The day after the mountain before

Woke up this morning with a severe case of "Mt Washington legs" - getting out of bed and down the spiral iron staircase of our cabin was a challenge indeed.

In the interests of limbering up a little, and making the most of our last day in New Hampshire we found a small hike up Mt Willard - a straight up and back to a cliff ledge overlooking the Crawford Notch valley.

The hike to the cliff edge was fairly unremarkable - a small river crossing at the start, and then a path up through the woods at an unchanging gradient. Unlike the solitude of our Mt Washington hike, there was quite a lot of traffic on the route, including a couple groups of teenagers.
Fortunately, when we reached the top, we were able to enjoy the peace and quiet for about 5 minutes before the ledge was overrun by the first group.

Sitting up on the ledge we had a fine view down into the valley, and also backward over to Mt Washington. As we sat, we could see the clouds coming in and shrouding the weather masts on the summit.

Once we returned to the cabin, we had a relaxing afternoon sitting in our "back garden" playing scrabble, writing postcards, reading and snoozing. In the evening we lit our second campfire - a challenge as it rained on and off the whole evening. Eventually we managed to get it burning and dinner was a success, albeit a little damp.

Trail Length: 2.9mi (4.7km)
Elevation Gain: 980ft (300m)

Google Earth file for our White Mountain Hikes