Desserts on the 48 continues!
For this one, we teamed up with kid hiker extraordinaire Isidora and her mom, Kelly. Alex and I hiked with Isidora in 2009 on Hale, and Isidora joined our family in early 2012 for Alex's winter 4K finish on Flume. Isidora finished hiking her own round of the NH4Ks last March, and she's hiked dozens and dozens (perhaps hundreds?) of mountains in Vermont and New York. She's a great kid with lots of energy, and she and my girls seem to make a good team.
Instead of doing the usual Tom-Field-Willey hike, I asked everyone if we could do the less popular, western A-Z approach up Tom (from Zealand Trail) and descend the usual east A-Z/Avalon trails to Crawford Notch. I'm redlining, which means I'm trying to hike all the trails in the Whites, and I hadn't done that section of the A-Z Trail before. Everyone graciously agreed to my request, so Kelly and I left one of our cars at Crawford Notch and drove the other car up Zealand Road to begin our hike.
The theme for today's hike was toffee and taffy. I brought the toffee I'd made the night before...and some Heath bits as back-up, since my homemade toffee tasted a wee bit burnt.
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| Homemade toffee setting in the fridge. |
The beginning of our hike -- Zealand Trail.
The three amigas remained ahead of me and Kelly during the entire hike. We often had to call out to the girls to slow down. Kelly and I were definitely outpaced on this one.
Pond off Zealand Trail.
Zealand Trail is fairly flat, so those initial 2.5 miles zoomed by. We were at the intersection with A-Z about 45 minutes after we had started our hike.
Starting out on the A-Z...
Lovely view of one of the ponds by Zealand Trail from the A-Z Trail...
Nice bog bridges...
Excellent rock work...
Beautiful scenery...
More bog bridges...
I loved this approach to Tom. The only time the trail felt even moderately steep was during the last few tenths of a mile before the intersection with Mt. Tom Spur.
We reached the Spur, grabbed a quick drink, then continued upward to the summit.
Stuffed animals on Tom!
Kelly, Isidora, Sage, and Alex on Tom.
Homemade and store-bought toffee on Tom...
Kelly and Isidora brought taffy...
Taffy on Tom!
After lounging and eating, we went over to the southern viewpoint.
Alex spelled out her name, and Isidora and Sage's, using sticks...
We hung around for a long time -- much longer than any other time we've ever spent on a summit. The girls, Kelly, and I had fun shooting the breeze and discussing mountains and life in general. We met a nice fellow who was just starting to hike again after a two-year absence from the trails. He plans on doing the AT southbound next year. If you're reading this, Harrison, it was a pleasure meeting you!
Down we eventually went...
End of hike!
This was a thoroughly enjoyable day. Hope to hike with Isidora and Kelly again soon.
This was Alex's 3rd and Sage's 2nd time on Tom's summit.
2 comments:
The only time I've been on the western section of the AZ Trail it had rained a lot recently and the trail was a series of puddles. I don't think I've ever seen so much standing water on a trail outside the Adirondacks. It looks like you had much better conditions.
We had dry conditions for our hike, and we enjoyed the trail very much. It's a mellow and scenic route. I can understand not enjoying the A-Z after a rainy spell, though.
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