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Peter Wyatt and I went up the Moriah-Carter trail from Gorham toward North Carter, to do the segment of the AT between Moriah and North Carer that we had never done, coming down the North Carter Trail and Imp Trail to hitch a ride back to the car. The climb up Moriah has a lot of steep ledges between 2,000 and 3,000 feet (left) offering great views toward the Presidentials (right). Above that the trail was very wet and muddy. There was still a lot of snow streaking the Presidentials, but on the trail today we only saw two forlorn patches of snow.
We got to the top of Moriah where the summit knob has great 360 degrees views (left toward the Presidentials, right toward Shelburne-Moriah). We had done Shelburne-Moriah last year and it is a great hike. The little space at the top of Moriah was occupied by a few groups so we didn't stay long and pushed on to nearby open ledges on the trail toward North Carter.
Indeed, the AT from Moriah going down to North Carter col at 3,200 feet is really spectacular, with lots of open ledges providing views of the Wild River Valley and the Baldfaces (left), towards the Presidentials, and toward the Carters where we were headed (right).
After the col the trail continued on a plateau going around Imp Mountain, with minor ups and downs and some impressive stretches of bog bridges (left). Eventually we got into the steep climb up North Carter, with lots of hand-and-feet scrambles. Toward the top we could look back toward Moriah (right).
The actual top of North Carter is not much to look at (left) but there is a ledge just beyond with great views of the Wild River Valley. My phone was not functioning to take pictures at that time but I had previously been there before on a hike of the Carters with my son Alex. From there we took the North Carter Trail down and it was in serious need of maintenance – lots of blow-downs and overgrowth. We took the north branch of the Imp Trail to get the great view from the Imp Face (right) and continued on the long way down, where we got a ride back to Gorham from a young man on his way to do all the 4,000 footers in the spring.