Rhody Seth
Active member
I spent Presidents' Day weekend up in Whites with a backpacking trip on Sunday morning in the Sandwich Wilderness as the focal point. But I drove up Saturday morning planning to do a shorter hike and Mt. Tecumseh seemed a good fit. Originally I wanted to hike Moose as I need it for my W48 but there was a wind chill advisory and I skeptical of the trail conditions after the recent heat/rain. So Tecumseh it would be which proved to be the correct choice. It began to snow about 30 minutes out and while the highway was fine the offramp to Waterville Valley was another story. There was a crash at the bottom of the ramp and I experienced some sliding as well. It was a slow drive the rest of the way to Waterville Valley and the ski mountain parking lot was packed and I ended up parking fairly far away. A few feet away from the car, sheer ice convinced me to put on my spikes which I would use for the entire hike.
While I dislike driving in the snow, hiking is another matter. It was a fine walk in the woods, listening to the skiers nearby. I used the backpack I'd bring backpacking and while I deloaded it somewhat, it still wasn't super light. I wanted to test out where I had my snowshoes and insulated bottle to make sure they wouldn't bother me. Everything felt great except my legs which got tired quicker than I expected. Too late I realized I hadn't done much training with a big pack prior to this backpacking weekend. Dumb on my part and my burning calves let me know that the entire weekend would be a grind.
Other than the premature exhaustion this was a peaceful, beautiful hike. I saw probably a dozen groups/individuals going up or down. I made it back to the car as the snow was coming down harder than ever and then, 10 minutes later, it was over and the skies cleared. Couldn't have timed it better. The entire trail was well packed down, crunchy and spikes worked great. It would be a different story on Sunday but that's a tale for another day. Until then, here's a short video of this Tecumseh hike.
While I dislike driving in the snow, hiking is another matter. It was a fine walk in the woods, listening to the skiers nearby. I used the backpack I'd bring backpacking and while I deloaded it somewhat, it still wasn't super light. I wanted to test out where I had my snowshoes and insulated bottle to make sure they wouldn't bother me. Everything felt great except my legs which got tired quicker than I expected. Too late I realized I hadn't done much training with a big pack prior to this backpacking weekend. Dumb on my part and my burning calves let me know that the entire weekend would be a grind.
Other than the premature exhaustion this was a peaceful, beautiful hike. I saw probably a dozen groups/individuals going up or down. I made it back to the car as the snow was coming down harder than ever and then, 10 minutes later, it was over and the skies cleared. Couldn't have timed it better. The entire trail was well packed down, crunchy and spikes worked great. It would be a different story on Sunday but that's a tale for another day. Until then, here's a short video of this Tecumseh hike.
