Every year I am always a bit disappointed when winter-hiking season comes to an end, wishing I’d managed to find more opportunities to get out. But then, summer hiking season begins and it’s always exciting to see again just how beautiful the White Mountains can be in summer. This weekend – Memorial Day weekend – is sort of the unofficial start of summer for hiking, biking, boating, and more. So I set out to find a peak to climb: something I’d not visited in a long while, and hopefully not attracting hordes of Memorial Day tourists. I settled on Mount Moriah, in the Carter-Moriah range just across the valley from the Presidential Range. The last time I’d been over this peak was (gasp) the fall of 1983, nearly forty-one years earlier. Today, I took a different route and experienced one of the most beautiful trails of the Whites. Read on!
I took the Stony Brook Trail from the valley to the ridgeline, where it joins the Carter-Moriah trail that traverses the Carter range and the peaks of Moriah. A report from another hiker (19 days ago) indicated there was still a lot of snow; it was unstable, and deep, allowing the hiker’s boots to punch through deep into the snow (aka, to “posthole”), which is tiring. I can believe it – just seven weeks ago I was snowshoeing in deep powder, full winter conditions, on Mount Moosilauke. Today, on Moriah, the snow was nearly gone, except for one tiny patch of snow on the ridgeline trail as I approached the summit.
The Stony Brook trail was beautiful, following the burbling brook for much of its distance, and with spring wildflowers emerging here and there.
The trail left the brook, became steeper and more rugged, before it reached the ridgeline after 3.6 miles. Once on the ridge, I followed the Carter-Moriah trail (which is also the Appalachian Trail) for 1.4 miles northward. It passed in and out of the woods, and often broke out onto open granite ledges with fantastic views back along the Carter range and the Wildcat range beyond; or to the east across the valley into the mountains and hills of Maine [video]. The green palette was stunning, with the light greens of early hardwood foliage in the valleys contrasting with the dark greens of the spruce and fir forests of the higher mountain ridges.
The final tenth of a mile was on a steep, cliffy side trail to the summit, but totally worth it. The summit is bare, though small, with views across the valley to the northern Presidential Range – Mounts Washington, Clay, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison, each dappled with lingering snowfields – and south along the Carter and Wildcat ranges – and east across the hills into Maine. I shared this rocky outcrop with 9 other hikers, nibbling on their lunch and marveling in the good weather on this first weekend of summer-like hiking.
During the climb I managed to make 20-minute miles on the first two miles, 30-minute miles on the third mile, and 40-minute miles for the final two miles, given the increasingly steep terrain. Not bad – but I was blown away by two runners who had passed me (running!) on the steepest uphill, and again on their run back downhill. Whew!
I reluctantly turned back and retraced my steps five miles to the car, my legs and knees reminding me that a ten-mile hike (with 3000′ gain) is no easy task. On the return I averaged 22-minute miles.
Check out the photo gallery!
Hike stats:
Distance: 15.6km (9.7 miles)
Gain: 938m (3077 feet)
Time: 4h45
David Kotz 
Great photos and trip report – thanks for sharing. I have been itching to get up to the Whites, and Moriah via Stony Brook has been on my radar. Looks like a great hike.