alspal
New member
I started the long weekend with a 4:30 AM alarm and was in the car with Dunkin’s in hand by 4:50 and headed north. There was a warm orange glow of sunrise as I looked at the Pawtuckaway Mountains from route 93 in Bow. The sunrise would be hidden as Ashford was blanketed in fog and Franconia notch looked socked in as the sunshine lit up the clouds. I got to Zealand campground and parked near the Crawford brook. By 7:00 AM I was out of the car and off on an easy 1 hour run out & back along the brook. There were already a bunch of fly fishermen at the lower falls, and when I turned at the Mt Washington Hotel it was hopping with weekend activity.
Albee was nearly an hour late after oversleeping, but I used the time to reorganize my pack and prepare my feet. I also met up with Jim, Al’s college teammate, who was going to hike part of the loop with us.
We spotted my car at the Zealand trailhead and Jim’s car at the Highland center and then proceeded down 302 to the Willey house parking lot. We were on the Kendron brook trail by 10:30. The skies had cleared a little, but other than seeing the shoestring slide and the Frankenstein trestle, we hadn’t been able to see much.
The hike up Kendron was fairly easy and we met a couple of hikers heading down the AT. I had a couple of uncomfortable moments on the steeper ladders at the top of the Willey range trail just before the summit of Mt Willey. The sun darted in and out of the clouds while we were on the top. Albee had fun getting a grey Jay to land on his hand and take a snack.
We moved on quickly to Mt Field and could hear the mob on the summit before we reached it. There were about a dozen hikers on the top having lunch when we arrived. We stayed on top for a brief moment and dropped down to the Avalon trail.
Jim headed off to Mt Avalon while Al and I continued on to Mt Tom. We met a few more hikers along the way including a couple and their dog. The dog was small and seemed friendly; it was funny when he growled at Al who was leading the way. The owner said something about the dog showing off, and they were on their way. We took in the view from the summit and were pleasantly surprised by how much of the cloud cover had lifted. We took a break at this point to add pants as we were soon to enter the bushwhacking part of the hike.
We followed the A-Z trail down to about 3,100’ then headed south bushwhacking toward West Field. We found a spot along the way that opened up and gave a nice view of Willey and Field. We reached the summit about an hour after we had started whacking. Al signed us in and noted that we were only the fourth group to visit West Field this year. We refueled and took a short break before heading off for Whitewall.
The bushwhack was tough in spots but not brutal. We went right over the bump (3,500’) almost due west of West Field and then dropped down to the pond. The sun was now shining brightly and it was almost hot out in the open. We enjoyed the brief respite from thick woods as we made our way around the northern edge of the pond. The final 200’ of climb seemed to take quite a while as we worked our way up to the top. The summit was shrouded in trees but there were some views to be had. We signed in as the third group to reach Whitewall this year. The notebook was labeled “Whitehall” and someone had written “not Whitewall” underneath. Due to my lack of knowledge (I had read the AMC guide and NH 4,000 book but hadn’t read anything about Whitewall) I was concerned we had gone to the wrong summit. Al assured me we were on the correct mountain. We spent a brief time on the top discussing our route out.
We opted for the most direct line down to the Ethan Pond trail. A few hikers had noted that they had “climbed up the slide from Ethan pond trail”, so we were hoping to find the slide. We worked our way west and soon found our way into a dry streambed. We followed that down, slowly as it was pretty steep and a bit wet in spots. Eventually as we worked our way down we found the slide and did the final 200’ or so in the slide.
We emerged on the Ethan pond trail about ½ mile Zealand trail. The footing was so good that we jogged out to the Ethan pond trail and, after a brief detour to the pond, then jogged the final 2.3 miles out to the car.
The day turned out to be pretty good with the temperatures never getting out of the 70’s and the sun being in and out of the clouds all day. We wolfed down spag and pizza in Twin Mountain then crashed in the tent after catching the end of the Sox game (no-hitter) on the radio.
Albee was nearly an hour late after oversleeping, but I used the time to reorganize my pack and prepare my feet. I also met up with Jim, Al’s college teammate, who was going to hike part of the loop with us.
We spotted my car at the Zealand trailhead and Jim’s car at the Highland center and then proceeded down 302 to the Willey house parking lot. We were on the Kendron brook trail by 10:30. The skies had cleared a little, but other than seeing the shoestring slide and the Frankenstein trestle, we hadn’t been able to see much.
The hike up Kendron was fairly easy and we met a couple of hikers heading down the AT. I had a couple of uncomfortable moments on the steeper ladders at the top of the Willey range trail just before the summit of Mt Willey. The sun darted in and out of the clouds while we were on the top. Albee had fun getting a grey Jay to land on his hand and take a snack.
We moved on quickly to Mt Field and could hear the mob on the summit before we reached it. There were about a dozen hikers on the top having lunch when we arrived. We stayed on top for a brief moment and dropped down to the Avalon trail.
Jim headed off to Mt Avalon while Al and I continued on to Mt Tom. We met a few more hikers along the way including a couple and their dog. The dog was small and seemed friendly; it was funny when he growled at Al who was leading the way. The owner said something about the dog showing off, and they were on their way. We took in the view from the summit and were pleasantly surprised by how much of the cloud cover had lifted. We took a break at this point to add pants as we were soon to enter the bushwhacking part of the hike.
We followed the A-Z trail down to about 3,100’ then headed south bushwhacking toward West Field. We found a spot along the way that opened up and gave a nice view of Willey and Field. We reached the summit about an hour after we had started whacking. Al signed us in and noted that we were only the fourth group to visit West Field this year. We refueled and took a short break before heading off for Whitewall.
The bushwhack was tough in spots but not brutal. We went right over the bump (3,500’) almost due west of West Field and then dropped down to the pond. The sun was now shining brightly and it was almost hot out in the open. We enjoyed the brief respite from thick woods as we made our way around the northern edge of the pond. The final 200’ of climb seemed to take quite a while as we worked our way up to the top. The summit was shrouded in trees but there were some views to be had. We signed in as the third group to reach Whitewall this year. The notebook was labeled “Whitehall” and someone had written “not Whitewall” underneath. Due to my lack of knowledge (I had read the AMC guide and NH 4,000 book but hadn’t read anything about Whitewall) I was concerned we had gone to the wrong summit. Al assured me we were on the correct mountain. We spent a brief time on the top discussing our route out.
We opted for the most direct line down to the Ethan Pond trail. A few hikers had noted that they had “climbed up the slide from Ethan pond trail”, so we were hoping to find the slide. We worked our way west and soon found our way into a dry streambed. We followed that down, slowly as it was pretty steep and a bit wet in spots. Eventually as we worked our way down we found the slide and did the final 200’ or so in the slide.
We emerged on the Ethan pond trail about ½ mile Zealand trail. The footing was so good that we jogged out to the Ethan pond trail and, after a brief detour to the pond, then jogged the final 2.3 miles out to the car.
The day turned out to be pretty good with the temperatures never getting out of the 70’s and the sun being in and out of the clouds all day. We wolfed down spag and pizza in Twin Mountain then crashed in the tent after catching the end of the Sox game (no-hitter) on the radio.
