Moriah #47!

Only one more to go!  Today is the Sunday of Labor Day weekend (how did that happen?) and so I decided to do one of the two remaining hikes. Carrigan is the most common hike to finish on, so I decided to save it for last, which meant doing Moriah today. The plan was to do the entire thing in a day, drive up, hike, and drive back. This one's kind of far away - it's almost 3 hours when you go up rt 93, and even longer when your GPS doesn't work in the middle of nowhere, and you decide to take rt 16 to 95 back. But, I had a book that I was almost finished with that I was listening to, which I finished on the way up, and I started a new one on the way back, so it wasn't so bad.

Moriah is 9 miles total, and out and back hike. It starts from a neighborhood street - how lucky all those people are to have the hike in their back yard, and what a pain to have so many hikers parking on their street. I was hoping to leave nice and early - I set my alarm for 5:30, but then I woke up at 6:30, sigh, and was out the door before 7. I didn't really have any food, so I had to stop on the way up - first for a bagel at Dunks, which I have to say was delicious, and then for an egg salad sandwich, chips, nuts and a power bar. By the time I was at the trailhead and ready to go it was 10.

I read on a blog that the hike was flat for a mile, which colored my expectations. At no point was the hike flat. It's a lot of elevation gain because, even though it's a shorter 4000 footer, it starts in a valley. It was one of those steady uphills, which I actually prefer because the elevation gain is more gradual. One thing that I really liked about this trail was that it was all slab! The rock of the mountain was exposed, and it was really fun to hike up. On the way down I practiced trusting my feet, and actually did a good job of it!

There's a mountain part way up, Mt. Surprise, which has some opened spots with a great view. I stopped for some chips and a little Gatorade. On the way down, I noticed that there were also blueberries, and I ate a bunch. Yum!  There were a few false summits, which are hard psychologically. After one more, there was a really nice bog to walk through, and then I could see the top of the mountain!  It took me 3.5 hours there. I sat on top and enjoyed the view, ate, and pondered this being my second to last hike, and then I headed down.  Down was definitely fun, with all the slab.  A good hike!  Total hiking time was a little less than 7 hours. I felt pretty good at the bottom.  I realized on the way down that I should have made a big container of oatmeal again, that was good the time I did it, and it gave me a lot of energy.

I'll have to do some planning for the final hike!  Probably in a couple of weeks. Maybe I can even get Washington solo in before it's too cold.  I feel like I'm in good hiking shape - that's the time to do it for sure.