Mount Moriah in New Hampshire

After a couple of weeks of no hiking (had been busy, still did BODYPUMP at the gym on the weekend, but now the gym is closed due to COVID-19), we went out for hiking to climb Mount Moriah in New Hampshire.

During COVID-19 outbreak, hiking is a great activity. Somehow all over the U.S, hiking got more popular than usual. People everywhere are talking how crowded (much more than usual) the hiking trails and running trails are. In California some state parks got closed, because it was impossible to keep 6 feet apart from strangers. Luckily trails in New Hampshire in snow are not crowded. 

<Mount Moriah Hike>

Type: Out and back 

Distance: 8.8 miles

Elevation change: +/- 3274 feet

Mount Surprise

Started at the trailhead and climbed via Carter Moriah trail. On the half way of 2.2 mile point is the Mount Surprise. I actually knew it was a mountain after I went home and checked a map again. Surprising. 

final sign to the summit

At the mount surprise, there was a nice view. Big mountain range could be seen including Mount Washington. The range is covered with snow massively. It was pretty. I thought that Mount Surprise was the top of Mount Moriah, but Mr.N said it should be further. He checked the App and said it was a half way. I had to mentally prepared again. Thinking 100% and it turned out 50% of the way is a bit psychologically hard, but I continued. Last 0.5 mile was ups and down, and final steep climb led us to the summit. The picture above left is the sign before 0.2-0.3 mile from the summit. Due to snow the sign is now so low. The view was great. Not only Presidential range, but also other range was in the view. We enjoyed the view for 5 minutes and I took some pictures. I needed to take out my gloves to take pictures and my hands got numb due to coldness. Frigid! Due to that we couldn't stay for a long time there, but it was worth climbing there. 

Summit

On the way back near the summit a couple were hiking up and we passed each other. The lady talked to us and she said, "You are the first people we see today!" She wanted to continue conversation more after several additional sentences, but Mr.N tried to leave as soon as possible for social distancing. It seems that New Hampshires people are not as concerned as Mass people. Hope at least New Hampshire won't get so many cases and mountain trails will keep open to everyone. 

We hiked down to the Mount Surprise and had sandwiches. Good times.