Two More Mountains... On Opposite Sides of the State (well kinda)

UPDATE: super secret hiking pictures are here.

A gorgeous 50-degree day in Boston. In the middle of January. Probably just the Earth making a statement to anti-global-warming people: "are you guys fucking serious?" Anyway, Sarah and I decided to make the most of the weather, so we hiked a couple of mountains on Saturday.

It was a pretty tame night at the Tufts Loj; just played a couple two-person drinking games. Then we woke up bright and early and drove to almost-Vermont to hike two mountains: Starr King and Waumbek (only Waumbek counts as a White Mountains 4000 footer).

This is called "snow." It is something most Bostonians haven't seen for a long, long time.

Only 6.4ish miles round trip (out and back), but it looked like Skyrim the entire way. Starr King had a "kinda-view" of a snow-capped mountain range farther off, so I'll take it. Also, it had a fireplace and chimney of sorts? I assume to light one of the beacons to warn Rohan or Gondor of an impending attack. We continued another mile to summit Waumbek: completely viewless, but it was a fun hike.

The summit is around here somewhere. Now where did I put that damn summit...

The entire trail was a constant, easy-moderate uphill, so it only took us maybe 4 hours total. We started out pretty early, but started seeing more and more people on the trail as we continued down, including a few dogs wearing snow-booties. Probably not as effective as our microspikes, but WAY more adorbs.

I think the mountain range behind us is the "Misty Mountains," known for their vast number of goblin inhabitants

It was only 11:30 and we figured we had time for another mountain, so we drove over to Tecumseh. This is a 5-mile round trip out and back hike. It's basically a straight shot to the summit with a small loop at the top. It's so close to Waterville Valley that you could probably spit on the skiers there (I recommend not doing this). It was a constant, moderate uphill the entire way. We were able to beast it up thanks to the microspikes (seriously, I friggn love those things), see a little bit of a view at the top, and then literally run down the mountain in 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Tecumseh has a view! In THAT direction!

Sarah attempts to slide down the mountain on her jacket. Maybe next time...