spongebob
New member
I decided to climb Owl’s Head again on the flags on the 48 event. I climbed this for the 2002 event, and felt it was time to go back. The first time out there I was new to hiking. My flag poles were too bendy pvc pipe, but the flag (that has special meaning to my mother) flew high after I climbed a tree with duct tape. It was a fun time.
Fast forward to this year……
I woke up in the morning and my watch alarm did not go off, so I got to the trailhead a bit late. I probably should have packed the night before. I caught up to John, Drew, Joe, JimL, and Sarah on the Wilderness Trail. I was on this trail last week, and rail road ties can get a bit tedious. Of course I got to thinking of the railroads in the game of Monopoly….You gotta like the Pennsylvania Railroad……..because Reading, B&O and Short Line just don’t do it for me…..
At the Franconia Brook crossing at the Wilderness edge we was one of the Bond’s group with a huge pvc pipe pole setup. The two major stream crossings were easy going towards Owl’s Head.
Mtn Pa caught up to us at the first brook crossing. I still remember him giving us coffee early for the Presi traverse in June. He better have packed coffee…that is all I am saying.
At the slide it is steep, but the footing is good. We could make out the flag on Liberty as we ascended the slide. I kind of followed a herd path not paying attention, and lost the slide for a bit. John and Joe picked up the pace. I kept my pace and JimL stayed with me.
When we finally ridged out on the path and hooked a left and the wind picked up. You come across the remnant of the previous Owl’s Head sign that has been taken down. A couple herd paths lead you over to the “new” area. I helped John, Joe & JimL put up the flag. (Helped….as in watched mostly.) We even had a world flag from Jade that she provided.
I ended up seeing two of the Bond’s flags, Liberty, Lincoln and Lafayette…..oh and Owl’s Heads flags. We all reached the summit ate food, had coffee……Mtn Pa is lucky he brought it or there might have been an accident on the slide. I even brought my stove and had warm food.
The rain came and it wasn’t too bad be to be under the trees. Several groups of hikers came and went. A woman from Maine finished her 48. After taking the flag down we headed out. The hike on the ridge was wet from the lack of a defined trail. The rain stopped and the slide was a nice descent. Not too much later and the rain came down hard. We had a bit of lightning cracking around us. John was carrying five pounds of aluminum poles, so he was not a good person to be around.
On the last Fraconia Brook crossing we just ran thru the brook. A group of two hikers were waiting out the rain on the other side. I put my rain jacket to ward off a slight coldness and not to be dry as that was not possible.
The hike out from the Wilderness trail was fast and had large areas of puddle splashing. We got out around 6 PM. Ohhh and some of us stopped at McDonalds for some type of foods.
I decided to check out the KOA campsite. I met people, but most people locked their cars; so I could not get any “free” hiking gear. Which was a bunch of crap.
Mtn Magic likes big fires and it was nice to see Laurie but not Tom.
Link to a movie and pictures.
Fast forward to this year……
I woke up in the morning and my watch alarm did not go off, so I got to the trailhead a bit late. I probably should have packed the night before. I caught up to John, Drew, Joe, JimL, and Sarah on the Wilderness Trail. I was on this trail last week, and rail road ties can get a bit tedious. Of course I got to thinking of the railroads in the game of Monopoly….You gotta like the Pennsylvania Railroad……..because Reading, B&O and Short Line just don’t do it for me…..
At the Franconia Brook crossing at the Wilderness edge we was one of the Bond’s group with a huge pvc pipe pole setup. The two major stream crossings were easy going towards Owl’s Head.
Mtn Pa caught up to us at the first brook crossing. I still remember him giving us coffee early for the Presi traverse in June. He better have packed coffee…that is all I am saying.
At the slide it is steep, but the footing is good. We could make out the flag on Liberty as we ascended the slide. I kind of followed a herd path not paying attention, and lost the slide for a bit. John and Joe picked up the pace. I kept my pace and JimL stayed with me.
When we finally ridged out on the path and hooked a left and the wind picked up. You come across the remnant of the previous Owl’s Head sign that has been taken down. A couple herd paths lead you over to the “new” area. I helped John, Joe & JimL put up the flag. (Helped….as in watched mostly.) We even had a world flag from Jade that she provided.
I ended up seeing two of the Bond’s flags, Liberty, Lincoln and Lafayette…..oh and Owl’s Heads flags. We all reached the summit ate food, had coffee……Mtn Pa is lucky he brought it or there might have been an accident on the slide. I even brought my stove and had warm food.
The rain came and it wasn’t too bad be to be under the trees. Several groups of hikers came and went. A woman from Maine finished her 48. After taking the flag down we headed out. The hike on the ridge was wet from the lack of a defined trail. The rain stopped and the slide was a nice descent. Not too much later and the rain came down hard. We had a bit of lightning cracking around us. John was carrying five pounds of aluminum poles, so he was not a good person to be around.
On the last Fraconia Brook crossing we just ran thru the brook. A group of two hikers were waiting out the rain on the other side. I put my rain jacket to ward off a slight coldness and not to be dry as that was not possible.
The hike out from the Wilderness trail was fast and had large areas of puddle splashing. We got out around 6 PM. Ohhh and some of us stopped at McDonalds for some type of foods.
I decided to check out the KOA campsite. I met people, but most people locked their cars; so I could not get any “free” hiking gear. Which was a bunch of crap.
Mtn Magic likes big fires and it was nice to see Laurie but not Tom.
Link to a movie and pictures.
