Why Moria?

[lathspell]

Gandalf had taken the road through moria ones more and I agree with Pippin. He didn't expect to meet Durin's Bane. It was that fool of a Took who is to be blamed for that, I think, for the drums start after he dropped the stone into that well to which he was attracted.

I don't even know if he knew that it was a Balrog. They knew that the dwarves awakened something of great power and dread, but did they know that it was a Balrog. I think not. This is what Celeborn said when the Fellowship arrives in there home:

'Alas!' said Celeborn. 'We have long feared that under Caradhras a terror slept. But had I known that the Dwarves stirred up this evil in Moria again, I would have forbidden you to pass the northern borders, you and all that went with you. And if it were possible, one would say that at the last Gandalf fell from wisdom into folly, going needlessly into the net of Moria.'

You see that Celeborn didn't know that it was a Balrog, and they feared a terror. I think Gandalf didn't know that it was a Balrog either, though he be one of the Wise.