poison ivy
Well-known member
As I left North Conway on Sunday morning and headed down 302, Mt. Washington was just calling my name every time I got a glimpse of its white cap glowing in the early morning sunshine. However, I had promised my husband I would be home in time to attend a Superbowl party and with a four-hour drive home, I only had time for a quick hike. So, I stuck with my original plan to make a quick run up Mt. Tom. I hiked Mt. Willey & Field as my first-ever winter 4K peaks last year, but skipped Tom because I wasn’t feeling well. It has bugged me ever since!.
I was parked at the Crawford Depot parking lot at 8 a.m. and ready to head up the Avalon Trail, which was so trampled down that it was almost like walking on a regular spring-time trail. It was a little tougher layering today than yesterday because I would instantly become hot any place the sun poked through the trees, but a felt little cold in the shadows. Red squirrels were running around in the snow and jumping from branch to branch overhead, occasionally dumping snow on the trail around me. Boreal chickadees (that’s what they looked like to me, anyway,) were flitting alongside the trail and singing as if it were spring as well.
The trail was a little steeper than I remembered it and I certainly wasn’t rushing so it took about an hour for me to reach the junction with the A-Z trail. Except in the parking lot, I hadn’t seen any other hikers but all that was about to change and from then on, I often moved aside to let other hikers with more ambitious plans overtake me. After glissading down the first steep hill on the A-Z trail, getting back up the other side proved to be a little challenging due to the ice and steepness. With a little help from a nearby tree, I managed to get myself up the hill and move on. It was another hour before I reached the Mt. Tom Spur. With just a half-hour more of easy hiking, I reached the summit of Mt. Tom to find a half-dozen hikers soaking in the morning sun.
I have to say that I honestly thought Mt. Tom didn’t have a view, based on my last trip there… that time, the trees were just surrounded by a wall of fog. I was just stunned that the swath of blowdowns provided such an incredible views of the Twins, Zealand and Mt. Bond. I stayed up top for a half-hour, enjoying the sun, view and watching a lone Gray Jay beg for food. At 11 a.m., it was time to start head back down and I reluctantly packed up my gear and headed back the way I came.
I got a few good glissades in while heading down the trail, but I managed to restrain myself since I was alone, have a tendency to be clumsy and knew there were lots of other hikers bound to be heading up the trail. Still, I give into the temptation and managed to get a couple of really great slides in along the way. I also made a quick swing past Pearl and Beecher Cascade, but neither was particularly impressive compared to other frozen falls I‘ve visited this year. . I made it back out to my car at 12:30, thrilled to have spent another gorgeous day in the mountains.
Mt. Tom was my 12th winter peak on the NH-48 list. Pictures can be found
here.
What a great weekend!
- Ivy
I was parked at the Crawford Depot parking lot at 8 a.m. and ready to head up the Avalon Trail, which was so trampled down that it was almost like walking on a regular spring-time trail. It was a little tougher layering today than yesterday because I would instantly become hot any place the sun poked through the trees, but a felt little cold in the shadows. Red squirrels were running around in the snow and jumping from branch to branch overhead, occasionally dumping snow on the trail around me. Boreal chickadees (that’s what they looked like to me, anyway,) were flitting alongside the trail and singing as if it were spring as well.
The trail was a little steeper than I remembered it and I certainly wasn’t rushing so it took about an hour for me to reach the junction with the A-Z trail. Except in the parking lot, I hadn’t seen any other hikers but all that was about to change and from then on, I often moved aside to let other hikers with more ambitious plans overtake me. After glissading down the first steep hill on the A-Z trail, getting back up the other side proved to be a little challenging due to the ice and steepness. With a little help from a nearby tree, I managed to get myself up the hill and move on. It was another hour before I reached the Mt. Tom Spur. With just a half-hour more of easy hiking, I reached the summit of Mt. Tom to find a half-dozen hikers soaking in the morning sun.
I have to say that I honestly thought Mt. Tom didn’t have a view, based on my last trip there… that time, the trees were just surrounded by a wall of fog. I was just stunned that the swath of blowdowns provided such an incredible views of the Twins, Zealand and Mt. Bond. I stayed up top for a half-hour, enjoying the sun, view and watching a lone Gray Jay beg for food. At 11 a.m., it was time to start head back down and I reluctantly packed up my gear and headed back the way I came.
I got a few good glissades in while heading down the trail, but I managed to restrain myself since I was alone, have a tendency to be clumsy and knew there were lots of other hikers bound to be heading up the trail. Still, I give into the temptation and managed to get a couple of really great slides in along the way. I also made a quick swing past Pearl and Beecher Cascade, but neither was particularly impressive compared to other frozen falls I‘ve visited this year. . I made it back out to my car at 12:30, thrilled to have spent another gorgeous day in the mountains.
Mt. Tom was my 12th winter peak on the NH-48 list. Pictures can be found
here.
What a great weekend!
- Ivy
