Tecumseh 2/7/2009

Today Shelby and I headed up to Waterville Valley to hike Mt. Tecumseh which is the shortest of the 48 - 4,000' peaks in New Hampshire. To be honest, I hadn't heard too many good things about this mountain. I was always told that it was pretty much viewless and a waste of time. I was also told that if you were only going to do it once, do it in winter so you can get a little higher off the ground to get a better view.

With that being said, it's also a fairly short hike to this 4,003' peak which makes it a perfect starter hike for my Wife to join me on. Today is her First 4000' peak in winter. Granted, it's only my fourth but I've done longer hikes on snowshoes and a big part of snowshoeing is just getting used to the way your feet react with the ground.

We parked about .3 miles from the trailhead as the Ski Area was busy today being a nice day and a Saturday to boot. We had a fairly easy time and soon found that we were dressed just right for the day. There was no layering up or down at all. After about 1.1 miles, we hit this stream bed which is overrun with snow at the moment.

The trail to this point was fairly decent and easy and after another .1 miles or so, we hit the short spur path to the ski slopes where there was a pretty good view of the Tripyramids.

There was also a snowboard race that was about to start. All the participants were spending time waxing their boards while instructions were being given on the course. The picture to the left is of me, the Tripyramids and the snowboarders.

We then headed back up the trail which parallels the Ski slopes for a while and was well broken out by the snowboarders who use it as a trail. We never saw any snowboarders on the way up at all. At this point, the trail steepened significantly and I explained to Shelby how to take a rest step where you lock your knee in place while your other leg moves. It saves a lot of strain on the muscles and lets you go longer without having to stop and lose momentum.

Along the way there were quite a few funny faces planted into the snow. This one was my favorite and reminded me a lot of "Slimer" from the ghost busters.

Soon we came to the trail junction with the Sosman Trail. From here to the end we would follow the Sosman Trail to the summit. The Mt. Tecumseh Trail forms a loop with the Sosman trail but it was not broken out so we would not be following it today.

When we arrived at the junction, the wind was blowing pretty good and despite the 30 degree temperatures, it was cold. We put on our Balaclava's and I put on my extra fleece jacket for some added warmpth.

After we finished layering up, we headed back up the trail where the Sosman trail diverted left and after a few minutes, this view of the West and Mount Moosilauke opened up to us.

we arrived at the summit at about 11:40Am and Shelby was very happy as this was her first winter 4,000' Peak. Congratulations Shelby.

Shelby then took a picture of me at the Summit Cairn. This is my Captain Morgan Pose.

We then ate lunch and took in the view.

Considering this peak has "No Views", the day was great and the views were better than expected. From this point, we headed down and were at the trailhead again at about 1:05PM. We did this hike in book time exactly including all of the stopping and picture taking and view looking and food eating we did. This was a fun hike and a nice learning opportunity for us both. Maybe we'll even do it again someday.