December 3, 2005.

10 mi | 8 hr.

Avalon > A-Z> Mt Tom Spur > Mt Tom > Field > Willey Range Tr > Willey > Willey Range Tr > Avalon

Today I hiked with my friend Jamie. Together we decided to leave the snowshoes in the car.

It was a cold, crisp morning but I heated up very quickly and needed to cast off some layers. We chatted as we hiked up, admiring the snowy scenery all the way. Jamie was good about not walking too far ahead of me and totally kicking my butt. When we reached the Mt. Tom spur we decided to take a quick run up to the summit. We wouldn’t get much for views in these gray skies, however.

On our way down we crossed paths with a group of VFTT hikers who’d left their packs at the spur junction. Wimps!

We headed up and over Field, then onward to Willey. Most of the way we were breaking trail. After a nice rest and refuel stop on top of Wiley we retreated to the Avalon Trail. In search of new scenery we made the steep trek down and back up again to Avalon.

The trail was very icy and we saw crampon footprints in the snow. We thought that was overkill so we kept barebooting along the trail. A long slow hike down followed by a couple quick scrambles up some rocks brought us to the top of Avalon. We had spectacular views of the southern Presidentials and a nice flat spot on the rocks to relax.

This was a tough hike for me (they all are, lately!) but it was a lovely welcome to winter. It’s just around the corner…