When I starting the hike I was told it was one of the easiest 4,000 footers. But looking up and all you see is just massive bolder steps that have no end makes you really question that statement. On February 27th of this year my Dad passed away. He was a very active man who could never stop moving. His favorite activity was hiking. Him and a few of his close friends were working together to finish all of the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire. But he passed away before he got the chance to finish all of them. He only had 6 left and so throughout the whole summer my Dad’s friends finished up the last hikes for him toasting to him at every summit. But they saved the last hike for a group of us to finish. So a group of 18 of our closest family friends all worked together to complete them all for him.
We all met up at my family's house early Saturday morning to head out for our day hike, Tecumseh. Tecumseh is a 5.1 easy hike at Waterville Valley. So we all ate breakfast and set out for our day in the White Mountains. The drive up was breathtaking. The white Mountain Highway when the leaves are just starting to change is something you would see in movies. It couldn't have been a more perfect day to celebrate my Dad. Once we got there it was time to set out on our adventure. We started the hike as one big group, it was more of a scenic walk than a true hike. 2.5 miles up and 2.6 miles down didn't seem so hard at the time. We worked our way up and landed at the first look out spot. Being on ski mountain, there were parts of the hike where the trail would open up to the one side and you could look out and see the endless amount of trees along with the beautiful view. At this point we all stopped and regained ourselves to finish up the end of the trek. Feeling good we set back out on our way.
The easy scenic walk was no longer, the only think ahead of us was a steep incline littered with massive boulders. The easy 2.5 mile hike was now turning into 5 mile rock climb. Now i'm sure for people that have completed all of the other 4000 footers this would be a piece of cake. But to someone who is fit but doesn't have much experience with long distance hiking this was exhausting. Not only was this a physically exhausting hike it was also a very emotionally exhausting. My mom, sister and I were all accompanied by all of my dad's good friends and people that had been by our side and his through everything. But of course this was the hardest for my family. My dad was the backbone of our family so losing him was one of the hardest things we have ever experienced. But we were all there with our love and support for each other.
tecumseh
by nocera range
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