"Tom, Field and Willey"

December 3, 2005 White Mts. (Tom, Field, Willey)

Trails:  Avalon Trail to A-Z Trail to Willey Range Trail to Avalon Trail
Peak Elevations:  Tom (4051'), Field (4340'), Willey (4285')
Total Elevation Gain: ~3700'
Total Miles:  12.0 miles

Note: All pictures are courtesy of Jess. I thought I had forgotten my camera, when in fact it was hidden down at the bottom of my backpack. (doh...)

The relatively good tree cover along the routes up Tom, Field and Willey made them a great choice for the cold and windy conditions up on the summits Saturday, so Jessbee and I decided to tackle those peaks. We met up at 8am and as we were getting ready, Rachel (aka Little Sister) pulled up. She was meeting up with Lendawg, Chinooktrail and Cold Mountain to do the same route. But anxious to get going, Jess and I decided to hit the trail, knowing we'd run into their group on the trails.

We made the steady ascent up towards the Tom Spur and along the way, a very fearless gray jay accompanied us for nearly a mile. He/she was a real treat to watch! The bird would keep pace with us, landing on branches just a few feet away, no doubt waiting for a treat which we of course would never give out.

A few miles and one wrong turn later, we reached the spur and hiked up Tom with no problem. It should be noted that the trail conditions were pretty ideal. There was a few inches of snow on the ground, and snowshoes and crampons were never worn or really needed for most of the trip.

After bagging Tom and enjoying the views for a bit, we got down below in better tree cover and ate a snack. We then continued down where we ran into the others. In addition to Rachel, it was great seeing Lenny and Chinooktrail again, and nice to meet Cold Mountain.

Jess and I then made our way up towards Field and soon reached the summit, where I left Lenny a nice little message in the snow regarding his body odor.

We then continued on over to Willey, enjoying great views of Carrigain and the Hancocks along the way. We felt the wind a bit more here, probably around 30-40 mph. Temps were also about 8 degrees, according to my thermometer.

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We soon reached that summit as well, and hiked down to the lookout where we ate another snack. Here we also saw a few other hikers, and chatted with them a bit. After a few minutes we made the trek back, and ran into the others again for the final time. Lenny informed me of a message left on my behalf on Tom. It confirmed what I already knew, which is that I suck.

Wanting a slightly different route, we opted to take the Avalon Trail down and bag Mt. Avalon as well. The trail was a bit more icy here, but neither of us felt like putting on our crampons so we just proceeded with caution. I was pleasantly surprised when we reached Avalon. I didn't think I had done it before, but I definitely had about 15 months ago when I did the hike with Pedxing. It had just been awhile and I forgot. But great views here as well. Mt. Washington was in the clouds, but many of the other Pressies were in view.

Continuing down the trail, another very bold gray jay paid us a visit. This one would fly right at our faces and veer away at the last second and land on a branch, scaring the crap out of both of us! Pretty cool!

We reached our cars and went our separate ways. Fun hike!