Foggy skies showed a hint of blue as I exited off RT-93 towards Waterville Valley. My heart always starts to beat a little faster when I enter the National Forest. Tecumseh has always been a favorite fall hike, not from the ski area side but from Tripoli Road which closes for the winter in November.
I was glad to see the gate was still open, fallen leaves littered the old road, the Beech trees still held some of their golden bronze leaves. The road climbs gradually to a height of land called Thornton Gap. The Osceola trailhead on the right was mostly empty, but it was only 8:30. Tripoli goes down a good grade where hiker parking for the Mt Tecumseh trail branches left.
The trail goes down into a little muddy sag (seems to always be muddy here) then goes across a flat section of open woods where it crosses a little brook, today it was pretty full but an easy crossing. The next crossing came quickly and it was much wider with very few stepping stones. The water was at it's spring level height and one boot did submerge, kerplop!
After crossing, the trail starts to climb through a wonderful beech and birch forest, leaves hid some pretty good mud-holes and of course my boots managed to find a few. It's a moderate grade but I was trying to move quickly...time to train for winter. I soon passed the family of three I'd seen in the parking lot.
My usual Huffing and Puffing were mixed in with sounds of my favorite, the chickadee.
Balsam Fir damaged by October storms
The folding saw made short work of the soft balsam, just as I was dragging the tree off the trail the family came up and the 15 year old helped me drag it away. I put the saw away and walked up the ridge. Another tree blocked my way, I watched the family bushwhack around it, the saw came out again and it worked great. I decided to pocket it instead of putting it back in the pack.
Pretty soon I got bored with cutting and tried straightening them out. The roots were snapped, these coniferous trees root pretty shallow. If the taproot breaks they'll die. I looked back and saw one of the Osceolas (maybe East?) Snow was spotty here but above 3K it was more consolidated. A Ruffed Grouse thrummed into the air violently on my left.
Beyond here the forest closed up again and there were more and more bend-overs, some I cleared and some I just walked around. Some pretty big blowdowns but most were easy step overs. As you go higher the trail finally starts to give a little and flatten out. Snow here was growing deeper. Trees grow close and I've always thought of this section as being a little spooky. Here I encounted the Mom and her son coming back down the trail..."snows getting too deep." The Dad continued on and headed down the other side to meet them at the ski trail.
Finally I saw a light at the end of the tunnel and there was the sun peeking over the top of the ridge. At the top there are two little spur trails, one goes right so I headed off that way to see a little view. It was still foggy but I saw the Franconias way off in the distance. Another spur to the left seems to go a short way to a pile of rocks. I believe this is the summit of what's called Little Tecumseh spur.
From here you go down quite a ways. I stopped to cut down two small spruce that were snapped off but embedded in the snow. The saw did it's work and both trunks sprung upright with great force-WHOOOOOSH!! I was glad my hand wasn't on it! I looked up to see the true summit of Tecumseh and moved on downwards towards Tecumseh Col. Recent Moose tracks and it's fresh calling card meant Mr Moose had used this trail the night before.
At the little green col there wasn't much snow left, what was there was melting fast. I took off and climbed moderately past a couple more bend-overs and over some rocky areas. Pretty soon I was on the familiar summit. Better views now I think, more than there used to be.
I've got plenty of summit pictures so I just relaxed, had a snack and played around. The summit was deserted, unusual for late Saturday morning. I retraced my steps, in the middle of cutting down trees I saw a few people hiking up, nice to see folks out enjoying the beautiful weather.
I sort of felt like the Mt Tecumseh trail had become my adopted trail for the day.