Tecumseh: The Western Approach

Just because it's the shortest 4000fter doesn't mean you have to take the shortest path to the top. At 4003ft, the peak of Mt. Tecumseh is accessible via two routes. One up the ski slopes of Waterville Valley is the shortest but the Western Approach (which sounds much more impressively technical) is the nicer.

Starting form Tripoli Road, a unique combination of fire road/campground, the trail crosses two brooks then begins a gentle ascent along an old road. One guide book called it a logging road, but another book, Logging railroads of the Saco River Valley, suggested it might have originally been a farm road. Now days, it is a nice wide path through a mature forest of maples, oaks, and gray and white birches. While the area was last farmed/logged in the 1910's it apparently never suffered through the devastating fires that set back forest reclamation in other areas of the White Mountains. Still the trees are so big, it's hard to believe that some of these large trees are only a hundred years old.

After about .5 miles the trail takes a right hand turn off the old road and begins ascending at a steeper pitch just as a few conifers begin to appear in the forest. Occasionally clearings offer views North to Mt. Osceola or turns in the trail bring you face to face with a fox. We saw this guy twice, once on the way up, and again on the way down. Tom, the only other person we met on the trail had seen the fox too, said it even walked in front of him for a little while. When we first 'met' Mr. Fox, he just sat in the middle of the trail and looked at us. Very calmly. The second time he had a chipmunk and only a few seconds for us. It was obvious from his demeanor and the many little paw prints in the muddy sections of the trail, that this was his hunting ground and that he was very comfortable with people. Not sure exactly, however, we fit into his plans.

The rest of the walk was very nice, the trail wide, and the view from the top was off to the North and the  Tripyramids. On the way down we hiked through a great thunderstorm. They really are so much more enjoyable when you've got a warm car and a dry change of cloths at the end of the trail!