Hike to Tecumseh After the Snowstorm

It was two days after the latest Nor'easter and I was looking for a short hike to a popular summit that had a good chance of being broke out. I decided that would probably be Mount Tecumseh (4,003'). I would take the Tecumseh Trail that starts at Waterville Valley ski area, the usual winter route. This is a short hike but a long drive for me, about two hours. I also needed to leave early enough to beat the ski traffic into Waterville Valley. The weather forecast called for snow showers throughout the day.

When I woke up and looked out the window this morning it was snowing hard. I wasn't looking forward to that long drive on snowy roads. It was a slippery drive until I got to Jefferson and Route 115. The roads were wet but there was no snow accumulation. It was snowing down through Franconia Notch but started to clear as I came out of the notch.

As I started in to Waterville Valley the snow showers picked up again. I was following a line of traffic into the ski resort. I got there in time to park close to the trailhead. A few more minutes and I would have been parking much further away, there was a lot of traffic arriving. After parking I walked over to the trailhead and was glad to see the trail was broken out from the latest storm but had a few fresh inches from the snow showers.

After crossing the first open water I put on my snowshoes. There were two other hikers that had just arrived and they were also putting on snowshoes. One hiker left before me and one after me. The trail was solid but had the new fresh snow that we were packing down. It was a nice hike up. The hiker behind me passed by and we all arrived at the summit just about the same time. The wind was blowing and it was cold.

There were no views from the summit today and I was soon on my way back down. When I got to the Sosman Trail I packed up the snowshoes and took out my buttsled anticipating some good runs from here on down. There were many hikers coming up and some had snowshoes, some had microspikes and others were bare booting. The trail was getting chopped up.

With several inches of soft snow the buttsledding was not that good but I manged to get a few good runs. I finished the hike back to the trailhead with just bare boots. It was a little tough in some spots but I was not postholing at all. I arrived back at the trailhead after 5 miles and 3.5 hours. This was the hike I was looking for today. Another Nor'easter is in the forecast early next week...and the snow just keeps on coming!

Enjoy the photos and the buttsledding video!

Open water crossing at the trailhead

Nice snow bridge over this water crossing

Lots of snow 

Another water crossing up ahead

Open water beside the snow bridge

Spur path to the ski slope

Snowy hike through the woods

Sosman Trail was not broke out on the way up

Heavy snow on the trees

Summit sign

Trail was not broken out to Tripoli Road

On the summit with no views today

Only the left trail to the summit was broke out

Got the buttsled out at the junction of the Sosman Trail

View from a Waterville Valley ski trail

Back at the trailhead after 3.5 hours and some buttsledding

A view of North Tripyramid from the parking lot

Having Fun in the Great Outdoors!