Friday, December 30, 2022

Moriah is one of my favorite mountains in New Hampshire, especially when going over Surprise. I like it because it’s tricky: you think the next knob is the summit, but it turns out you still have 1.1 miles to go and at least two more knobs to go up and over until you earn your view of Washington, Adams and Madison to the west and the Carters to the south, and that’s only the 4,000-footers; you still have the Baldfaces and the Caribou-Speckled Mountain Wilderness to the east. Today was hard because of the trail conditions. Everyone who wore spikes in this mild weather absolutely destroyed the trail. I admit I can get self-righteous about wearing snowshoes in the winter. How I look at it is this: you can wear spikes because the trail is relatively packed and firm, but when everyone does that, the trail’s going to get chewed up. Instead, if everyone uses snowshoes, the trail becomes a beautiful level trench that makes a safer, easier path. We do it for the greater good, even if we, technically, can get away with just using spikes.

John and I had our meal at Big Day Brewing, and I inhaled my Smashburger while he enjoyed his flight of beers and chili. Once we get back to our Airbnb, I’ll set up the space heater to dry out my boots for another long day in the woods.