Quick Run up Tecumseh

[peakbagger]

I hadnt been out hiking since before New Years, initially it was cold weekends followed by the flu (despite a flu shot). Knowing that its a good conditioning hike I planned to meet a friend at 10 AM. The ski area was packed and I ended up parking at Lot 9 about as far as you can go from the trailhead. We got going around 10:25. There were a couple of hikers from southern VT with their dogs out ahead of us with snowshoes and I wore my MSR Denalis. My friend elected to go with microspikes as the conditions were about 4" of fresh snow on top of solid ice/snow. The Denalis works well and once I hit the old trail the televators got clicked into place. I forget how nice that option is and used them to the summit. The going was good to the summit with only a stiff wind making the summit a lot colder than the hike up. This was the first time I have been up in many years and I must admit, my wilderness experience was improved by the new view . Kind of nice that they left the windward side alone and opened up the lee side. Heading up we were going slow but didnt see many folks until up near the Sossman junction. We did encounter snowboard tracks down lower from the junction with the old trail quite a distance before the tracks headed back to the ski area.

Heading down we encountered a lot of folks with minimal or no packs or water, many with lift tickets hanging on their packs. About 50/50 with microspikes. I was surprised how many people we encountered heading up as we had started relatively late in the AM. Heading down the new snow was getting thin and the underlying hard pack made for slippery going. I had my softshell pants on and confirmed that they just do not butt slide very well compared to nylon. I switched over to spikes where the trails turns away from the ski area. We met the ladies from VT at the trailhead and talked to them a bit, one is working on her grid but claimed she was mostly out just out for fun.

After the long walk back to Lot 9, it was back on the road. I rarely do this mountain as its about the farthest drive distance wise from Gorham in winter, although time wise the Ferncroft trailhead for Passaconaway and Whiteface takes longer due to the back roads and Conway traffic. I do need to visit it again this year to see the reportedly top quality trail reconstruction which unfortunately is covered with snow top to bottom. Given the apparent use of this trail I expect it really needs all the hardening and water bars it can get.

Hopefully a start to the upcoming best weekends of winter.

 

[Jazzbo]

Hi PB ... Glad to hear you're getting out. I managed to avoid the flu so far this winter even though my wife is just coming off a bad bout with it. Due to frigid temps and snow and ice management chores I've been confining myself to steady diet of small mountains. I took a vacation day to make a long weekend longer and did a conditioning hike myself doing Moosilauke Sunday via Carriage Road with similar company of fun loving skiers. Visibility was zip though. Then I did Plymouth Mountain yesterday and felt great. I forgot what a great little mountain Plymouth Mountain is. Perhaps we're on same conditioning track and can do a couple of peaks soon.