July 4th Weekend, Moriah and Cabot - 3-5/Jul/99
I was hoping to reserve a cabin up north for some July 4th peakbagging and
general good times. Just three weeks before the event I managed to reserve
on of the DOC cabins that I have access to, and the email invites went out. Since
there are several peakbaggers in the group with different peaks remaining on
their lists, we didn't expect to all hike together, but enough people needed enough
of the same ones that it was going to be fun no matter what.
Map of Moriah hike
Elevation chart of Moriah hike
Most of us arrived on Friday night, and Saturday morning we split up into our groups
and headed out. The non-peakbaggers went for the northern Presies via Jefferson Notch,
another group went for Hale and Zealand Falls Hut, Ching and Andrew were going to hit
something on the way north but a late start did them in. My group (me, Brenda, Jorj,
Lafe, and Allison) headed for Moriah, the northern-most peak on the Carter ridge. We
first dropped a car in Gorham at the end of the Carter-Moriah trail. This trailhead is
near the intersection of Rt 2 and Rt 16, just east of there. Then we drove south on Rt 16
to the Stony Brook trailhead. The trail climbs steadily through some wonderful woods, and
we all got hot very quickly, which is the real reason I fell into a stream. Lafe and Al
took off, like they usually do, and Brenda, Jorj and I took our time.
Eventually (3.5 miles later) we hit the Carter-Moriah
trail junction. It's an unusual
trail junction, occuring on boardwalk. The ridge is wet there, and the trailbed is made
up of bog bridges built from lumber that was flown up there by helicopter. There are
100's of sections. We headed north and soon climbed up to a
series of views to the
east and
south. There are many false summits on the way up, I didn't remember any of them
from my last visit. My advice: don't celebrate until you hit the spur trail junction.
We did make it, finding Lafe sleeping on the summit and Allison bouldering her way around.
The views were nice, Washington was in and out of the clouds, the northern Presies were
a bit grey, but we were in the sun. We grabbed
lunch and rested, as did some
4-legged friends
we met up there. The actual summit is pretty small, but open. There are a few
open ledges nearby if it gets too crowded.
The trip down was pretty much a blur. It's a steep drop up top, with some nice open views
along the way, then it ends up following some woods roads for very pleasant journey. We
ran out of water just before hitting the car. All in all a great hike, only my second
time on Moriah. I highly recommend it.
Map of Cabot hike
Elevation chart of Cabot hike
The next day we chose another nearby peak that was on many people's list, Cabot.
Unfortunately, my logistical planning didn't quite work out. My idea was to drive three
cars to the Cabot trailhead, start some people off, and head the other two cars over
to the Unknown Pond trailhead. Those people would drop a car and head back, starting up
the trail 45 minute behind us. Here's what actually happened.
I was in the
first group (Kathy, Brenda, me, Robert, Elaine, and
Jobildunc the dog) who headed up
the Mt Cabot trail. We made steady progress through the woods roads that start the
trail. There are some
steep sections, but for the most part it's a steady climb up
some
well built trails. At the
viewpoint, I met up with some folks who knew of this
website and asked for me by name. Very odd. We continued to the
Cabot Cabin, expecting
Ed and Allison any second. But they didn't show up, so we napped after lunch. And
napped. There's a view just up from the cabin and I hung out there for a while until
I heard voices. It's Ed and Allison, but they're coming from the wrong side! What
happened was it took them 40 minutes just to drive around. They decided to climb from
there and meet us up top, but starting so much later than us, it took them a lot longer
to arrive. We headed down, leaving Ed and Al to rest up.
The actual summit is a bit further, and has no view whatsoever. It's literally a
sign nailed to a tree in the woods. But it's the
summit, so that's where we go. On the way
down the trail climbs over the Bulge, which also has no view, and there's a spur trail
to the Horn. It's only a few tenths, but the
view is very nice. There was a tentsite
just below the Horn, but no water in sight so pack it in if you go. Only Elaine and I
went to the Horn, meaning we now played catch up with the others. We still hadn't seen
anyone by the time we reached
Unknown Pond, which was gorgeous. The next section of
trail is one of the prettiest I've seen in a long time; a sloping journey through well
spaced birches, just lovely. We met up with the rest of the folks on the way out and
got to the cars
pretty tired. Ed and Al followed shortly after and we headed out to
the Northland Dairy Bar in Berlin for a snack before heading back to the cabin.
For Monday, we were all beat, so we played miniture golf in Lincoln instead of hiking.
It was worth it.
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