Owl's Head

May 17, 2014

Debbie, Hilary, and I drove down to Lincoln, NH last night and spent the evening in a comfortable motel. It rained cats and dogs all night and was still pouring in the morning. We had a relaxed breakfast at a local restaurant, savouring our coffee for an extended period of time, hoping the rain would stop. It did not, so we reluctantly drove to the Lincoln Woods Visitor center where we were planning to hike in to Owl's Head mountain and then loop back over the Eastern Pemi range over three days. The rain fortunately stopped just after we started out which was fairly polite of it, and we booted down the old rail line fairly quickly. In about two hours we had reached Black Pond and did a fairly short and easy bushwhack to the Lincoln Brook trail. We hit it right where it had crossed the Lincoln brook and we were amazed, and somewhat daunted by how much water there was. We were glad to have taken the short cut as there was no possible way we could have crossed here on the trail. Scampering along this trail went quickly, but before long we came to a small creek which was swollen over the trail to the point of being uncrossable. We bushwhacked up a little ways and found a log which could be used to get across. I backed off at the prospect of walking the narrow log, and instead took off my boots and waded in the fridgid water up to my thighs and made it across without too much difficulty other than getting my pants soaked. Debbie tried to scamper across the log, but lost her balance and had to jump in getting her feet wet. Hilary did the same but twisted her ankle a bit on the landing. She said she was Ok, so we decided to continue. The next tiny creek off of little Haystack was a raging torrent so we had to leave the trail once more, and whack all the way up until it forked in three directions, where we made three difficult crossings. It was now early afternoon and we were way off course (being halfway up Haystack) so we sat down and had some lunch. We decided to continue aiming for a higher point on Lincoln Brook where we hoped we could cross, pick up the trail again, and then find the Owl's Head slide path. We climbed and descended through brush, over logs and fields of blowdown. We finally got near enough to the brook, and we could hear its power long before we could see it. We knew we had to go higher before we could cross. Owl's Head was right in front of us, but felt so far away. Four or five more difficult crossings of feeder streams, and some absolute bushwhacking from hell through dense blown down cripple brush, finally put us back on the trail. We looked at where it had crossed Lincoln Brook but that was a no-go, so we continued upwards some more. Yet another nasty feeder crossing and I spied a flat area which would make for good camping. As it was now 17:00, we decided to spend the night and attempt to cross the brook tomorrow. We have decided to abort the loop, and instead just focus on climbing this one mountain. Owl's Head is turning out to be quite the expedition.

Starting out in the rain and crossing a nice bridge over the Pemigewasset River.

No, I do not think we are crossing here.

Not here either.

Attempting the log, before getting scared and wading it.

Hilary after falling off the log.

Yet another ford.

Our camp for the night.

May 18, 2014

Awoke at first light and got breakfast going on a cool but beautiful morning. Lincoln Brook had gone down considerably over the night and it looked like we would be able to cross without too much dificulty, which meant our objective was in reach. We left the camp set up, packed light and hiked down to our selected ford. Hilary decided here that her ankle was bothersome enough, so she turned back while Deb and I continued. The crossing was made without too much difficulty and we sped down the trail, skirting around lots of post-winter debris on the trail. In about thirty minutes we found a large cairn with an orange glove which marked the start of the herd path up the mountain. This was a fun third class scramble up a rubble slide for about 800 feet, where we got lovely views behind us of the Franconia ridge. At about 3700' the first patches of snow began appearing, but it never amounted to much so the spikes remained in our packs the whole way. We gained the ridge and the sunshine felt warm and welcome on our faces. A 500m walk through the woulds was made to traverse over a small false summit and finally arriving at the true summit where a large cairn greeted us along with a little bit of a view of the Bonds, where we were supposed to be hiking today. We lazed out in the sunshine for a bit before turning back and down the way we came. Down climbing was a little more difficult than the ascent, but before long we were back at the bottom where we scouted out another crossing of Lincoln Brook. We figured that this would save us the worst of the bushwhack route back as we did not want to remain on the trailed side of the river for fear of not being able to cross lower down later in the day. We hiked back up to camp, crossing Lincoln Brook again, and met Hilary who was just returning from a walk up towards Thirteen Falls. She had made it most of the way but gotten turned around by snow. Her ankle was sore but felt not too bad while walking so we packed camp and crossed Lincoln Brook for the third time today. We followed the trail back to Owl's Head herd path and then crossed at our ford that we had scouted earlier to begin the whack. We aimed lower on the brook that had stymied us yesterday, hoping that the lower water flow today would let us cross and save us from hiking half way up Little Haystack again. A long and sometimes difficult bushwhack ensued, but portions were open meadow where we could move quiclky. The ground everywhere around here was hollow, and often you could hear water running underneath the surface. Occasionally your foot would break through to hollowness underneath, so we took to testing our footsteps before committing. While crossing one meadow, I stumbled into a bog and prompty sank both feet nearly up to my knees. I was completely stuck, and despite my desparate cries for help, my "friends" spent their time taking photos of my predicament instead of pulling me out. I managed to free one leg, but my second one had sunk even deeper as I struggled. Finally Deb came to the rescue and helped dig with her pole to get me out. Ok, now that she rescued me she can be my friend again, I guess. We reached the brook, and although it was still flowing swiftly, we found a way across, which also helped wash the copius quantity of mud off of my boots. Deb led the whack now, and after a short time, we arrived back at Lincoln Brook where we relaxed for a while at a pretty campsite. We picked up the trail here and now could move quickly along back to "Ankle Biter" creek where we were able to cross with just a little bit of difficulty today at the trail, rather than having to whack back up to our fateful crossing we made yesterday. We followed this trail back to the Black Pond bushwhack, and followed a herd path here for a while until it petered out and then we just did it by compass. After a bit of confusion when arriving at a beaver swamp instead of Black Pond, we found the path to the pond and a nice little campsite up the hill a bit. It was only about 16:00 now so we had a bit of time to relax before supper as we were narrowly missed by a large storm cloud that passed to the north. After supper we enjoyed a bit of whiskey by a small fire in the pit before retiring to the tents just before dark.

Hmmm... a little bit easier today.

Herd path found.

Deb and I, summit of Owl's Head.

Stuck in a bog.

Haystack Brook is much easier to cross today.

Nice campsite just above Black Lake.

Unfortunately the bugs are out.

May 19, 2014

We awoke to another beautiful day, and after a relaxed breakfast we packed camp and began hiking out. With no river crossings today (other than the bridged Pemigewasset), and easy trail to follow we arrived back at the parking lot in 1.5 hours. I have a new found respect for mountain streams after this adventure.

Saying our last goodbyes to Black Lake.

What a concept. We get to hike on trail today!

This looks like it should be an album cover...

...or maybe with some hikers added...

...or best friends.

Three amigos along the rail bed.

That is one big honking turnbuckle Debbie!

Returning to a fairly empty lot on a Monday morning.

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