A Moat on the Moats!

Trip Details

Date: May 8^th, 2015

Total Distance: 12.54 mi (via Trimble Outdoors Navigator Pro on iPhone 4S)

Total Time: 8 hours 3 minutes

Total Elevation: 3095 ft gained

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Even though it hit north of 80ºF two days this past week, snow conditions above 3000 feet are still all over the place and above 4000 feet is definite snowshoe weather. Basing our decision of the day on recent trip reports we opted to hit up two 52 with a View mountains, North and South Moat. We staged a car off Passaconaway Rd and headed to the Diana’s Baths parking lot to pull off a north-to-south traverse.

The trail starts out on a very nice and level well-groomed and maintained trail out to Diana’s Baths. From there the trail actually gets difficult to follow especially with all the leaf cover still on the ground. Blazes are few and far between and there are quite a few herd paths. Keep Lucy Brook on your left and do not cross it until you get to the section with the downed tree. At that point Lucy Brook stays on your right until the junction for the Attitash Trail. At this point the trail has remained relatively flat.

Diana's Baths

The trail stays to the right with Lucy Brook remaining on the left here. Cross the brook if you want to take the Red Ridge Trail instead of the Moat Mountain Trail.

BishopX balancing across the tree where the trail does cross Lucy Brook. At high water this is a tough cross, but with the current drought water levels are very low.

Cascades along the trail.

Turning left you immediately start climbing and will continue climbing until the summit of North Moat. The trail eventually breaks out of the woods for a bit on open ledges that have great views to the northeast. After the ledges the trail heads back into the woods and around 2700 ft we ran into some rotting snow that was anything but stable. This was avoidable at parts and then at others I gave up trying to avoid and then sunk in to my knee. Eventually, the snow would go away as the woods opened up a bit to allow more sunlight in. Just before the summit, though, more snow was lingering this time it was more stable and you could walk right over it.

Mr. No Pants making his way up the Moat Mountain Trail.

A giant toad that was in the trail until Boomer spooked it.

View of Kearsarge North Mountain from the open ledges.

The summit of North Moat provides 360º views and you could see for miles. There was some haze so mountains like Mt. Monadnock was just barely visible, but Old Speck was very clear. We enjoyed a Moat Mountain Iron Mike Pale Ale on the summit and then continued on to Middle Moat.

North Moat Mountain summit.

Three pins on the summit of North Moat Mountain.

View north.

The Presidential Range.

The Wildcats and Carters.

From left to right: The Wildcats, Carter Notch, The Carters, Black Mountain (foreground), Old Speck and Baldplates (background), and Baldfaces at the very right of the photo.

Old Speck on the left and the Baldplates on the right.

View east.

Cranmore Mountain

View south (Middle Moat Mountain is the rocky summit in the distance).

Silver Lake and Ossipee Lake.

View southwest

Mt. Chocorua

Mt. Passaconaway and Mt. Whiteface

The Tripyramids

Mt. Tecumseh

The Hancocks

Mt. Carrigain

After hours of looking at Google Maps, Topographical Maps, and other blogs/trip reports I was finally able to identify this snow capped mountain as Mt. Lafayette. We originally used Google Maps from the summit to try and make a straight line and thought this was South Twin, but while looking at photos once I got home that just did not line up. I could have saved myself a ton of time by just using PeakFinder.

The Bonds and Mt. Guyot. The bare rocks of Bondcliff are just visible on the far left of the photo, the high point is Mt. Bond, and branching out behind it is West Bond. The alpine garden on Mt. Bond's east slop is visible in the center of the photo.

South Twin Mountain

North Twin Mountain

Mt. Hale

Mt. Willey and Mt. Field along with Crawford Notch. Mt. Hale and the Zealand Notch are visible to the left.

Crawford Notch

BishopX making his way to the summit.

Mr. No Pants

Boomer enjoying his Kong with The Presidential Range in the background.

Moat Mountain Iron Mike Pale Ale on the summit of North Moat Mountain

The trail to Middle Moat drops significantly with some significant scramble sections. Boomer was not a fan of these and we would have to use teamwork to get him down a few. He will walk down ledges all day, but scrambles spook him and once he gets it in his head it makes it even more stressful. I would not recommend this trail for dogs that do not readily accept assistance to get down these scrambles. The trip over to Middle Moat felt long and the numerous unexpected scrambles and elevation drop to the col between Middle Moat were just adding insult to injury. Eventually, we made it to Middle Moat where again after going off trail for a few feet you can stand on the summit and get another 360º view. I am not sure why Middle Moat is not also on the list.

Boomer on Middle Moat Mountain's summit.

North Moat Mountain	South Moat Mountain
Close-up of North Moat Mountain.	Close-up of South Moat Mountain.

View southwest.

View west.

Black Mountain

BishopX making his was to Middle Moat Mountain.

Mr. No Pants making his was up Middle Moat Mountain.

The trip over to South Moat was easier and did not take that long. The summit provides great views like the other two. By this point though, it was just seeing a lot of the same stuff and with the sun beating on us all day fatigue was setting in.

View south towards the Ossipee Range with Mt. Chocorua on the right.

View southwest.

Mining operations.

White Horse Ledge

BishopX and Mr. No Pants making their way to South Moat Mountain.

BishopX standing on the summit of South Moat Mountain.

We then started our final descent back to Passaconaway Rd. The trail goes over ledges and has very rough footing, but then eventually turns right onto the relocation that is well-groomed and maintained. The footing is flat and a welcomed sight. This continues until the trail merges with a logging road for the final part but due to logging activities in this area that trail is diverted through the woods following flags. Eventually it pops out on the side of the parking lot instead at the gate for the logging road. This was a great traverse with breathtaking views, but is a tough trail and is another one of those sub-4000 footers that really packs a punch and bucks the trend that trails below 4000 feet are easier.

Logging operations near the trail end. It looks like a bomb went off.

Looking up the logging road.

BishopX following the flags out on the diverted trail.

The logging road where the regular trail ends.

Okay, so it is pretty clear that the GPS tracking of either this phone or app is terrible. The White Mountain Online Guide lists this as 9.5 miles, but it recorded me at an additional 3? That seems wrong as there is no way I walked around the summits for 3 miles.