Mount Tecumseh

6-14-2014
  A nice trip upwards to  Waterville valley area. The lowest of all the 48, but really not a bad hike. Lower area of the trail is alot of rock with mini falls like the majority of the trails I have been on, not a giant incline at all, but a nice pace along the water, these are no where near Sage's falls but they are small and enjoyable.

Lower region of Tecumseh.

And let there be stairs...

This is a fairly short distance hike, about 5 miles round trip from the parking lot of Waterville. The lower half is friendly to the knees, easily crossed and not stressful at all. We managed to cover 1.8 miles on this lower trail in about an hour. Around mid area of this trail, it becomes my least favorite thing in the world, rock stairs, and i mean lots and lots of stairs. Knee killers to me, I dislike them greatly not because they are hard to climb, but after the 500th lift up a stair i wanted to punch myself in the face haha. There is a nice cut through view around, you can walk out to the boneyard on waterville. A old snowboard park/trail area, a very nice view and a good break from the stairs.

The Boneyard.

From the little trail section "View" you keep on going up more stairs, and a decent incline, this is where I found it to get muggy and I break a decent sweat, but as soon as you do it levels out, and you are on the path to the summit. There is a loop around trail to and fro summit wise, one is fairly slower moving the other you can steam roll. We took the harder of the two there, and the easier back. Summit wise there isn't a marker like other mountains just a sign, and a couple of rocks to sit on. A good view of the entire valley.

Woodstock Inn 4000 Footer IPA/ Myself and Ryan G.

We decided to swing across a ridgeline and hit waterville valley  mountain on the way down, we thought it might have been on the list and wanted to make sure, but it is slightly under the 4k mark, still a good fun walk down there trails. I did notice, there are tons of giant holes in waterville like people fall inside holes, it was very strange to me, but i assume before Ski season opens someone will fix/fill them. Waterville is not steep/ challenging or hard, but it is a pain on the knees, you have to keep yourself from running or moving forward to fast.

What no snow during the summer..bah.