I am going to, as time permits, go back and add trip reports from the first 4kers we have done. So here is the one that started it all, Tecumseh.
For years my family and the Komosky’s have been going to Waterville Valley, NH for a week in the summer. I fell in love with the place the first time and have enjoyed seeing mountains ever since. Because we went in the summer I would always look at the green slopes of Tecumseh and wonder what it was like. We got to go up Cannon and Loon because they had summer gondola rides. In the valley it was only Snows Mtn that had the summer lift, and even that was a few years into our visits. Finally, the weekend of my birthday in 2008, I got to take on Tecumseh. I went skiing, second time ever. I had dreamed about this day since the first time I laid eyes on the mountain some 20 years earlier. The morning was great, although I fell many a time; I still had a ton of fun. The afternoon, not so much, I fell but the pole was stuck in the ground. I dislocated and fractured my shoulder. Alas, I will come back and conquer you.
Flash forward to June 1, 2008. We have a quarter share with the Komosky’s and go up monthly. In the winter dad and I started snowshoeing (except for that one skiing incident). I have finally convinced someone to try hiking Tecumseh and we get my Uncle Mikey and cousin Alex to come along.
We head up via car to the skiing parking lot where the trailhead is. The runs parallel to the ski slopes for a while before heading over to the true summit, which is not the top of the ski runs. At the beginning we are walking along a nice stream where all 4 of us take pictures. Alex and Mikey both do long distance running so they are in much better shape then us. As a thrower I also tended to work out my fast twitch muscles and not my slow ones so this I know is going to be hard on me. It was pretty much straight up, no switchbacks. At one point it appeared the trail crossed the stream and went one way, but my map said it was suppose to go out to the ski slope. We decided to follow the map, which was out of date. It was all good because we got some nice views on the slope and eventually found the trail again.
As we neared the top it started to get my windy and a little bit more technical. My aching legs seemed to not hurt as much with the thought of my first 4k summit nearby. We reached the top and got pictures. There were a few small views but it is a wooded summit so nothing that great. After a short snack we headed over to the top of the ski slope. Now we got some awesome views.
We headed down the ski slopes, which were steep. Mikey and Alex decided to do some running down, my knees didn’t like that. We then went down the infamous Oblivion trail, which beat me a few months earlier. We stopped at the spot of my fall and I recreated it for the boys since they weren’t there. We continued down Valley Run, my more successful skiing trail. As we were going we noticed an increase in bugs. Not just any bugs, the dreaded black fly…ahhhh. They didn’t stop Alex and me from playing in the snow remaining at the half pipe. We climbed up it and slid down, wet bottoms but hey we got to go “sledding” in June. The flies were starting to really annoy us so we headed quickly to the car.
Our first 4ker done. Although the shortest, it is a straight up hike that makes it a little more difficult then we thought. Great views from the ski slopes. Mental note: Deep woods OFF is not enough to handle black flies, get better bug stuff.
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