Tuckerman Ravine Trail to Hermit Lake
We went camping at Dolly Copp for the 4th of July weekend and wanted to get a hike in before we left. The Imp was across from the campground, with good views of the profile from there, and I let Alex decide between that or up Tuckerman. Since Tuckerman was part of Mt. Washington and he knows Washington is the tallest in NH he wanted to go up Tuckerman. He isn't quite ready to handle Washington in a day (not even close) but if we made it into a multi day trip we could do it easy enough. Lakes hut woudl probably be the easiest logistically, it is on our agenda some day.
Anyway, we parked at as soon as I got out the child carrier Ethan, knowing full well what it is for, ran over and tried to climb in.
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| Ethan trying to climb into his pack |
We went inside the store and I showed Alex the 3d model of the Presidentials including the list of all the people that have died on the mountain. Not to scare him, but just to try to let him know how serious it can be up there. So we had a little talk about it including the incident that I witnessed while skiing Tuckermans in 1994 that is included in the list.
So enough of that talk, and up the trail we went.
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| At the trailhead, getting ready |
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| Denise and Alex standing on the 1st bridge |
We got to the falls and scrambled up for a view. I have never been up here in the summer, but have 3 times in the spring for skiing and never bothered to check out the falls before, but they are nice.
The trail is so heavily used it is very wide and relentless in the constant rocks you have to step on and over. Not one of my favorite trails to be sure. But the periodic glimpses of the Sherbie off on the left reminded me of the great times skiing down.
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| Alex and Denise heading up the trail |
Alex was having a tough time on this one, so we took lots of breaks and every time Ethan got out of the carrier. As we would start up he wanted to hike himself so I'd let him go as far as he could. Usually a good 100 feet or so and climbing up some of those rocks to him were real climbs requiring hands and knees! He would have enough and say "Up! Up!" which means, "put me in the carrier and carry me now!"
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| Ethan likes to get out and hike himself! |
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| Cooling off feet in one of the crossings |
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| 1st view of the headwall |
We ran into a guy with skis coming down and talked to him for a bit. Apparently there was about 150 feet of skiiable snow still in the ravine and about 4 other people still up there skiing, on July 4th!! I wanted to take Alex all the way to the base of the ravine, but it was way too late and we had a long drive home so once we reached Hojo's we had lunch at the picnic tables and called it a day.
After lunch we took a walk around the lake and checked out the tent platforms and shelters.
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| Alex climbing a rock near one of the shelters |
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| Ethan ran over and posed, so I had to take a picture! |
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| Not sure why Denise didn't get the ravine int he pciture!!?!?!?!? - see pictures above and below... |
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| Denise at railing over Hermit Lake with Tuckerman in the background |
The trip down was uneventful. We all had sore feet and had enough of the trail long before we were done with it. But we made it down and now Alex can say he climbed part of Mt. Washington!
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