LenDawg
New member
Chinooktrail, LittleSister, Coldmountain, and I showed up to the Highland Center at 0815 on Saturday morning and decided it would be best to do an up and back on Tom, Field, and Willey. Rachel saw Jessbee and Artex (Jamie of the North) heading up to do the same hike leaving just a little before our group, and the overall view was to leave snow shoes behind, bring crampons in case, and bare boot the hike.
We headed up Avalon Trail to the A-Z trail leaving the station at around 0840. All “Gu-ed” up, Pete, a very shy individual, set pace (seriously Santa, don’t know what the Reindeer Union charges, but you should consider hiring this guy to pull your sled!). From the start, the “one-liners” began, song references were sung, and the laughter was spreading.
At the first river crossing, we ignored the trail marking and followed Artex and Jessbee’s footprints up a very delightful bushwhack which lead to walking around a tree. Good time. Real fun.
After a steady dose of the A-Z, we finally made it to the Mt. Tom spur. On the way up, we met Jessbee and Artex heading back down. It’s always great to see friendly faces in on the trails.
We got to the top and took some pictures by the cairn. The skies were overcast so there was little view. We headed back down to the main trail and took a snack break with a few grey jays. We shared fudge, Pringles (naturally), animal crackers, and Gatorade. As my first “almost winter” hike, I got to learn first hand that camel backs freeze and serve little purpose on hikes. I also got to learn the art of the Mr. Rogers dress and undress routine.
We headed up to the top of Field for our official lunch break. It seems that the grey jays like to leave comments in snow for hikers passing by. The wind had increased quite a bit on the exposed areas on top of Field, and the Rachel’s temperature gage read 17 deg. F. We met a guy following behind us who claimed to be from another planet. Or at least that is what he told Rachel. Time to get moving before we freeze up!
The hike between Field and Willey was tricky. The footing was sloppy. It was either icy or rocky. It was difficult to relax into a good pace with consistent footing. We made it over to the top of Willey. There was still a decent amount of overcast. However, this was the best view of the day. We admired Jackson and Webster across form us, and Carrigain which some of us would be climbing on Sunday. The hike down was fairly quick, despite the tricky footing. We ended the evening meeting up with MEB at Flatbread in North Conway.
Overall, the weather was cool, but fair (dry). The wind could have been more of a factor if we had done a more exposed hike. The footing was difficult and untrustworthy. The trail conditions seemed good overall. Most importantly, I could not stop laughing. It was a “wicked fun” hike with some great people. Hope to see all of you out there soon!
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=67t3qkc.vlmck1g&Uy=-2yiqjr&Ux=0
We headed up Avalon Trail to the A-Z trail leaving the station at around 0840. All “Gu-ed” up, Pete, a very shy individual, set pace (seriously Santa, don’t know what the Reindeer Union charges, but you should consider hiring this guy to pull your sled!). From the start, the “one-liners” began, song references were sung, and the laughter was spreading.
At the first river crossing, we ignored the trail marking and followed Artex and Jessbee’s footprints up a very delightful bushwhack which lead to walking around a tree. Good time. Real fun.
After a steady dose of the A-Z, we finally made it to the Mt. Tom spur. On the way up, we met Jessbee and Artex heading back down. It’s always great to see friendly faces in on the trails.
We got to the top and took some pictures by the cairn. The skies were overcast so there was little view. We headed back down to the main trail and took a snack break with a few grey jays. We shared fudge, Pringles (naturally), animal crackers, and Gatorade. As my first “almost winter” hike, I got to learn first hand that camel backs freeze and serve little purpose on hikes. I also got to learn the art of the Mr. Rogers dress and undress routine.
We headed up to the top of Field for our official lunch break. It seems that the grey jays like to leave comments in snow for hikers passing by. The wind had increased quite a bit on the exposed areas on top of Field, and the Rachel’s temperature gage read 17 deg. F. We met a guy following behind us who claimed to be from another planet. Or at least that is what he told Rachel. Time to get moving before we freeze up!
The hike between Field and Willey was tricky. The footing was sloppy. It was either icy or rocky. It was difficult to relax into a good pace with consistent footing. We made it over to the top of Willey. There was still a decent amount of overcast. However, this was the best view of the day. We admired Jackson and Webster across form us, and Carrigain which some of us would be climbing on Sunday. The hike down was fairly quick, despite the tricky footing. We ended the evening meeting up with MEB at Flatbread in North Conway.
Overall, the weather was cool, but fair (dry). The wind could have been more of a factor if we had done a more exposed hike. The footing was difficult and untrustworthy. The trail conditions seemed good overall. Most importantly, I could not stop laughing. It was a “wicked fun” hike with some great people. Hope to see all of you out there soon!
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=67t3qkc.vlmck1g&Uy=-2yiqjr&Ux=0
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