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Saturday, August 11, 2012

IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, TRY, TRY AGAIN


Date:  Saturday 4th August
Route:  From I-93 / Exit 28 Waterville Valley Ski area Mt Tecumseh Trail 5 miles out and back
Goal: #13 Mt Tecumseh SUCCESS
Weather:  Sunny 30% chance of Isolated T-Storms

The day started with my younger daughter showing me the weather report... "See daddy it's gonna rain" knowing that ice cream motivates... I promise a huge ice cream at the end of the hike.... her eyes lit up and after a quick breakfast we headed up north to Waterville Valley.  The trail was a PITA to find :( We parked at what ended up being the wrong trail head...
DO park at the WMNF parking area, if you'd like to hike Greeley Ponds or even the Tripyramids, however if a 10 mile loop is not plans... then keep going up the road and park in the Ski parking area the trail head sign is tiny and you'll miss it.... like we did

No really the sign is tiny and set back.  Can you find it?

This trail is very easy and I would recommend it as a first 4,000 footer for kids.  It was a hot and humid day and both girls did really well and was not winded like they were from the Exit 31 Trail head to the same summit.


Had lunch, soaked up the beautiful views
and chat with a very sweet couple we meet on the Summit.

We stopped and had a refreshing dip in the river... felt sooo good

 
 
Sooo, about that ice cream.... wasn't there an ice cream parlor near the visitor center at one point?  Well I think it was replaced by a Dunkin Donuts :( are they taking over the world?  Anyway... we headed up to Lincoln and all had super huge ice creams.  The girls were very happy :)

On the way back home as we approached the Everett Turnpike Toll booths..... we ran into a huge storm the lightning was amazing ...

Such a fun day with the girls....... Oh and I can officially check Tecumseh off the list :)

Trip Stats:On Trail @ 9:55AM
Summit of Tecumseah @ 12:05PM
Started back down @ 12:35PM
Back to parking area @ 2:23PM


Thursday, August 9, 2012

Goal: #13 Mt Tecumseh FAIL

Date:  Sunday 8th July
Route:  From I-93 / Exit 31 Tripoli Rd.  Mt Tecumseh Trail out and back 6.2 miles
Goal: #13 Mt Tecumseh FAIL
Weather:  Sunny 0% chance of rain

After spending all day Saturday on the beach.  I decide I would be hiking Sunday.... I was accompanied by my friends Nelson, Natalie, Mirna and all but 2 of the kids.  Readings suggested that Tecumseh was one of the easier 4,000 footers.  I found that with a group of 9 the hike was difficult, as everyone pace was a bit different.

We noticed a number of these along the trail.  Does anyone know what this is? I know... it looks gross

About an hour and 1/2 into the hike one of my friends experienced chest pains and once I caught wind of this I immediately wanted to turn around.  Not having a GPS I didn't know how far away we were from the summit and still being concerned about her chest pains I made an executive decision that we would call this the summit:


Everyone was a bit disappointed, so after having a snack and a break we decided we would do a bit more walking.  We continued down a slope and walked on for about 20 minutes... we then collectively decided to turn around.

Everyone, especially the kids did well and we all had a wonderful time.  Although, this would not be my 13th 4,000 footer I enjoyed spending time on the trail with my friends :)