Owl's Head (3/48)
Sep. 10th, 2006 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jtniehofI spent August quite busy, but in early September Erik reminded me we hadn't hiked for awhile. He suggested a dayhike and we eventually settled on Owl's Head since it involved a slide climb, which we didn't want to do once snow and ice came in. At a nearly 20 mile round trip, it's a pretty ambitious "day" hike.
I spent the night before at a party, and Erik grabbed me on his way up, close to 9pm. We grabbed dinner on the way and reached Hancock Campground close to midnight. We immediately realized that this would do a number on an early start and turned in.
The lovely thing about car-camping was that, once we ate, we basically threw tent, bags, and cookgear in the back of the car with little regard for order and drove to the trailhead. After checking in with the rangers on day permits for Franconia Falls (not needed that day), we crossed the Pemi and started the day about 9.
The Lincoln Woods trail (formerly called "Wilderness Trail", but when the Pemi Wilderness was designated, the sections of the trail outside of it were renamed) is arrow-straight and Kansas-flat, except for the old railroad ties.
Unfortunately we were moving so fast that I caught a toe on the ties and went down, slow and awkward. Trekking poles make for interesting falls as they wrap around your legs.
The path follows the Pemi and occasionally we got good glimpes through the trees towards the Bonds. There were plenty of people out, but we didn't see any hikers (assuming that those in business clothes carrying a Dunkin' Donuts cup are probably not hiking so much as walking).
Three miles and we turned off the highway towards Franconia Falls, reaching the swimming hole quickly.
Here we started on the bushwhack north to Lincoln Brook and entered the wilderness area.
For a little while it was easy to follow the old road, and there were plenty of herd paths in the area. Sadly there was also way too much litter. It didn't take long to get more rugged, though.
The tricky part was distinguishing when a side brook was a feeder to Franconia Brook (in which case we crossed) or Lincoln Brook itself (in which case we wanted to follow it). Once we reached Lincoln Brook, through, it was quite obvious, although we had another round of uncertainty finding where the trail crossed over to our side so we could pick it up. Eventually we made it, but it was slow going, mostly from uncertainty.
I was foolish and didn't get water when we crossed back over for the last time.
Fifteen minutes later, and we were at the base of the slide--approximately half an hour after our "drop-dead" turn-back time. As usual, we ignored our prior planning and pressed on. The path was easy to find; the Forest Service had left the cairns (but removed any more obvious sign, including cutting down a few blazed trees.)
The nice thing about standing in a near-vertical jumble of rocks on a mountainside is that you've got great views if you turn around.
That's Franconia Ridge; the slide is on Lincoln.
The not-so-nice thing, well, it's a lot of work:
By this point I was very glad I had switched to cross-trainers from hiking boots.
We passed a lot of people coming down, some fastpackers and maybe some coming from Thirteen Falls. Also a group of idiot boy scouts who decided it'd be fun to roughhouse and throw equipment on the slide. Everybody claimed they had reached the true summit: "the trail goes right there!"
After a pretty long pull, we reached the false summit (marked with a cairn), and I drained the rest of my Gatorade.
Despite being ridiculously late, we decided to press on to the true summit. The GPS was working now, being up on the ridge, so I plugged in the coordinates of the false summit and we pressed north, trying to keep to the high point and looking for Mirriam's viewpoint. The herd paths lasted for a few minutes, then we were pushing through brush...and just when I thought we had a view out to the Bonds, I nearly tripped over the cairn. Three.
The sign has been relocated to the true summit and I dare anyone to try and steal it now.
It only took fifteen minutes to go to the true summit and back to the false, where we ate hastily (and I wished I had more liquid). Then it was time to scramble back down as the sun set behind Franconia Ridge.
It was getting dark by the time we reached Lincoln Brook again; we stuck with the Lincoln Brook trail for the way out. After we had done the two crossings of Lincoln Brook, we changed socks; at this point the only light we had was headlamps. The lack of food and exertion were beginning to tell on me. Erik lead the way across the Franconia Brook crossing where we rejoined the Franconia Brook trail, since my mind was dulling and my headlamp wasn't as bright as his. We paused for me to change socks again (using all three pairs I'd brought), pull on as much clothing as I could, and try to shove in some calories. I stopped shivering after we'd been moving for a bit and was actually doing fairly well by the time we reached the Lincoln Woods trail again. The moon came out and we rolled on the last three miles, very tired, reaching the car at 11PM.
