StaceyM
New member
Pictures are here.
My sister, Lauren, is my hiking good luck charm. After yesterday I’ve hiked 11 4Ks with her and every time we have PERFECT weather. I had been wanting to hike the loop over Tom, Field, and Willey for a while and last week while I was hanging out at the Highland Center, I decided that it would be next on the list. We got up early on Saturday and made the drive from Nashua up to Crawford Depot and hit the Avalon Trail around 9:30. It was shaping up to be a gorgeous day.
The grades on Avalon are not bad and we were soon passing the junction with the A-Z trail. I had read earlier that the trail up Mt. Field was steeper than Tom and I prefer going up the steep parts to coming down them so we headed to Field first. Along the way we took the short spur to Mt. Avalon, which is well worth the extra 100 yds. because the views are fantastic.
We continued on the Avalon Trail and saw some moose tracks in the mud. Soon we reached the summit of Field, catching up with two men we crossed heading up Avalon as they were coming down. We chatted about the views and we watched the gray jays eyeing us for food.
We said goodbye to the gray jays and headed over to Willey. The 1.4 miles to the summit have a few steep sections, but overall are not too challenging. We passed our friends again and were soon at the summit of Willey, which was not surprisingly pretty crowded since it was such a nice day. I had heard that the views were a few yards after the summit so we continued on. There is a small faded outlook sign, but it’s pretty obvious and the views of Webster Cliffs and the Presidential Range are really spectacular. We stopped for a while to take off our boots and eat some lunch.
After putting on fresh socks and packing up, we heading back to Field. The hike back felt a lot longer than the hike out, but after some huffing and puffing we were back up on Field. There were a dozen or so people who had made their way to the summit since we had left and we said hello and passed back down the Willey Range trail to head over to Tom, our last peak of the day. There aren’t too many views from the trail between Field and Tom, but the forest is very lush and was an interesting variation in terrain. It’s entirely downhill to the junction wtih A-Z trail, where we ran into a group heading to Zealand Hut. They had just come down from Tom and told us that there was a fork at the top with the summit to the left and views to the right. We thanked them for the info and up we went. It’s a short 0.6 miles to the top and we tagged the summit and headed over to enjoy the best views of the day! I can’t wait to come back and climb Tom in the winter, on a clear day the views would be incredible.
Finally we turned and started back for the car. The A-Z trail was steeper than I expected (or maybe it was just the end of the day), but the rock stairs make it easy to navigate. We made the second larger water crossing, where the trail is a little confusing but we found it up the other bank and were soon at the junction with Avalon Trail. Here the trail becomes very smooth and we picked up our pace to make it back to Crawford Depot at 3:30. I had a great day hiking with my sister and there were lots of people out enjoying the terrific weather!
My sister, Lauren, is my hiking good luck charm. After yesterday I’ve hiked 11 4Ks with her and every time we have PERFECT weather. I had been wanting to hike the loop over Tom, Field, and Willey for a while and last week while I was hanging out at the Highland Center, I decided that it would be next on the list. We got up early on Saturday and made the drive from Nashua up to Crawford Depot and hit the Avalon Trail around 9:30. It was shaping up to be a gorgeous day.
The grades on Avalon are not bad and we were soon passing the junction with the A-Z trail. I had read earlier that the trail up Mt. Field was steeper than Tom and I prefer going up the steep parts to coming down them so we headed to Field first. Along the way we took the short spur to Mt. Avalon, which is well worth the extra 100 yds. because the views are fantastic.
We continued on the Avalon Trail and saw some moose tracks in the mud. Soon we reached the summit of Field, catching up with two men we crossed heading up Avalon as they were coming down. We chatted about the views and we watched the gray jays eyeing us for food.
We said goodbye to the gray jays and headed over to Willey. The 1.4 miles to the summit have a few steep sections, but overall are not too challenging. We passed our friends again and were soon at the summit of Willey, which was not surprisingly pretty crowded since it was such a nice day. I had heard that the views were a few yards after the summit so we continued on. There is a small faded outlook sign, but it’s pretty obvious and the views of Webster Cliffs and the Presidential Range are really spectacular. We stopped for a while to take off our boots and eat some lunch.
After putting on fresh socks and packing up, we heading back to Field. The hike back felt a lot longer than the hike out, but after some huffing and puffing we were back up on Field. There were a dozen or so people who had made their way to the summit since we had left and we said hello and passed back down the Willey Range trail to head over to Tom, our last peak of the day. There aren’t too many views from the trail between Field and Tom, but the forest is very lush and was an interesting variation in terrain. It’s entirely downhill to the junction wtih A-Z trail, where we ran into a group heading to Zealand Hut. They had just come down from Tom and told us that there was a fork at the top with the summit to the left and views to the right. We thanked them for the info and up we went. It’s a short 0.6 miles to the top and we tagged the summit and headed over to enjoy the best views of the day! I can’t wait to come back and climb Tom in the winter, on a clear day the views would be incredible.
Finally we turned and started back for the car. The A-Z trail was steeper than I expected (or maybe it was just the end of the day), but the rock stairs make it easy to navigate. We made the second larger water crossing, where the trail is a little confusing but we found it up the other bank and were soon at the junction with Avalon Trail. Here the trail becomes very smooth and we picked up our pace to make it back to Crawford Depot at 3:30. I had a great day hiking with my sister and there were lots of people out enjoying the terrific weather!
