kltilton
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2004
- Messages
- 398
- Reaction score
- 47
The first Saturday of spring break brought a major snowstorm that dumped quite a bit of snow on the North Country. My friend Tim met me at my parents at 7AM and we headed up to Crawford Notch as the snow came down. The driving wasn’t too bad, so we figured that breaking trail wouldn’t be too bad either.
We arrived at the Highland Center and strapped on our snowshoes as some little kids made a fort in the snow pile in front of the main entrance. We hit the Avalon Trail and found that it was well packed underneath 4 inches of new snow. Tim and I took turns leading for 10 minutes as we ran along the brook. As we approached the Mt. Tom spur trail we could see that someone had posthole from Zealand. How hard is it to wear snowshoes?
The trail up to Mt. Tom was a nice break after the steep sections on the A-Z Trail. We reached the summit in 1:03 and stopped for some pictures and a snack. I spotted a gray jay and snapped some pictures. It was the first time I had ever seen one of these birds. It was pretty cool to have it eat out of your hand. No views on this day but a pretty cool experience nonetheless.
We headed over to Field expecting more packed trails and some more quality snowshoeing. That didn’t happen. The 0.9 miles form the A-Z Trail took us 40 minutes. The trail hadn’t been traveled in a while. All I could think about is how cool of a ski run it would be. It was hard following blazes as some of them we buried under the snow and many of them were at snow level. We hit the summit of Field in1:55. No views here either but another 4000 footer off the list and a lot of fun.
The trip down the Avalon Trail was so much fun. I felt like a little kid as we slipped, fell, bounded and avoided tree after tree on our way down. Tim led the way, as he is a kamikaze when descending. Not to mention jumping down rock faces as we came back down Avalon. We definitely scared a few people who were hiking up the Avalon Trail. I think I would be too if I saw 2 snowshoers butt sliding down the trail at me cleats first. The total trip took 2:55. The thing that is great about snowshoeing is that it is so low impact. There is now way I could run for 3 hours on the roads right now. Plus, it’s way more fun.
The drive back showed that the storm dropped quite a bit of snow while we were playing. Driving back to North Conway proved to be difficult at times, but I didn’t care as a tried to get rid of the smile that was plastered on my face.
Photos
We arrived at the Highland Center and strapped on our snowshoes as some little kids made a fort in the snow pile in front of the main entrance. We hit the Avalon Trail and found that it was well packed underneath 4 inches of new snow. Tim and I took turns leading for 10 minutes as we ran along the brook. As we approached the Mt. Tom spur trail we could see that someone had posthole from Zealand. How hard is it to wear snowshoes?
The trail up to Mt. Tom was a nice break after the steep sections on the A-Z Trail. We reached the summit in 1:03 and stopped for some pictures and a snack. I spotted a gray jay and snapped some pictures. It was the first time I had ever seen one of these birds. It was pretty cool to have it eat out of your hand. No views on this day but a pretty cool experience nonetheless.
We headed over to Field expecting more packed trails and some more quality snowshoeing. That didn’t happen. The 0.9 miles form the A-Z Trail took us 40 minutes. The trail hadn’t been traveled in a while. All I could think about is how cool of a ski run it would be. It was hard following blazes as some of them we buried under the snow and many of them were at snow level. We hit the summit of Field in1:55. No views here either but another 4000 footer off the list and a lot of fun.
The trip down the Avalon Trail was so much fun. I felt like a little kid as we slipped, fell, bounded and avoided tree after tree on our way down. Tim led the way, as he is a kamikaze when descending. Not to mention jumping down rock faces as we came back down Avalon. We definitely scared a few people who were hiking up the Avalon Trail. I think I would be too if I saw 2 snowshoers butt sliding down the trail at me cleats first. The total trip took 2:55. The thing that is great about snowshoeing is that it is so low impact. There is now way I could run for 3 hours on the roads right now. Plus, it’s way more fun.
The drive back showed that the storm dropped quite a bit of snow while we were playing. Driving back to North Conway proved to be difficult at times, but I didn’t care as a tried to get rid of the smile that was plastered on my face.
Photos
Last edited:
