinkham Notch Visitor Center at 6:45 to make the decision on whether we were going to do Washington, or if the conditions weren't good enough for that, to do Mount Moriah instead. To be there at that time of morning means that my alarm went off at 3:30am and Bob picked me up at 4:30am! The things people will do for recreation!!

      The weather and avalanche conditions are always posted at the Visitor Center and today they actually didn't sound all that bad. But they also didn't sound like the conditions that I would choose to do a hike like Washington in so we opted to do our backup hike, Mount Moriah. We got back in our cars and headed over to the Stony Brook trailhead. Once there I was surprised at how many people were arriving at that time of morning. What was more surprising was that they were all part of our group!

      We spotted a couple of cars over at the Carter Moriah trailhead so that we could do a loop hike but still get back to our starting point. Then we got down to the business at hand, the important things.....like just how many people were true to their word and actually showed up with the home baked cookies they had promised! Fortunately there were plenty of cookies to go around! By now a few people had started up the trail and as Mike and I were also ready to start, we got under way.

      The beginning of the trail is quite pleasant and it's the kind of trail that I like at the beginning of a hike. Nearly level, easy to follow and great for the warm up. After about a mile of hiking we came to the crossing of Stony Brook. I got a picture of Mike and Dave making their way across which is often very interesting this time of year as the brooks aren't always completely bridged with snow and ice yet.

      As we had just had a snow storm dump well over a foot of snow at home I had been wondering just how much the mountains received and how soon we would need to put on the snowshoes. Fortunately it looked like they only got about 6 inches and there had been a few people up the trail already so we continued to bare boot it for as long as we could. But as you can see in this picture of Mike P heading down the trail, there was certainly plenty of snow on the ground.

      Not too much further up the trail I managed to get another shot of Mike as the sun was coming up behind him. It may have been cloudy up high and mostly cloudy even down where we were but by the time we got high enough to get our first views things were looking pretty good indeed! We were soon flirting with treeline and everyone stopped for a photo op.

      I have to confess that as we got a view of the Northern Presidentials popping out of the clouds and the trail ahead leading off into the gorgeous blue sky I was really questioning our decision to be here rather than over on Mount Washington! But that's the way the game of winter climbing often goes and we were all having a great time on Mount Moriah so all was well!

      The group was now pretty spread out along the trail and as per usual I was in the "slow" group! We eventually caught up to some of the others that had been to the top and had decided to return the same way they had come up. We had a little powwow and four of us (Me, Mike P, Paul C, Bob F) decided that we were going to continue along the planned loop rather than return with the others. So, on we went and we were not too far from the summit when we had to make our way up a couple of last steep sections of trail. Here's a shot of Mike and Bob snowshoeing up one of the steeper parts of the trail. And here's Paul making his way up the same steep section.

      But even when you move as slow as some of us do you still eventually make it to the summit! Why do we do it? What's so great about being on a mountain top in the middle of winter? Well, here's a picture of Bob looking at the fantastic view from the summit! Doesn't that make it clear why we do it? What? You say, "no"??? Ohhh, then I don't know what to say! Some of us are foolish enough that we love being on a mountain top even if you can't see a dang thing!! It is still soooo beautiful!!

      We didn't spend much time on top before heading on down the Carter Moriah Trail. Surprisingly this portion of the trail had only seen one person on snowshoes since the last storm so it wasn't really broken out enough for easy going. But it was down hill, so even I didn't mind taking the lead! It was getting later though and as you can see in this great shot of the Presidentials off through the trees, the sun was getting low mighty fast! I was beginning to wonder if this would be another of Mike's famous, "end in the dark" hikes! But there was still way too much fun to be had to worry about that now!

      So then, this next picture is of Mike heading up another steep section. Hey, hold on a minute here! Shouldn't he be headed down the trail??? You're absolutely right! But, if you've ever spent time on snowshoes you'll know that often times descending steep sections of trail can be extremely tricky! So much so that some folks, like Mike, choose to do some sections backwards!!! Personally I think it's just so he doesn't have to look at where he's going to plant his face in the snow if he should fall!! But to each his own, I suppose. Case in point.....here's Mike still coming down backwards but in this shot you can clearly see that Paul uses the, walk forward, fall backward, butt slide method! What ever works!

      Continuing with our lesson in how to snowshoe....or was that our lesson in how not to snowshoe? Anyway, Mike and Paul weren't the only ones having fun. Bob seemed to be utilizing the "how much time can I spend rolling in the snow" method! He was just skilled enough to never do it at a time that I could get the camera out fast enough to catch him at it!! Oh well, here's one last photo of Mike practicing his fencing skills. Oh hold on, he's not fencing, he's a real mountaineer and he's practicing using his trekking pole as an avalanche probe! No, that's not it either. Well, I'll let you decide for yourself just what he's trying to do, because I really don't believe that he's just trying to prevent yet another fall into the snow!