11.18.2008

Osceolas & Tecumseh w/out Spotting A Car

It's not that hard and it's barely 13 miles. It requires travel by car about 3 miles between hikes on the Tripoli Rd (closed in winter) but basically:

Route Plan: Drive to Waterville Valley and park at the Mt. Osceola Trail Trailhead in Thornton Gap on the Tripoli Road. Hit Osceola and East Osceola from the southeeast and return to car (8.4mi total). Drive back down to Waterville Valley and hit Tecumseh (4.4 mi total). Total miles = 12.8

Alternate Plan w/out driving - adds 2 miles of road walking, eliminates driving: Park at the Mount Tecumseh Trailhead on Tripoli Rd. in Thornton Gap, about 1mi west of the Mt. Osceola Trailhead. Hit the Osceolas, return via foot, walk by car and hit Tecumseh. Return to car. Total miles = 16.6. (Note that parking at the Tecumseh trailhead makes sense because its downhill from the Osceola trail to Tecumseh trail.
If you're wondering why in the second scenario you don't just drive between the trailheads, I don't know ... it just seemed like we should hoof it. We'd save 2 miles if we drove between trailheads.

[Update 11/22] Okay, this is looking a little menacing. Record-breaking cold, winds on Mt. Washington forecasted to peak around 120mph, snowshowers, whiteout, wind-chill advisories, frostbite alerts, etc. Crap, am I really ready for this?

In the clouds w/ snow showers. Blowing snow. Wind chills 40-50 below.
Highs: around 5 below°F
Wind: NW shifting W 75-95 mph decreasing to 60-80 mph w/ higher gusts

For those of you on record watch, our daily record lows to beat are 11 below today and 13 below for tomorrow. Forecast models put us at or below these two temperatures so it looks as though one or two records could be broken or tied over the forecast period. As for winds, the record gust for the month is 163 mph. I do not see us breaking this with the current set up but a peak close to 120 mph seems likely based on past set ups I have seen like this.

7 comments:

  1. Ran this as a loop last summer with TMail, Treadmill, and Riley the Dog. Great 18mi day but may be taxing on the soul if icy and poor footing.

    I'm 90% in right now. Working to rest a sore knee and a bad haircut.

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  2. no such thing as a bad haircut... as long as you have a moustache. guys w/ moustaches can have any hair - it doesn't matter.

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  3. Or Sunday or the week after or whenever. As the PM said, the icier the slower and the end of this week should be relatively precip-free (but freakin' cold!).

    It actually got bitter here today - like 15 deg.

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  4. either this weekend or turkey weekend would be ok for me.

    take a look at http://msp185.photobucket.com/albums/x262/V_FOR_PRESIDENT/605-funny-haircut.jpg for a bad chip-like haircut.

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  5. Sunday is better for me but I'm unable to commit to either day at this point.

    Just in case I can go I'll be clearing my digestive tract to avoid any repeat natural cairn placements.

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