TRIP DATE: 7/19-20, 2014
TRIP
LOCATION: Owls Head
MEETING
TIME: 8:00 am
NUMBER OF
PARTICIPANTS (INCLUDING LEADERS): 5
TOTAL HIKING
TIME (IN HOURS): 9½ Saturday, 4 Sunday
LENGTH IN
MILES: 18.0
TOTAL
ELEVATION GAIN (IN FEET): 2850’
DIFFICULTY: AA (A=very strenuous;
B=strenuous; C=average; D=easy)
LEADER
NAME(S): Bob Vogel
CO-LEADER
NAME(S): Sue Franconi
TRAILHEAD
PARKING LOCATION & DESCRIPTION: WMNF
Visitor Center, Lincoln Woods
CAR SPOTTING
REQUIRED?: N
WAS TRIP
WITHING WHITE MOUNTAIN NATIONAL FOREST? Y
BRIEFLY DESCRIBE
SPECIFIC TRAILS HIKED AND TRAIL CONDITIONS ENCOUNTERED:
Lincoln
Woods Trail, Franconia Brook Trail, Lincoln Brook Trail, Owls Head Path, herd
paths to ‘true’ summit.
WEATHER
CONDITIONS FOR HIKE: Great, warm, but not ‘hot’ and not overly sunny.
OTHER
COMMENTS (problems, views, terrain, etc.)
We used the
‘new’ path which has developed from the upper right of the slide. It was OK,
steep, lots of pulling yourself up with trees. Hey, it’s Owls Head.
Pemi River
flow [http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv/?site_no=01074520&agency_cd=USGS]
was 200 ft3/sec at
Lincoln Saturday. We waded up to our knees (had all brought water shoes
expecting it) for both Franconia Brook and lower crossing of Lincoln Brook .4
miles later. ‘Consensus’ on the web is
it’s safe to cross up to 700 ft3/sec…. I seriously doubt I’d have let them
cross with 3½ times as much water!
Next time I will plan to use Black Pond bushwhack (I used it going in w/ Bobby
& Matt when they were 8 & 10) as it avoids the need to wade these 2
streams.
Sue has posted her pictures
at: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AYsWjJo0bMmTNFA
Unfortunately pictures can’t really do justice to the slide. It’s long, and
steep. Nothing ‘difficult’, nothing any of us found ‘terrifying’ or anything.
Just steep and up, up, up. Then, of course down, down, down, which is also time
consuming, but at least used different muscles.
1) The water level readings
for Saturday at Lincoln were 200 (cubic feet per second). [See: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv/?site_no=01074520&agency_cd=USGS]
The online consensus was that levels below 700 are ‘safe’ for the two big
crossings. (The crossings on the early part of the Lincoln Brook Trail,
Franconia Brook and Lincoln Brook.) Well, at 200 we were up to out knees. If we
had spent a bit more time looking we might have found something a bit
shallower, but knee deep was ‘ok’... (with poles to help.) I’m not sure we
would have been crossing if the water had been 700. Maybe some would have been
comfortable with it... but I’m not sure I’d have sent people in with 3 1/2
times the flow we had. (Especially with 40+# packs to balance.) As I told the
group, ‘next time’ I’m definitely planning to use the Black Pond Bushwhack. (We
didn’t take it on the way out because A) The bushwhack is easier going in than
out, because it’s very easy to find the east-west trail, and harder to find
small pond on the way out. The trail looked quite well used at the river
crossing end, but I was concerned we might end up wandering around looking for
the pond, and B) We had waded on the way in, and knew we could do it going out.
The water was also quite cold. By the time we got across our toes were cold.
(Note in some pictures people standing on rocks mid-stream... that was partly
just to get out of the cold water for a minute before continuing. One of my
calf muscles ‘cramped’ in the cold water, and was sore the rest of the trip
(and is still sore Monday eve.)
2) The slide, despite
1 hr. 15 minute ‘book time’ numbers really did take about 2 hours to go up, and
2 more to come down. (Well, that does include our 15 minute or so celebration
at the summit.) And the herd paths between the old and new summits were as advertised...
totally a disaster, with trails going every which way, many dead ended. There
was a point when we were starting to worry we weren’t going to find the real
summit. As someone coming down advised us ‘Just keep going until you find it.’
