Tom-Field-Willey
February 15, 2009
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Today we joined several others for a hike of 3 peaks - Mt Tom, Field and Willey. As we pulled into the Highland Center we saw many vehicles from NH Fish and Game. They and Search and Rescue teams were preparing to begin a search for 2 missing hikers. Luckily, the search was short and they were found safe and in good condition.
While waiting for others to arrive we ran into many that we have hiked with before that were also getting ready for their hikes. It was nice to catch up and trade stories. Soon we were geared up and headed out to teh trail right at 8 AM.
Being so close to the Highland Center this trail recieves a lot of hikers, so it was sell broken out but still deep enough that snow shoes were required to prevent post holing. There appeared to be only one set of tracks in front of us - our friend Trish who started early as she needed to be home by late afternoon.
STeve led us out at a comfortable pace, stopping often to be sure we stayed together. Others in the group were Jason, Mark, a new Steve, Amy, Geri and I. The trek to Mt Tom is fairly steep, but at least we would have most of our elevation climb for the day completed.
Every so often we would see a message n the snow from Tirsh letting us know she had come this way. Although she had hoped we would catch her, a solo hiker doesn't stop as often or as long as a group - she finished 2 hours ahead of us as we found out later in the day.
We reached the junction of the Mt Tom and Geri decided to head right to Mt Field with the new Steve while the rest of us summitted Mt Tom. She thought we would cath them by the time they reached the summit, however she didn't plan for our being delayed by the infamous Candadian Jays. They made there appearance about half way along the spur trail and again at the summit. Good thing we had extra food along!
Returning from the summit we ran into Salty who we had hike with last weekend, and another hiker and his dog. We chatted a while before heading off to Mt Field. A short while into this trail the snow became deeper, the trees covered with wind driven snow. Now it really looked like Winter. Finally we reached the last steep uphill to the summit and re-joined Geri and Steve.
After some snacks and photos we were off the find Mt Willey. It is a long steep descent from Mt Field that had us all on our butts enjoying the excitment as we flew down the trail - some more succesful that others. REalizing how steep the return trip was we started hoping that we would run into Trish on her return from Mt Willey so we can convince her to drive to the Ethan Pond trailhead and allow us to do a one way traverse rather that climbing back up Mt Field.
But - no Trish :< We reached the summit and found a sign in the snow from her indicating she was doing a one way traverse. Turns out that she had met somebody on Mt Willey who would give her a ride to her car. After some discussion we all agreed that the odds of gettign a ride for at least one of us back to our cars was good, so we decided to also do a one way. Off we went towards the famed ladders which are in place for the rather steep climb.
We enjoyed more butt slides until we hit the first ladder. Here we all removed our snowshoes and half walked/hald slid down the steep sections, some of which were ice covered while other sections had exposed rocks, tree stumps poking out.
After getting through the steep sections, we hit the junction of the Kendron Flume. From her the trail is a gently down hill. We met a woman just after this that was carrying her XC skis. 30 minutes later we came across two guys climbing up looking for here. They were part of a group whom had spent the previous night at Zealand hut.
Across the railroad tracks and were were down to Rte 302. We found somebody to give me a ride back to our car so I could ferry everybody else back to the Highland Center. After hike several of us stopped for pizza. Another great day to be outdoors!
Length of Hike: 7:30 hours
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