November 29, 2008
Our Waterville weekend dad was working an outage at work so I went up with Katie and Heather again. Heather’s ankle was still not 100% so we took to the trails in the valley below 3000ft. There are a ton so we weren’t bored. Only thing was that meant for 2 months we weren’t hiking a 4ker. I was in withdrawal. Dad hates outages, and had to work on Thanksgiving so when I suggested we go hike when he was done. He liked the idea. Online he found a cheap hotel just north of North Conway. I was about to get the best of both worlds, shopping the N. Conway outlets on Black Friday and doing 2 4kers.
We parked at the train depot right next to the Highland Center. A few cars were there already and the snow was packed down so parking wasn’t a problem. We crossed the railroad tracks and hit the trail. I was very excited because these would be my first 4kers in the snow. Unfortunately, we had left our snowshoes and my boots in our condo closet. Luckily, I found a pair of North Face winter boots on sale the night before at EMS. As for the snowshoes we were going to have to suck it up. At first this wasn’t a problem because the Avalon trail only had 3 or so inches of snow. Once we got to the junction with the A-Z trail the snow was getting deeper. We headed toward Mt. Avalon. Although not a 4ker I heard there are great views so we decided to take the spur to the top. There was one section that was somewhat difficult without the snowshoes because it was steep with deep snow.
We did eventually get up and got to enjoy the view while snacking. This was also our first experience with the gray jays. Wow, they are friendly. 
After a short stay we headed north toward Mt. Field. The summit was not above tree line but there were some open views. It was a lot colder then I expected too. I was trying to get food out of my bag without my gloves on and it didn’t take long before they hurt from the cold. We had some more snacks and some hot chocolate but quickly headed down due to the cold and dwindling day light.
We headed along the Willey Ridge Trail toward Mt Tom. Now this is where the snowshoes would have been handy. We did plenty of post holing in well over a foot of snow. Although this part of the trail was easy it was taking a while because of the conditions.
We finally got to the spur to Mt Tom and dad said we didn’t have time. We were going to run out of daylight. I tried to protest some but it didn’t work so we headed down the A-Z Trail. After a few yards dad changed his mind. If we went quickly we can do it. So we turned around and headed up the Spur Trail. I was very tired when we finally found the top. Clouds were rolling in so it wasn’t as nice of a view as it could have been. On our way back though we had a parting of the clouds and out popped Mt. Washington. What a view. 
No time to sit around and admire, we need to get out of here before it gets dark. Off we went at a rapid pace down to the car. The sun had gone down below the mountains when we got back but there was some light still so it wasn’t bad. I was drenched in sweat though. I couldn’t wait to change clothes.Thoughts: I think I am going to really enjoy this winter hiking. Notes to self: Don’t leave the snowshoes in the condo closet. Learn to layer better and stop and delayer if you are getting real hot. Bring 3 pairs of gloves because your hands sweat a lot.
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