There was a big cairn, so no question when we finally found it. (And
there was no problem identifying where to turn for the Owls Head Path... since
~99% of the people turn there, it was easy to find.
3) The ‘old’ route leaves
from the left at the top of the first slide, we went the ‘new’ route which has
developed from the upper right of the slide. It was ‘OK’. Lots of scrambling up
rocks and using trees as handrails... but not a real problem.
4) Our overall schedule: We
left at 8:15. Hiked steady with no real ‘rest’ stops, just a couple quick strip
breaks, and a couple bathroom breaks, plus time to change into water shoes
before first crossing, and back to boots after second crossing- we hiked the .4
miles in the water shoes to save time.) and got to the slide at ~1:30 (with our
full packs). We ate lunch (and bear bagged the food) 1:30 – 2:00 and started
up, and got back down about 6:00. We decided to head out as far as we could,
and hiked about an hour (if memory serves.. I, like all, was getting tired by
that point!) So at about 7:00 we got to the first big crossing and I gave the
group the 2 mediocre options: A) Walk a ways down the bushwhack and look
for a place to camp. And if it rained overnight (it was a bit cloudy Sat eve)
we could head out the bushwhack Sunday, if dry overnight we could wade and go
out the trails; or B) Cross both crossings, and hope we could find a flat spot
to camp there. (If you cross 1 brook and camp, and it rains you are ‘trapped’ –
you can’t get out, and can’t get back to the bushwhack.) We decided we were
sufficiently exhausted that we wanted to set up our tents, eat (by headlamp, as
you can see in the pictures) and go to bed. (We got to bed at 9:30, after again
bear bagging the food.) Sunday we were up about 7, and I don’t remember when we
started hiking, but we got out about 11:30. It was a long time to carry heavy
packs. Had I been confident we’d be up, down and have an hour to hike back, we
could have left tents/sleeping bags/stoves, etc. at the stream crossing where
we ended up sleeping. But I didn’t have the confidence we’d be able to get back
there, so we carried things further than it turned out was necessary. If the
same group went again next week we’d know better what we could do... When you
go, unfortunately, you will be in the boat we were in Saturday, of not knowing
just how much the Lincoln Brook Trail plus Owls Head Path are going to take out
of you, or how long it will take you to do them.
5) “Next Time” I’d plan on
using the Black Pond Bushwhack. If nothing else it eliminates the need to worry
about the water flow issues. There were (6?) other water crossings, but those
were all rock hops this weekend... so worst case would have been short bare
foot wades. There are only 2 that are wide, deep, and fast, and the Black Pond
Bushwhack avoids them. It was developed as a winter alternate route, but I can
see why it’s becoming popular in all seasons.
6) Day trip vs. backpack:
Most people were doing it as a day trip. Some were young and strong, and
whizzing right along. Others were ‘older’ (and maybe a bit slower!) and I
expect that many got out very late. (At least the last 5 miles or so are
nice, flat, wide trails – but watch for the knots in the old railroad ties,
they haven’t rotted away and stick up a couple inches in places!) The round
trip (via the trails) is about 18.5 miles. We hiked about 12 of them Saturday
(10.5 with full packs) and 6.5 Sunday. Is it better doing it as a day trip,
i.e., adding 6.5 miles to Saturday for the benefit of shedding the weight of
tents, stoves, sleeping bags? That’s a personal call, and I guess also depends
on if you like/hate sleeping in the woods. And woods it is, as there aren’t any
‘tent platforms’ along the way, you are on your own to go 200’ off trail and
find a flat (dry) spot. Any way you look at it, Owls Head is 8 miles in to the
base of the slide, and 8 more miles out after you come down from the slide. And
between those two 8 miles hikes there is a 1500’ climb up (mostly) a slide and
1500’ back down it.
7) The bottom line: If you
want to climb the NH 4k peaks... you have to get to Owls Head. As I told Sue
when she started screening you folks, “If they’ve climbed 40 of the 4ks, they
know they need Owls Head, and they’ll do what they have to do to climb it.” You
think about all the days and days of climbing those other peaks, and you just
buckle down and keep walking, even though you are dead tired. That’s Owls Head
in a nut shell. And when you get back to the parking lot, you are A) Exhausted
and B) Elated that it’s over. :-)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
