Hiking in the White Mountains: Willey Range with Lee and Dion

Date of Hike: 8/3/13

Avalon Trail: 1.3 miles	A-Z Trail: 1.0 miles	Mount Tom Spur: 1.2 miles
Willey Range Trail: 3.7 miles	Avalon Trail: 2.8 miles	.
Total Miles: 10.0	.	3,250 feet elevation gain

Trip Report:

- On Saturday I teamed up with Lee and Dion for a hike through the Willey Range. Lee comes up to the Whites and hikes a lot in the Campton, NH area. Dion has spent a lot of time hiking the 4,000 footers and has completed a couple of rounds of the 48 - 4,000 footers. Last week he did an out n' back of the Bonds and a few weeks back he did a clockwise Semi-Pemi Loop navigating through the Franconia Brook Trail and it's many water crossings at night!

- We met in Crawford Notch and headed up the Avalon Trail, it had rained the night before but the trail was in decent shape and the water crossings were easy. The worst part of the Avalon Trail is the new trail relocation, it's sloppy clayish mud in spots that becomes really slippery. It's in worse shape then the stretch they replaced. Hopefully once it is worn down it will become more stable.

- We took our time as we gained the ridge and topped out at the Tom / Field col. From here it's an easy half a mile to the summit of Mount Tom which had decent views of the Presidential Range from one of it's partial outlooks. The other outlook which is closer to the true summit has obstructed views into the Pemigewasset Wilderness, the views are much better in the winter when the snowpack is high.

- We plodded back down to the col before hooking onto the Willey Range Trail up to Mount Field. Along the way I ran into Nate who was taking three little energetic hikers through the Willey Range, I ran into him a few weeks back up in the Presidential Range, good to see you! (sorry if I got your name wrong). Later on I ran into Chris Lawrie who was doing a endurance hike of his own before picking his girlfriend Heather up. He already hiked Hale, and was hiking Willey, Field, and Tom. When we ran into him he was well on his way to finishing his day of hiking, and then was planning a Presi Traverse the next day, pretty impressive hiking! Good to see you Chris!

- We made it to Mount Field's summit and took a nice long break to eat and relax. The view from the downlook was pretty sweet so we took pictures as we hung around the summit.

- From here I took off to Mount Willey and then headed back and out by Mount Avalon. As I headed down to and past Mount Avalon I became violently ill, I had no idea what happened but it wasn't pretty!

- It was a fun hike and Lee was entertaining on the trail and had Dion and I laughing most of the time. Can't wait for the next hike guys! Thanks for letting me tag along!