Hello out there in internet land, this is your favorite Welsh terrier and mine, Dickens, here to tell you about a wonderful hike in the White Mountains.  As you may have noticed, my website was not working for the last two weeks due to a French hacker destroying it, but I have now repaired the damage and we are up and running! 
     Mt. Tom is a 4051' high mountain which rises above Crawford Notch across from majestic Mount Washington.  In past years it had no view, but then a large spruce wave caused the summit trees to die off, opening up some of the most marvelous views in all of the White Mountains.
     Bruce drove Fenster and I  up to Crawford Notch depot on October 5, a sunny and warm day.  Due to all the fall foliage tourists, the parking lot was almost full.  We started out down the trail at 10:38 AM.  Bruce had packed three bottles of Crystal Lite and one bottle of water for us in case Crawford Brook was drying up due to a dry August and September, but the worthy brook wasn't drying up at all, not even near its source high on the mountain. 
     The lower trail is very beautiful, going through glades of paper birches and past a series of scenic waterfalls.  We had been on this part of the trail before, when we climbed Mt Avalon last year.
     We came to a place where the trail crosses over to the south side of Crawford Brook.  Here we met two pretty young ladies from Keene, NH, which I will call "the Keene ladies."  They were very friendly to us doggies and we like that a lot!
     By 11:32 we reached the fork where the trail to Mt Avalon goes left.  We went right to go to the higher summit, Mt. Tom.   The trail then gets steep with many stone steps to help prevent erosion. Many bearded trees  are here , with beards resembling Spanish moss,  and Bruce took photos of a few of them.   At 12:08 we crossed Crawford Brook again near its headwaters, and we were happy to see that it was still flowing away.  By 12:37 we reached the top of the ridge and turned right towards the summit.
     The map makes this area look gradual but actually there is a fairly steep section here climbing up through some large boulders.
     We met a man and a woman coming down off the top who told us that we are getting close and that when we get there, a trail to the left goes to the summit with views west, and a trail to the right goes to a lower lookout with views to the east.   They said there were a lot of people on the top.
     There was a crowd on the top, but they all came down before we got there.  The Keene ladies also came down and told us they were going on to climb Mt Field which is on the same ridge just south of Mt Tom.  When we arrived at the summit at 1:05 PM we were the only ones there. 
     The lookout to the west has a great panorama of Mt Hale, North Twin, South Twin, Mt Bond, Bondcliff, the Handcocks, Mt Carrigain, and Mt Field, as well as the wild headwaters of the Pemigewasset River.  The lookout has a cairn and a small wooden bench to sit on.
     After this, we went over to the lookout east, which was even more impressive.  Here we saw an outstanding view taking in Mt Jefferson, Mt Washington, Mt Monroe, Mt Eisenhower, Mt Pierce, Mt Jackson, and Mt Webster.  You can also see Mt Avalon like a little stepping stone down below.
     Of all of these mountains noted, I had climbed two, but Bruce had climbed 12.  The view was so gorgeous Bruce couldn't resist taking many pictures of it.
     Hey, all right all ready, it's time for us doggies to eat!  Bruce got the message and we had a very delicious lunch, as we always do.  Bruce also gave us a dish of water. 
     We left the top at 1:44 and passed by two backpackers going on to Zealand hut.  We also met up with the Keene ladies again.  One of them took a picture of us two doggies licking the face of the other one.  What nice hikers!  They know what we doggies like!
     As we got down into lower areas Bruce stopped and took photos of the yellow leaves on the paper birches.  We were back out at 4:20 PM.  A gorgeous day and a gorgeous hike.