Osceola and East Osceola
November 13, 2021
I had been waiting for this day for quite awhile. It was time to start the treks. My best friend would be with me. This was going to be a great weekend.
The weekend was even more epic than we imagined.
I arrived at Logan Airport in Boston at 1AM to pick up my best friend, Tim. He was flying in from Chicago to start this journey with me. I probably grabbed 2 hours of sleep before I left for the airport. Tim grabbed an hour or so on the plane. We drove straight to the trailhead on Tripoli Road. We arrived there around 3:30AM. We started hiking just before 4AM. Pitch dark. Nothing but headlamps. It took us a little bit just to find the start of trail. No light pollution up there. It was cold as well as dark, but there wasn’t any precipitation, so it was perfect.
The actual hike wasn’t bad at all. It was a pretty gradual climb. There was a long section of very rocky trail, which is to be expected up there. But it wasn’t difficult. Following the trail with just a headlamp all the way up made for a slower walk than it would have been in daylight. But we still got to the peak by about 6AM. It was still dark.
We had been shedding layers while walking because we were getting warm while moving. But once we got to the top, they all had to go back on because it was windy and cold up there just sitting, waiting for the sunrise. It was definitely worth starting so early and getting up there to see the sunrise. First peak, and we got to enjoy it at sunrise. The view up there is fantastic. Not a bad start to this journey.
We fueled up with some trail mix and granola bars and got going right before 7AM to continue on towards East Osceola.
The trail to East Osceola was much steeper than what we had just done. It was much more grueling on the legs and knees going some of the large rocks and then back up. It’s only about a mile hike, and it took us about an hour. My knees were not doing so well coming down some of the large rocks, so we were going at a slow pace. This is a wooded peak, so there is no view at the top. But there were some good lookouts along the way. The first person we saw was at the East Osceola peak. She had gotten there in an hour and 40 minutes from the trailhead - so she put us to shame. She was gridding, and explained what that was to us. You can look it up here. Next level.
The chimney is what everyone talks about on this hike. I read many stories of people saying how that’s the one spot along the trail that requires a little more skill. But honestly, it wasn’t bad at all. We first came down it going towards East Osceola, and had no issues. When we climbed it on the way back, it was even easier than going down it. We aren’t experienced hikers. We love the outdoors, and have gone on plenty of hikes. But nothing like this. So we aren’t true experienced hikers. We’re both in average shape. It’s not that difficult. Anyone that has the ability to get to the peak of a 4000 footer has the ability to do the chimney.
This is an out and back trail, so we went back to the trailhead the same way we came. On the way back is when we started to see more people. We were back to my truck just before 11am. It may have taken us 7 hours, but we were taking our time, and stopped plenty. It was probably closer to 5 hours of hiking time for us, and even that is probably more than it could have been. A few hours were in darkness, so that would have definitely been faster if we did it in daylight. I think you could probably hit both those peaks and be back at the trailhead in 4 hours comfortably. Just a guess.
Back at my truck, we enjoyed a couple celebratory cold ones and just hung out for about an hour before venturing out. We were just enjoying the moment. As we drove out of there, we briefly considered doing Tecumseh when we drove past that trailhead since it was so early. But we ultimately decided that since we were both on only a couple hours of sleep, it would have been pushing it for us. So we drove out and headed towards the Lodge at Jackson Village, where we had reserved a room for the night. We grabbed a meal at the Red Fox Bar and Grille at 3PM with all the early birds. We headed back to the room, showered, finalized plans for Sunday and were both asleep before 8PM. Amazing first day. 2 peaks down. 46 to go. Get some.
