End of Winter on Mount Tecumseh

Winter hiking comes with it’s own unique challenges, depending on how popular the trail is and how recently it has snowed you may need different gear. This was my first winter hike and I only own microspikes so I tried to find information online and while there are some good sources you have to make the call yourself. I decided to risk it and drove myself and my dog Behr the 2.5 hrs from Boston to the White Mountains to hike Mount Tecumseh. Mount Tecumseh is so named for the leader of the Shawnee Native American tribe.

The hike begins from the Waterville Valley Ski Resort parking area. It is an out and back trail, in the off season you can hike down the ski trail instead but not in the winter! It is listed as 5.2 mile hike, however, my fitbit said I hiked 4.75 mi with 2,450 ft of elevation gain. Mount Tecumseh is a 4,003 ft mountain. Given the amount of elevation gain in such a short distance despite it being a well made and wide trail for the most part it is very steep and a lot of work on the calves, especially in the snow! My 9 year old dog plowed ahead of me while I trudged along behind him.

We had fun hiking this trail, I’m slowly trying different trails throughout New England and trying to hit all 48 of the 4K mountains in NH. Afterwards I tend to reflect and decide for myself if it’s some place I’d like to revisit. While I had fun hiking this trail and it’s a good trail, it didn’t blow me away of have enough points of interest for me to likely hike it again any time soon.