If we recall back a few months, you’ll remember me writing a tale about a dumb Sky girl dog who decided to jump off a snow covered mountain into a big ravine. This same dog needed help off the trail and thereby we stopped our attempt of these 3 4kfooters (plus Avalon).
Well last Thursday I tried to have at it again– with Sky girl– but without the 4 feet of unpacked snow around the mountain.
Our route was simple. We would start at the AMC Highland Center in the Crawford Notch. Go up straight to Mt. Tom, then take the Field-Willey trail over to both of those. We’d turn around and head back to Field and then go down the Avalon trail to summit Mt. Avalon on the way out. This way, it was not a total out and back, and I got to see a few different parts of the mountain range.
The AMC Highland Center is not the closest trailhead in the world. And on this particular Thursday I had a doctor’s appointment at 3:30pm. This meant that if I wanted to run/hike for 10 miles at a place 3 hours away, I had to get up pretty @#*@( early. So I set my alarm for 4:30am.. managed to get up and on the road by 5:15am. Got my Dunkin and set the podcasts on while Sky fell asleep in the car and we were on our way. One of the real big perks to waking up and hitting the road that early is that there is NEVER any traffic going north. However, there is always a line of cars backed up on 93 headed South into Boston and it always amazes me how that is possible at 5:30am. Oh well!
So we pull up to the trailhead a little bit before 8am. I like the Highland center because it means I can use an indoor toilet before I start my adventure! So I parked and got out of the car. I was wearing shorts & a singlet because.. summer. BRRR. I panicked because I seemed to have forgotten that I was much further north and that it was actually 15+ degrees colder up here. I looked around at all the other people at the center, in their pants and fleeces and they certainly stared at me like I was some sort of alien. I briefly considered buying some sleeves at the center, but they didn’t have anything besides regular overpriced T-shirts. I thought for a minute about how, if I really were too cold, I could always make the decision to turn around and come back to the car– after all, it wouldn’t be the first time I made that decision on this mountain. 
I got Sky out and we headed off to the trail! The trail starts you on the Avalon trail, then you climb to the A-Z trail, which will take you to both the Mt. Tom spur and the Willey Range trail (both of which I was in pursuit of). The trail starts like most White Mountain trails do. It was beautiful and there were a couple of quick water crossings. As soon as we got tree covered and I got moving a bit faster, I immediately felt comfortable. Thank goodness I didn’t bring long sleeves!
The trail climbed a ways and we made it to the Mt. Tom spur in good time. It was really interesting seeing parts of the trail that I remembered from my snow covered adventure. There are positives and negatives to each type of hike. Obviously the trail is more technical with root and rock everywhere, whereas the winter snow provides a smooth monorail to travel on. You can slip up and fall on either type of trail, but in different ways.
At one point, we passed the exact part of the ravine that I remember Sky jumping into… and I managed to catch her staring back into it as well:
Out loud, I kept repeating “don’t you dare”. She was good though and we continued up to Mt. Tom.
The Mt. Tom spur trail is short and not really all that steep. The trail was really beautiful though, it felt old and destroyed in many ways. The pine was broken and down, perhaps by some sort of fire. I really enjoyed this section and ran it all to the way to the top and back.
From there on out, it was a pretty eventless approach to Mt. Field and Mt. Willey. The gray jays were out on Mt. Field which was fun to see, however, thanks to my fearless hunter, Sky girl, I was unable to get a cool photo with a bird on my head this time. Every time a gray jay landed on my hand, Sky would lose her mind and try to catch it. Oh well! On to the next…
On the way back down, we stopped at Mt. Avalon, the only mountain on this hike that is not over 4000 ft, and also the only mountain with any sort of view. Here are some offered photos of the summit and mostly of my dog.
The tall one is Mt. Washington, and from there you can see the closer Southern Presidentials and Jackson and Webster.
Overall, it was a really great day! I was on my feet with running clock for 4 hours (I didn’t stop my watch for my summit stops, talking to people, or bird play). It was just under 10 miles on my GPS watch, which sounds about correct. I managed to make it home and with enough time to shower before I had to go to my appointment. After my appointment, I got a salty caramel ice cream sundae from Abbott’s and then went to Night Shift for an arcade festival with Erik. Overall, a really fantastic day in all aspects!
This is the view I had for most of the day… beautiful. 🙂
This makes # 17, #18 & #19 complete.
48 peaks 