January 6, 2009 Hike #2
After hiking the Hancocks in the morning, I made the long, long drive all the way around to Waterville Valley to hike Mount Tecumseh. I love the mountain, hate the drive. Tecumseh is by far the toughest of the White Mountain 4's for me to get to. The sign at the trailhead states it is 2.2 miles to the top, but my map states it's 2.5 miles. I like to give myself as much credit as possible, so I'm going with the 2.5.
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Part way up the mountain, the trail comes within a few yards of the ski slope.
I stepped out to get a view of the Tripyramids.
I was surprised not to see any skiers. I looked up to see that this particular trail was roped off. I took a look around and there was lots of ice on the trail. Well that should change tomorrow with the incoming storm.
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For a while the trail stays close to the ski slope. I couldn't see anybody but the sound of the skis swooshing by kept Madison's ears on full alert. We headed up to the ridge and then up to the summit. Here's Maddie on the 4003' summit of Tecumseh.
This was winter four #27 overall and #8 for this year.
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The Tripyramids from the summit of Tecumseh
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Maddie and I returned over the same route. It was a great 2nd hike of the day. We had had the mountain to ourselves, except for the skiers on the slopes. The roundtrip hike took us about 2.5 hours. Hmmm, there's still 45 minutes of light. No, I guess 2 hikes is enough for today. After all, I still had a two and a half hour drive to get home. I drove as Madison snoozed.
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