I spent the night before at a party, and Erik grabbed me on his way up, close to 9pm. We grabbed dinner on the way and reached Hancock Campground close to midnight. We immediately realized that this would do a number on an early start and turned in.
The lovely thing about car-camping was that, once we ate, we basically threw tent, bags, and cookgear in the back of the car with little regard for order and drove to the trailhead. After checking in with the rangers on day permits for Franconia Falls (not needed that day), we crossed the Pemi and started the day about 9.
The Lincoln Woods trail (formerly called "Wilderness Trail", but when the Pemi Wilderness was designated, the sections of the trail outside of it were renamed) is arrow-straight and Kansas-flat, except for the old railroad ties.
Unfortunately we were moving so fast that I caught a toe on the ties and went down, slow and awkward. Trekking poles make for interesting falls as they wrap around your legs.
The path follows the Pemi and occasionally we got good glimpes through the trees towards the Bonds. There were plenty of people out, but we didn't see any hikers (assuming that those in business clothes carrying a Dunkin' Donuts cup are probably not hiking so much as walking).
Three miles and we turned off the highway towards Franconia Falls, reaching the swimming hole quickly.
Here we started on the bushwhack north to Lincoln Brook and entered the wilderness area.
For a little while it was easy to follow the old road, and there were plenty of herd paths in the area. Sadly there was also way too much litter. It didn't take long to get more rugged, though.
The tricky part was distinguishing when a side brook was a feeder to Franconia Brook (in which case we crossed) or Lincoln Brook itself (in which case we wanted to follow it). Once we reached Lincoln Brook, through, it was quite obvious, although we had another round of uncertainty finding where the trail crossed over to our side so we could pick it up. Eventually we made it, but it was slow going, mostly from uncertainty.
I was foolish and didn't get water when we crossed back over for the last time.
Fifteen minutes later, and we were at the base of the slide--approximately half an hour after our "drop-dead" turn-back time. As usual, we ignored our prior planning and pressed on. The path was easy to find; the Forest Service had left the cairns (but removed any more obvious sign, including cutting down a few blazed trees.)
The nice thing about standing in a near-vertical jumble of rocks on a mountainside is that you've got great views if you turn around.
That's Franconia Ridge; the slide is on Lincoln.
The not-so-nice thing, well, it's a lot of work:
By this point I was very glad I had switched to cross-trainers from hiking boots.
We passed a lot of people coming down, some fastpackers and maybe some coming from Thirteen Falls. Also a group of idiot boy scouts who decided it'd be fun to roughhouse and throw equipment on the slide. Everybody claimed they had reached the true summit: "the trail goes right there!"
After a pretty long pull, we reached the false summit (marked with a cairn), and I drained the rest of my Gatorade.
Despite being ridiculously late, we decided to press on to the true summit. The GPS was working now, being up on the ridge, so I plugged in the coordinates of the false summit and we pressed north, trying to keep to the high point and looking for Mirriam's viewpoint. The herd paths lasted for a few minutes, then we were pushing through brush...and just when I thought we had a view out to the Bonds, I nearly tripped over the cairn. Three.
The sign has been relocated to the true summit and I dare anyone to try and steal it now.
It only took fifteen minutes to go to the true summit and back to the false, where we ate hastily (and I wished I had more liquid). Then it was time to scramble back down as the sun set behind Franconia Ridge.
It was getting dark by the time we reached Lincoln Brook again; we stuck with the Lincoln Brook trail for the way out. After we had done the two crossings of Lincoln Brook, we changed socks; at this point the only light we had was headlamps. The lack of food and exertion were beginning to tell on me. Erik lead the way across the Franconia Brook crossing where we rejoined the Franconia Brook trail, since my mind was dulling and my headlamp wasn't as bright as his. We paused for me to change socks again (using all three pairs I'd brought), pull on as much clothing as I could, and try to shove in some calories. I stopped shivering after we'd been moving for a bit and was actually doing fairly well by the time we reached the Lincoln Woods trail again. The moon came out and we rolled on the last three miles, very tired, reaching the car at 11PM.