It started as cloudy day and the weather didn’t look to be the most promising. Forecast was clouds early and clouds late with possible thunderstorms. We debated on making the trip and decided we would head up and hike Mt Field and if things went well try to get in Mt Willey as well both 4000 footers.The hiking party today would be Rose, Teah and Myself.

We arrived at the Macomber Family Facility around 8:30am. temps and skies were about the same as they were down south temp at the trail head was 64 and skies cloudy but light hints of blue sky could be seen occasionally in thin areas.

We started up the trail pausing several times to adjust our packs and clothing balance. The trails were in great shape and the traffic was much less than I anticipated. We were going to hike the A-Z trail, to Mt Avalon Loop, to Willey Range Trail.

The trail grade for the most part is not bad. The initial part of the trail follows a stream that was flowing quite well in which we crossed a couple times. In high water the crossings could be tricky but today they were easy.

As we started up the Mt Avalon trail things got much steeper quickly, it also became much more rocky. We were concerned about Teah’s paws so we put her boots on her. She did not seem to like the idea initially, but once underway she didn’t seem to care. As you might imagine we received lots of comments from other hikers on her boots, but knew all to well how the rocks hurt her pads on Mt Chocorua last month.

We made the summit trail of Mt Avalon, the sign shown is the same one that was just out of the snow on mt hike up Mt Avalon this spring with Shannon. It was interesting to hike the trails we had done in snowshoes. I could make out several landmarks from those earlier hikes including the snow coned tree.

The trail from Mt Avalon to Mt Field is an interesting walk through some different forest. I think it is what is referred to as the Boreal. Trees very close together, very lush, lots of dead trees mixed in. I kept waiting for the fairies to pop out any minute.

We made the summit of Mt Field and were welcomed by still mostly cloudy skies. We could see the Mt Washington hotel and the summits of Mt Avalon and Mt Tom but not much else. Occasional we we see some bright sun but the sky never opened blue as we had hoped. The good news the skies didn’t open with rain either.

After having lunch on the summit of Mt Field we thought we would head for Mt Willey 1.4 miles away. The walk should be a summit walk with little elevation change. We started off but Teah would not leave the summit. A group of guys came up that we saw earlier and we tried again. She still would not budge. So we figured maybe we should head back down. Tia didn’t want to do this either. Now Tia is not the biggest dog in the forest but when she wants a piece of another dog look out, she is strong and when she does not want to move she is dead weight. I ended up picking her up by her harness like a suitcase and walking. Teah started walking after about 30 yards. We went maybe a couple hundred yards and she stopped again. This time we waited, rested her for about 10 minutes and finally she started off. We went maybe a 1/2 hour and we met another dog on the trail, a big shepherd. She had no problem heading down the trail then and nearly pulled rose and I down the trail most of the way out.

We decided not to shoot up the 100 yard spur to Mt Avalon given that there would not be any views and Teah’s temperament for the afternoon and simply continued down the trail. When we reached the bolder cascade loop we decided we could swing though and take in the views. Tia would not go down the trail, once again refusing to budge. “Does she know the trail?” Rose asked, “I don’t know” I said. We tried a few minutes and then gave up and headed down the main trail.

Rain looked to be threatening and we didn’t want to wait and try coaxing her any longer. All in all we had an awesome day. The hike ended up being roughly 6.7 miles and the dog boots worked great on Teah’s feet. Now if we can only train her to go where we want to, when we want to we will have it knocked.

Rose did excellent all day. She took a minor tumble when we stepped aside for some other hikers, losing her footing and poking her hand on something. Other than that no injuries and no falls. That’s always a good thing. It was just a marvelous day of hiking even though we had no views.