KPMMBM
Member
I signed up to participate in the Flags on the 48s at Mt Willey. My son came along with me and we met up with TMax & Dave at trailhead for Kendron Flume Trail. TMax assured us that she had all the equipment packed away and didn’t need any help carrying it up to the summit. I wanted to hike along the Ethan Pond Trail section of the AT so we drove back down 302 for a mile or so to the side road to Ripley Falls Trail parking area and parked. We set off at 8:40 with overcast skies but no rain. We soon met up with HikerBob and Caboose who were also on their way to Willey for the Flags event. We made it to the junction of Kendron Flume Trail by 9:30 and we waited for a bit to see if either of the two couples would come along. We were hiking along at a good pace so we decided rather than wait, we’d head for the summit and our group would all get together there. Just about 45 minutes later we were at the base of the ladders. We both decided that going up these ladders would be preferable to going down and were glad that we were going to do a loop hike and not an out and back. My son had heard alot about this section of the trail and was glad to get to the top. Just about 11:00 we hit the first outlook on the east side of the summit. There were no views what so ever to be had as it had gotten much foggier and cloudier at this elevation. We found the summit cairn and dropped our packs and decided to have lunch as we waited for the two other couples to come along with the flag and poles. After a while, Hiker Bob and Caboose arrived and they continued on to the western view site to have their lunch. A bit later TMax and Dave arrived with the poles and flags. We first set up the full size flag right next to the summit cairn. TMax also had a commemorative flag with the names of the emergency personnel that had died on 9-11 which we set up across the trail from the summit cairn. This flag was smaller and lighter and easily unrolled into what little wind there was. We then had a visit by the Grey Jays and got the treat of feeding them from our hands. That never gets old no matter how many times I’ve done it. We got to hear all about Dave’s recent completion of his through hike of the AT. Way to go Dave! Many hikers came through while we were at the summit. Around 1:00 we decided that we would head over towards Field. Just under an hour later we were at the summit which was being manned by Mad-hatter and Boo. We had a nice visit with them and we were given some yummy brownies and some candy treats. You meet the very nicest people out on the trails. After a short visit we headed towards the junction of the Willey Range Trail and the Avalon Trail. We decided that we would take the Avalon Trail as I had already been to Tom on a previous trip and my son was experiencing some soreness in his knee and wanted to take the shorter route out. We ended up at the Crawford Station at just about 3:30. The plan was to hitch hike back to our starting point and head home. I was surprised at how long it took to finally get a ride. I guess people are a little leery about letting stinky, dirty hikers get in their cars. One of the gentlemen that we had met and chatted with on the trail earlier stopped and gave us a ride which we were grateful for. We briefly celebrated my son's first 4000 footers. Probably an aggressive hike for his first hike in the Whites but he did really well. 6.9 miles with 3400 feet of elevation gain which took us just under 7 hours including 2 hours at the summit of Willey. That was a first for me to spend that much time on a summit. All in all, this was a great day to be out; we stayed dry, didn’t have any mishaps, and helped out with an event with a very meaningful purpose.
