August 11, 2024

Start/End: Crawford Notch, Rt. 302

Peaks: Tom (4,051'), Field (4,340'), Willey (4,285')

Elevation Gain: 3,720 ft

RT Mileage: 10.02 mi

Duration: 6 hours, 31 minutes

Rock Difficulty: Class 1

After a washout last weekend, I was back in the Whites for some peakbagging on the 11th. The forecast called for a slight chance of afternoon thunderstorms, but I decided to take the risk and go for Tom, Field, and Willey anyway.

Waking up at 3:45 AM, we left the house at 4:30, and arrived at the trailhead just before 7:00. Immediately out of the trailhead was a moderate stream crossing. After the crossing, the Avalon Trail ascended gently for 1.4 miles to the fork with the A-Z Trail. From the fork, the A-Z Trail briefly descended to another, much smaller stream crossing, before resuming its gentle ascent to the ridge.

The trail steepened a bit for the final 400 vertical feet to the ridge, but rock steps made footing just as easy as it had been up to that point. After gaining the ridge, it was 0.6 miles on the Tom Spur to the summit of Tom. We summited just before 9:10.

We hiked to a viewpoint on the eastern side of Tom's summit via a spur trail. Unfortunately, the only view from the viewpoint was of Field over the trees. After we were done, we hiked back to the fork with the A-Z Trail, and then another 0.9 miles on the Willey Range Trail to the summit of Field. This was also a rather gentle ascent, and we summited just after 10:20.

We took quite a long break on the summit of Field, first taking a snack then feeding the gray jays on the summit (one is visible in the above photo). Then, we began making our way over to Willey. These next 1.4 miles were arguably the hardest stretch of the hike, steep, rocky, and narrow at times. Still though, it paled in comparison to The Link, which we were unfortunate enough to have to hike two weeks ago.

After nearly an hour of arduous hiking, we gained the wooded summit of Willey at 11:40. From here, we hiked for another couple of minutes past the summit on the Willey Range Trail to a fine viewpoint of Crawford Notch and the Presidential Range, and this is where we took our break (as did most other Willey summiters today).

The 1.4 miles back to Field from Willey were, obviously, the hardest part of the descent. Low clouds did move in during this time, but fortunately it did not rain. The rest of the descent from the summit of Field was a breeze. We made it back to the notch at 2:15 PM, and 4,000ers #45, #46, and #47 were in the books.