Owl's 2/16/2014 looking good until the trail up!!

[marysgirl]

Left the parking lot at 8:05, Lincoln was packed down pretty well but we wore snowshoes, black pond was packed down beautifully, came out on the brook trail and followed it all the way to the crossing, soon after the crossing we came across a couple who were still in their tent from the day before. They told us that the trail was not broken out but that they had created a bushwhack behind the tent the day before that was 2/3rds of the way to the top. Because I has been let down by bushwhacks twice before at Owl's I decided to go with the trail. Someone had started the trail with bare boots, we followed it for all of a couple hundred feet and it wasn't feeling like the true trail but it was kind of broken out so I was going with it until that person gave up, we went a few feet further, trying to break it out, but we were exhausted by the hike the day before and the walk out there so we gave up..... we back tracked to the tent, but it was gone, and we started up their bushwhack which was packed out quite nicely. Only problem was that it was headed southeast the whole way. We followed it until, I believe, it was the end of their bushwhack then a single set of snow shoe tracks abruptly started to head North up extremely steep terrain and we started to follow them and ran out of juice..... So this makes it 3 times out to Owl's with no summit for me!! It is my curse to be let down by Owls\'s Head!! I have no idea where Brutis Starts from but I would give it a try! If anyone wants to take a walk out there with me send me an IM!! If you go and it is broken out, also send me and IM!!

 

[MichaelJ]

The Brutus starts in a southeasterly direction, then you hit a small drainage/ravine, go up it a ways, then turn extremely steep north out of the drainage. You might have been on it.