Tecumseh from Tripoli Road. Tuesday, October 6, 2015

6.4 miles roundtrip with 2600 feet of elevation gain.

Yes, I know, Tecumseh AGAIN.  This was perhaps our fifteenth time up this mountain.  We still haven't completed it for the NH Grid though, since many of our ascents have been within the same months.  (For those of you who are not NH hikers, the Grid is completing all 48 of New Hampshire's highest peaks during every month of the year...so that's 48 x 12 = 576 separate NH 4K ascents).  There are still three months left on our Grid for Tecumseh (August, November, and December)...but the girls and I decided that after this hike, we'd wait a year before revisiting this local peak.  We want to revisit some mountains we haven't seen in a while, like Garfield, Moriah, Carter Dome, etc.  In other words, after today, I won't bore you good people with trip reports of Tecumseh until at least November 2016.

We do have a rather huge local adventure coming up soon, and it has nothing to do with Tecumseh -- on Sunday, we will attempt the Presidential Traverse.  That's a traverse across the White Mountain Presidential Range.  We hope to ascend Adams, Madison, Jefferson, Washington, Monroe, Eisenhower, Pierce, and perhaps Jackson, all within a 14-16 hour time period.  The hike will be at least 19.2 miles with 8815 feet of elevation gain (more with Jackson and any subpeaks, and lots of downs and ups).  I make no assumptions regarding whether or not we will make the whole thing, or if we'll have to bail at Washington or Ike or even Adams (the weather might turn, who knows), but we are going to give it our all and see what happens.  We're excited!

Now, back to Tecumseh --

We did something different this time with our familiar peak; we hiked it from the other side.  Most folks, including me and the girls, hike Tecumseh from the ski area.  There is another way up this mountain, but the trailhead is off of Tripoli Road and somewhat isolated.  I had been up this alternate way once before, on my own, about four years ago; I wanted to show the girls this route, and I wanted to break up a bit of the Tecumseh monotony, so the girls agreed to forgo the usual way up and try something new.

We had boots on trail around 7:15am.  It's hunting season, and we preferred not to get shot, so we wore our vests.

This route is quite lovely.  Lots of ambling through flat woods and gentle climbing up slopes, and a tiny bit of huff-puffing up steep banks.  The steep parts are short, though -- nothing like the usual way up (which feels like a nonstop stairmaster during the second mile).

It's a busy week for us as usual, made especially crazy by the fact that the Sandwich Fair is this weekend.  We plan on being at the fair multiple days, plus we have the Presi Traverse on Sunday, so our general time for schoolwork is cut short.  The girls managed to get an insane amount of academics finished this week so they could go to the Fair, and this hike fell right in the middle of two huge study-a-thons.  So this was a nice break -- walking through the forest, admiring the leaves, talking about Halloween, movies, books, friends, and whatever else floated into our heads.  Hiking for us has always been about the togetherness as well as the scenery/fitness/adventure.  I treasure my time out there with my girls...it always feels like the needed break in what is almost always a hectic week.

There's a viewpoint by a false summit on this side of Tecumseh.  The girls and I checked it out...

From the false summit, it's a bit down, a bit across a ridge, and a bit up to the real summit.

Alex and Sage enjoyed reaching the familiar summit from a different angle.  Also, we noticed that a sign had been erected since our last visit.

The sign is in response to a slew of illegal tree-cutting on the summit.  Some arrogant person decided that he/she wanted a view on Tecumseh, so he/she systematically began chopping down trees a couple of years ago.  While I enjoy a good view just as much as the next hiker, it was not this person's place to hack down a bunch of trees without permission.  There is now a $5000 reward for anyone with information regarding this person's identity.  Someone out there knows who this person is...if you have useful information, then do your part to protect our forests and give the Pemigewasset Ranger District a call.  603-536-6102.

The girls took a seat by the summit cairn and we ate brunch.

Silhouette ladies

Views (due to the illegal cutting of the trees...yes, the views are nice, but still...)

We ate, we drank, we descended.  On the way down, we passed a solo hiker coming up.  I was surprised, since not many people use this trail.

We made it back to the car by 11 and were home in time to resume our busy week.

Hope to see some of you locals at the Fair this weekend.  Hope to see many, many more of you folks somewhere on the Presidentials on Sunday.  Keep your fingers crossed for good weather!