March 22, 2008
Well, this is it, my first hike of spring! Hah! The calendar may state that it is spring, but New England says otherwise. We have had near record snowfall amounts this year. We are also stuck in a cold spell with well below average temperatures. The snow isn't leaving anytime soon. Today I've decided to join Pete Crane and his group. Eight of us met at the Diana's Baths Trailhead. Besides Pete and myself, there was Patty, Darcy, and Bill who I've hike with before. There was also Stacy, Nancy, and Pam who I haven't yet had the pleasure of hiking with. The women outnumbered the men 5 to 3, making this my first hike with more woman than men. It was nice to have all the pretty faces along. 
Here's today's track.
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There's still lots of snow out there.
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Darcy, Pam, and Stacy crossing Lucy Brook.
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The trail was primarily flat for the first two miles or so. The snow was so consolidated that we wore our crampons instead of snowshoes. Next we reached a trail junction. With 2 miles to go to the summit, the trail waisted no time in becoming steep.
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The top inch or so of snow was an icy crust. As we walked we broke apart the top layer. We had fun watching the broken pieces slide down the mountain. (Note: It doesn't take much to amuse us.)
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Around 2000 feet, we started to take in some of the views.
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On the move again.
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What a great day!
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Looking over to Kearsarge North.
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We caught up with some Canadians who had been breaking trail ahead of us. This was definitely a case of the blind leading the blind. We were now off the trail. With several feet of snow and a poorly blazed trail this is quite easy to do. We could have gone back and searched for the trail; but we decided as long as we were going up, we would get there.
Patty with her bright orange hat.
She joked that I needed her written consent to use the picture.
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Leave it to me to find a spruce trap. Darcy, who took this picture, and Stacy, behind me, were having way too much fun at my predicament.
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After this, we decided we weren't going to get back on the trail any time soon, so we better switch to our snowshoes. Of course this didn't help me any. I still managed to find all the spruce traps. We were making slow, but steady progress. The Canadians who were just ahead of us, decided to head back, while we Americans pushed ahead. The woods became thick, and the terrain became steep; but Bill lead us up the mountain. At one point, Bill and Pete stopped to decide which way to go.
I heard one of the ladies behind me say, "Why don't we go back and find the trail?"
Then another one of the ladies, who hadn't realized I was right in front of them, added, "Because they are men. Let them feel like they are doing something important."
"I heard that," I said.
By this point, my GPS gave me a reading that we were only another tenth of a mile or so from the summit. We kept pushing up. We finally stumbled across the trail. I think Darcy found it first. We only had a couple hundred yards to go, but it was steep. Up, up, and up we went.
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Finally, we reached the 3196' summit of North Moat. This was my 2nd time on this beautiful mountain with its 360° view. Unfortunately, the pictures I took on the summit didn't come out. If I'm not careful with my camera (which was the case today), the knob on the top can turn when I take it in and out of my pocket. The setting changed to nighttime. As a result, my pictures on the summit came out completely white. If anyone from today's group wants to email me a couple pictures of the summit, I will post them here and give you credit for the photos.
We had hopes of heading back via Red Ridge, but with the extra time it took to bushwhack our way to the top, we decided to head back the same way. Well, not quite the same way, we'll try to stay on the trail this time. I was the last one to leave the summit. I stayed behind to capture a 360° video clip of the summit.
As we descended, we managed to stay on the trail. We found the place were we had gone off course. There were some other hikers coming up. We showed them the correct route to take. If you go off course in the snow, everyone will end up following you until the next snowfall. At the bottom of the mountain we again followed Lucy Brook. Someone spotted this rock with several feet of snow on it. Cool!!
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Patty took my picture by Diana's Baths.
(No, I'm not a Peeping Tom. Besides, Diana wasn't even there.)
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Here's a shot of the group near the end of the hike.
Left to right: Bill, Patty, Pete, Stacy, Nancy, Pam, and Darcy.
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Great hike everyone! Thanks for having me along.
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