It also doesn’t help when the parking lot is insanely packed (because it’s a ski resort on a weekend) and you need to park on the side of the road 1/3 of a mile from the trailhead.
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| Pretty view on our way north. |
The good news is, the hike was not (quite) as brutal as I was concerned it might be. Conditions were about perfect. Temps were milder than expected. The sky was a vibrant blue; such a welcome sight after a very gray past week. Trees were beautifully blanketed in white. The trail was firmly packed snow, great for spikes. Even better, the snow base smoothly covered the million stairs that I was dreading. (The "Stairway to Hell," one blogger called it.)
The trail started out with a decent warmup, not straight up the whole way as I first worried. It’s a relatively short hike with a lot of elevation gain, so my worries were not unjustified. Indeed, after a somewhat moderate mile, the trail did shoot up steeply (well, after it dropped down first, because apparently we needed extra climbing). All the more reason to be thankful for the warmup.
Still, I was moving very slowly, nearly half my usual speed, because I had a lot of pain going on most of the way. (Both hike-induced and not.) So my feelings about this hike are mixed. It was undeniably beautiful, but I don’t think enough to want to repeat it. You can definitely get more bang for your buck elsewhere.
That said, I don’t totally regret hiking it. Mainly because this was Hawk’s Winter 48 finisher! We’ve had this planned for a couple years. He wanted to do it with me. So I kept my promise. Hummingbird also set a personal goal to hike a few 4000’ mountains this year, so she was excited to have the opportunity to do one so soon, and with company (even though she’s hiked Tecumseh before). Hawk’s friend Sylvia (who’s working on the 4000 footers too) joined us as well, so it was a nice group all around. I’m glad it was such a gorgeous day for everyone.
But ask me tomorrow how worth it it was. Haha
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| View from the ski trail partway up. |
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| We did "the thing" to celebrate Hawk's finish. (where the hiker walks through a knightly pole tunnel at the summit) |
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| Then Hummingbird did her "thing." (gotta take a water bottle pic) |
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| And of course I did mine. (obligatory pano) Can't deny it was beautiful. |
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| Lenticular clouds! |
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| Dragonfly, Hawk, Hummingbird, & Sylvia |
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| Someone had drawn a peace sign along the trail. |
2/3/24 Mt. Tecumseh, 6.4 mi, 2306 ft, 4:06/4:36 hrs
*mileage includes roadwalk
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