Post-thanksgiving, I drove up to Maine with my parents to spend a few days away from the Black Friday and holiday shopping crowds. Much of southern Maine had lost power during the pre-thanksgiving snow we received, but by the time we got up there on Friday, it had been restored.
Saturday morning,
my mom and I headed up to Crawford Notch for a hike. The forecast called for a
cold day with wind on the higher summits, so we bundled up and packed our bags
for typical winter conditions in the Whites. The trailhead was surprisingly full by 9:30 in the morning when we arrived, which meant the chances of having
to break trail were slim. Yay!
The
beginning of the trail was very gradual and crossed several small streams as it
meandered through the woods. As we started to gain elevation, we let a boisterous
group of hikers pass us, and then we continued up the trail, occasionally catching
glimpses of the snow-covered mountains through the bare trees.
A little
over 2 miles up Davis Path, we came to the spur for Mt. Crawford. From the
spur, it was about 0.3 miles to the summit. I kept looking over my shoulder to
see the silhouettes of the White Mountains to the southwest. There wasn’t a cloud
in the sky, and the sun reflecting off the freshly fallen snow was almost
blinding. Everything was so crisp and sharp to the naked eye.
We came out on to the summit of Mt. Crawford, which was quite busy on this gorgeous day. Mt.
Crawford is not a 4,000 footer, but it is one of the mountains listed on 52
with a View, which is a list of mountains under 4,000 feet that have worthwhile
vistas. The views from Mt. Crawford easily surpassed those of larger and more impressive mountains. Granted, we had a near perfect
day with visibility for miles, which is rare.
We snacked
on cookies and nuts at the top, and had a few swigs of hot cocoa to warm us up
as a chill had started to set in. After snapping a few photos we retraced our steps back down the trail. The
early afternoon sun had softened the snow and it was a bit slippery in a
few spots. A few rocky spots had turned into small snowfields, which paired
with the expansive views gave a sense of an endless wilderness and put
everything on a much larger scale than one would expect from a small mountain. We
couldn’t have asked for a better day; the combination of the trail and the weather
conditions were perfect. And to top it off, we stopped at the Met in North
Conway for a cup of coffee to go along with our homemade turkey sandwiches!
