Willey Range

May 5, 2019

Deb and I started from the train station in Crawford Notch at 07:30. It looked like we would get in some snow free hiking, but as soon as we crossed the train tracks and entered the woods the snowspine started, and within 200 meters we were spiking up as it was somewhat icy. The trail brought us to an open stream crossing which was accomplished by balancing on a sketchy log. At 2500' the snow was complete, though we remained in spikes, catching up to a solo hiker who we had a brief chat with before continuing on ahead. Another stream was crossed by wading in the shallow water on big rock slabs, and finally a third crossing which required down climbing steep snow, followed by an easy rock hop, and finally a second steep snow climb out the other side.

Railroad Trailhead.

Debbie showing how to balance on twigs.

At 3500' we donned snowshoes and this made travel easier. With only about two hours on the go we reached the summit of Mt. Tom and wandered around a bit trying to determine exactly where the high point of this tree covered mountain was. A quick break in the sunshine and then we struck back down, meeting the solo woman again and then a group of three who were preparing for a bushwhack of West Field. We decided we would stick to the trail today and quickly climbed Mt. Field, finding another unimpressive summit of trees.

Just a bit of snow.

Summit of Tom

Snowspine balancing.

Summit of Field.

The descent off of Field towards Willey was the toughest hiking of the day. Sketchy snowspine and occasional bare rock scrambles (all negotiated in snowshoes), made travel slow. Fortunately once we reached the col, it was easier going which held pretty consistently for the climb up Willey. The summit of this mountain had a little bit of a view just off the back side, and we sat down to a proper lunch here as it was almost noon. We were joined by the local gray jay pestered us for food, even landing boldly in my outstretched hand.

Our snowshoes loved us for this hike.

Summit of Willey.

Feathered friend for lunch.

Traversing back we met the solo hiker for the third and last time and then climbed the sketchy snowspine (somewhat easier going up) back to the top of Field where we met another couple having their lunch. We sped on through and began our descent down the Avalon trail, which was fairly steep, but there was enough snow to snowshoe ski most of it.

The highlight of the day was Avalon Peak, which involved a short steep snow and finally rock scramble to a lovely rocky summit with a panoramic view of Mount Washington and other presidential friends. We spend quite a while up here soaking up the rays of sunshine and eating a second lunch before turning to go. The descent from here was incredibly steep, and the rotting snow was kind of sketchy, so we carefully picked our way down, sometimes down climbing, sometimes kicking snowshoe steps until we finally reached the trail along the river which has a much more reasonable incline. At river crossing number two we packed away the snowshoes and bare booted the rest of the way, rock hopping, mud walking, and gingerly stepping on collapsing snow spine.

We did not find Excalibur, but still enjoyed the summit of Avalon.

We were back at the train station after a seven and a half hour day Not an overly long hike, but both of us fairly sore due to the tricky footing which was pretty much constant throughout the sixteen kilometer hike.

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