05 October 2015: Mount Tom, Mount Field, Mount Willey, Mount Avalon

Admittedly I have been slacking this year on hiking the 4000 footers, and here was a chance for me to bag a few in one pass. I persuaded Bishop X to come with me on this one, the selling point being that we were going to not only bag 3 of the NH48, but a 52WAV as well. The Willey range has a nice drop-down to Mount Avalon as well, which was a worthy sidetrip on the descent.

History: Mount Tom is named for Thomas Crawford, whose family had a number of inns in the area of Crawford Notch during the 1800’s. Mountt Willey was named for Samuael Willey, whose family lived I the area in the 1820’s and were killed in a landslide in Crawford Notch. Mount Field is named for Darby Field, the first European to climb Mt Washington back in 1642. He was also known for his ability to translate between the Native and Settler populations. I was unable to find a naming etymology for Mount Avalon, but Avalon was a mythical place from the Authurian era, so it could be related to that.


Peak Elevation: 4052ft (Tom), 4327 ft (Field), 4255 ft. (Willey), 3442 ft (Avalon)
Elevation Gain: 2358 ft
Trails: Avalon Trail, A-Z trail, Mt Tom Spur, Willey Range trail
Length: 10.2 mi.
Time on Trail: 0920
Time off Trail: 1630ish


The trip started out at Crawford Depot on the west side of US-302, parking is free here. Crossing the tracks you can see the herdpath to the Avalon trailhead sign pretty clearly. After just over a mile you reach the junction of the A-Z trail, having ventured past the Beecher and Pearl cascades with not a lot of elevation gain to this point (maybe 800ft). Continuing on up the A-Z trail to get to the Willey Range trail for another mile of so, gaining just shy of 1800 ft in elevation gain until you get to the Mt Tom Spur trail. The trip to Mount Tom from here is just over a half mile, and at this point we were glad to have the hefty elevation gains out of the way. Ok I was gladder than Bishop X was because he’s in far better condition than me, and today i was exceptionally slower than he.


Moving on we ventured onward to the Willey Range Trail junction and moved on toward Mt Field, crossing paths with our descending point, the upper terminus of the Avalon Trail. Mt. Field has a side path with a small outlook, but the weather was kind of blah so we did not stay there long. The next stop was Mount Willey, which also has a viewpoint from an unmarked side trail. I find it peculiar that this range is named for Willey but is not the highest mountain on the range, granted there is only a net 20 foot elevation drop here. After bagging the 3rd 4000footer of the day I was keen on getting down and home; Mount Avalon was on the way and we decided that if we made good time we would bag it, but if not we would leave it for another day.


Having made good time we trekked up towards Avalon, which offers great views of the Southern Presidentials and to the southeast of the Willey range. The quick sidetrip (a few hundred yards, maybe?) was worth it for the brief view we took, as there were 2 dudes just taking a nap up there when we arrived, kind of weirded us out so we just snapped a few pictures and moved on. The descent was pretty tame after that point.


Photos:

Mt. Tom, Mt. Field, Mt. Willey, Mt. Avalon 05OCT15

This entry was backdated, written in 2017.