Hiking in the White Mountains: South Moat

Date of Hike: 11/25/17

Moat Mountain Trail: 19.0 miles (6,841 feet elevation gained) A.M.C. White Mountain Guide Online

Trip Report:
- On Saturday, I took full advantage of the excellent weather to do a double traverse of the Moat Mountain Range.
- Trail conditions varied from dry down low, to very icy on the mile leading up to North Moat, a few inches of snow between North and Middle Moat, with ice on the approach to Middle, and back to dry conditions over to South and down to Dugway Road. My old beater microspikes came in very handy for the North Moat ascent and descent.
- My goal for the day was a sub 6 hour double traverse, I was able to accomplish this by coming in at 5 hours 17 minutes, 26 seconds (2 hours 33 min 56 sec North to South / 6 min break / 2 hours 37 min 48 sec South to North) click here for Strava data. A future goal for this is a sub 5 hour in dry conditions sometime between late Spring and early Fall.
- For hikers who have never experienced the Moats, it has some of the best views around, especially this time of year where you can look north to the Presidential Range and admire the snow capped mountains from any of the three peaks. Even though these peaks are just over 3,000 feet, the views are better than half of the higher peaks on the 4,000 footer list, so it's a must do hike and a most re-do hike.
- My personal favorite route is the standard traverse, but if you can't get a car spot, try an out and back of South Moat, or do a fun loop hike up the Moat Mountain Trail to North Moat and then descend the Red Ridge Trail. Red Ridge Trail is a great hike with spectacular views along the open ridge.
- An added bonus to the Moats if hiking it during the mid to late summer is the abundance of blueberries that grow along the trail, this past summer produced some of the biggest and sweetest mountain blueberries I ever had.

The first two miles of the Moat Mountain Trail is relatively flat, then it ascends steeply for two miles, first in the woods followed by hiking up slab

The last mile is filled with slab hiking, which was icy on this day

Looking at Chocorua (left), and the Sandwich Range over Passaconway and Whiteface (right)

Icy ascent up to Middle Moat

Looking back to North Moat from Middle Moat

Beautiful morning on the Moats :)

Mount Chocorua from Moat Mountain Trail

Kearsage North Mountain as seen from South Moat

Descending to Dugway Road

Heading back up to South Moat

Looking down a section of slab as I head up to South Moat, it's bone dry, much different than the approach to north!

Cool little dirt path just below the summit

Mount Chocorua

North Conway from South Moat

Looking towards the Presidential Range

Another shot of the Presi's off in the distance

Heading back to Middle Moat

South Moat from Middle Moat

North Moat from Middle Moat

View from a shoulder of North Moat

Moat Mountain summit

Presidential and Wildcat-Carter ranges to the north

Looking back at Middle and South Moat

Descending from North Moat

Meanwhile...Sarge spent the morning lounging with his friends on his new doggy bed :)

Date of Hike: 11/8/14

Moat Mountain Trail: 1.2 miles / Red Ridge Trail: 3.6 miles / Moat Mountain Trail: 4.2 miles
Total Miles: 9.0 miles (2,930 feet elevation gained)

Trip Report:
- Saturday's weather called for cold but clear skies. Whitney had to work in the afternoon so it would have to be a mountain somewhat in the vicinity of North Conway and at a quick pace. If a hike is going to be at a quick pace, our friend Kyle would definitely want to join in on the fun so we sent him a message and he was excited to meet up. We decided on a modified Moat Mountain Traverse, heading up Red Ridge instead of over North Moat so we could get some big views as we gained the ridge.
- We started hiking at 7:45 am and headed to Diana's Bath where we checked out the staircase type waterfall and the old sawmill structures in the Lucy Brook.
- Soon after the falls we banged a left on the Red Ridge Trail which continued over flat and moderate grades through open woods, past a fire road, over Moat Brook before steeply ascending the ridge past a landslide and up slab. On the steepest part, we went into overdrive, AKA 'Whitney Pace' and quickly ascended the toughest part of the hike at a super fast accelerated heart rate pace!
- Views down to North Conway are fantastic from the ridge, even better views were had to the northwest to the Presidential Range as the upper elevations were glistening in a vivid white color from the previous days snow.
- Once we gained the ridge we took a left and headed over Middle and South Moat which had tremendous views over to Chocorua, Passaconaway, Sleepers, Tripyramids, and the Sandwich Wilderness. The hike between Middle and South moat is along open ledges and has some of the finest hiking around for views, this section rivals some of the 4,000 foot plus mountains.
- We took a nice long break at South Moat before booking it back down to the car finishing up before noon. It was a fun quick hike with two of the fastest hikers I know and it was great to hike with Kyle again!