Gorilla Blog: T is for Tecumseh

My “T” adventure came about by accident, sort of. A couple weeks ago, when it was my birthday weekend, Sage suggested I plan a weekend doing whatever I wanted. I knew I was going to take Friday off and play golf, which I did, and then I thought we should really go for a mountain hike, as we haven’t done many yet this year. Also, our Colorado trip/hike planning is in full swing, and when looking over some of the hikes we have planned, we both realized we needed to try to get our bodies – especially our knees – in shape. So I figured I would combine a New Hampshire hike along with a night’s stay at Chez Pettengill in Concord, which meant we could do some real hikes in the White Mountains. (These Massachusetts mountains are for wimps.) After doing some research online, I found a hike that wasn’t too far north at Waterville Valley, to the top of Mt. Tecumseh. It was short (only 5 miles roundtrip) but had a good deal of elevation gain (2,200 feet), and when I realized it started with a “T”, it was the perfect combination for an alphabet adventure!

We awoke early on Saturday, and after playing 36 holes the day before in Maine, I wasn’t real excited about waking up at 6, so I rolled over and slept in…until 6:30. After packing our gear and jumping in the car, we headed north. We got to the trailhead, which left from the Waterville Valley ski area parking lot, around 9:15 am, and we started off. The first part of the trail is a slow but steady climb through pretty hardwood forests, and it crisscrossed a small stream a few times which had very little water in it. (We saw signs that the fire danger level was very high, so it sounds like it’s been very hot and dry in the mountains this summer.) After about 40 minutes and 1.2 miles we reached a trail intersection that had a spur trail that went off to the Waterville ski slopes. We took this spur for a short break as we read it was one of the few views on the hike. After taking a break for 20 minutes or so, we headed back up the trail.

View down the Waterville ski slopes, across the valley to the Tripyramids.

Doug takes a break halfway up the mountain.

And “UP” the trail it was. At this point the Mt. Tecumseh trail headed straight up for the next mile. I’ve always complained about the trails in New England, and this one is example 1-A. Instead of building in switchbacks up steep mountains, which is what trail builders do everywhere else in the country, the trails of the White Mountains are generally straight up the mountain, with the trail built on as many rocks and tree roots as possible. I don’t think this part of the trail turned more than 1 or 2 degrees for the next mile, and it pounded our knees and legs into submission. The trail wasn’t unpleasant in that it smelled great, as there were plenty of pine and fir trees around that gave off a great aroma, and there were also a lot of birch trees around too. Looking back on it now, the climb wasn't so bad, but at the time, it felt killer.

The straight, steep trail

It was about 1.3 miles to the summit, and that took us up about 1,400 feet of elevation, which we did in about 1:25. There wasn’t much of a view at the top, but we could see toward the south a bit, and the village of Waterville Valley, and some mountains off in the distance. We ate some sandwiches, took some photos, and then talked about which way to head down.

A lonely cairn marks the summit of Mt. Tecumseh

Still life with tripod and camera timer

Looking across to Mt. Washington. (Probably not Mt. Washington, but I pretended it was.)

Mt. Tecumseh really only has a few options to hike up it: There is a trail from the ski area to the top; one from the other side of the mountain to the top; or the ski slopes. So from the top we had 3 options: 1) We could head down the other trail to the other side of the mountain, which would then require us to walk about 5 miles on a dirt road to get back to our car; 2) Hike back down the way we came, which was not only boring but also was not going to be fun on the steep, rocky section; or 3) Hike across the ridge to the top of the ski slope, and then hike down one of the trails to our car. Option 1 wasn’t even considered, and Option 2 didn’t sound very interesting. We knew that walking down a ski slope wouldn’t be easy at all, as they’re much steeper than you think, but we figured that it wouldn’t be worse than the rocky trail AND we’d have views on the way down. So it was decided, we’d go down the ski slopes.

To give an idea of where we were, here's a view of Mt. Tecumseh from the other side of the valley.

Mt. Tecumseh and Waterville Valley Ski Area

When looking at the photo above, the summit of Mt. Tecumseh is the little knob on the right of the photo. If you can't see the ski area in the photo, then may need glasses.

After lunch, we headed down the trail that would take us to the top of the ski slopes. It was pretty flat, and we headed across the ridge to a large cell tower, and then down a short dirt road to the top of the ski area.

View from the ridge, looking back at the summit.

View of the valley from the top of the ski slopes

From here we had awesome views of the valley and the mountains beyond, and then headed down a short ski slope to where most of the chairlifts end and the trails begin at Waterville. A ski area that’s empty in the middle of summer is a strange, peaceful place to be, but it also felt like a ghost town, with chairs swinging lonely in the breeze, and the mountain peak huts all empty for the summer. It really would be a great location for a horror movie actually. At the top of the chairlifts we looked over the large map of the ski complex to determine our next steps (Ha! Get it? Next steps…hiking…anyway.) We ended up deciding to just head straight down by the Quad Chairlift, which was the White Caps and The Chute trails, figuring it couldn’t be that bad. In the end, it wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great either.

Heading down the ski slopes by the quad chairlift.

The trails were all overgrown with tall grasses and weeds, and in some spots we were hiking through scrub past our waist. We also found many bear droppings along the way, which wasn’t surprising as there were also plenty of wild raspberries on the slopes. Heading down a grassy, steep hill is not easy, but after about an hour or so we made it to the bottom where signs advertising “Brews and Bones” and “Bear Claws” taunted us with their barren restaurants. We arrived at the car around 1:45 pm, so the total trip time was just about 4 ½ hours. We only saw 3 people the entire day, the weather was beautiful, and we both agreed that even though parts of the trails (and slopes) were really annoying, it was still a good hike.

After changing out of our boots, we drove down to Concord and Lynn and Roy’s house, where we were joined by Ashley, Charlie and Sue. We had a wonderful outdoor lobster dinner, including the lobsters boiled in a pot outside over the fire, great salads, and summer squash from the garden. We finished it up with blackberry cobbler, and sat around enjoying the lovely early evening weather, few bugs, and great company.