Yesterday we bagged 3 White Mountain 4000-footers in a single hike: Mounts Tom, Field, and Willey. POW POW POW.
First, we took the Avalon Trail (1 mile) to the AZ Trail (1 mile) to the Mt. Tom Spur Trail (.5 mile) to the summit of Mount Tom, where we joined a small cluster of fellow hikers lamenting the lack of views due to thick cloud cover. Then we hiked back on the Mt. Tom Spur Trail (.5 mile) to the Willey Range Trail (1 mile) to the summit of Mount Field, where we lunched on bread, cheese, and cherries and, again, lamented the lack of a view. We continued on the Willey Range Trail (1.5 miles) to the summit of Mount Willey (shown below, left, with me getting downright punchy). Finally, we hiked back on the Willey Range Trail (1.5 miles) to the Avalon Trail (3 miles), which we took all the back to our car. Trip stats: 10 miles, 6 ounces of cheddar, 5 hours and 45 minutes, 3 peaks, 1 baguette, 0 views.
As Mr. Pinault astutely pointed out on our way home upon seeing a certain bumper sticker, the first letter of the mountains form the acronym “WTF,” guaranteeing that I’ll always think of the hike as the WTF hike. As in, “WTF? I can’t see anything because of the clouds.”
