Owl's Head / 6/24/2004

[TroutBumNH]

The good forecast and an empty Friday made for a great day to undertake a deep wilderness trek.... Owl's Head called.

Left the Lincoln Woods trailhead just past 6am, and was at Black Pond by about 7. Made the bushwhack up to the Lincoln Brook Trail... it was my first bushwhack in the Whites, and my only advice is 'don't do your first bushwhack alone!!' I didn't run into any problems save a spruce trap or two, but although I may have saved a mile or so, I didn't save any time, and the moments of anxiety were stressful enough to make it seem not-worthwhile. But untracked woods were pretty cool, and it didn't seem like there was much -- if any -- amount of time when I couldn't hear the water.

Once on Lincoln Brook, I was busting to get to the Owl's Head trailhead..... how many times have I said 'I'll get there next...' ? I was on the lookout for that red-rock cairn I've seen pictured so many times... but upon reaching yet another brook crossing, I knew something was amiss. I knew I was cruising along, but didn't figure I'd passed the spur/cairn without seeing it.. but I realized I must have.

A lot of work had been done on the trail(s) on the way in, and it turns out that a 'helpful' trail crew saw fit to break down the cairn (!!). I know that it's the policy of the AMC to take down 'non-AMC' cairns.... BUT THE WHITE MOUNTAIN GUIDE DESCRIBES THIS ONE.

For a first time 'Owl's-Header', I was expecting the cairn to point out the trailhead. It was completely taken apart... I'd feel more self-conscious about admitting this fact, but two other gentlemen (Don and John) made the same error, and Don had done Owl's Head before. I would have turned around sooner, but their continuing boot prints in the mud on LBT made me think that the spur must be just a bit further on.

According to the guide, I kept on for another .9 miles on the LBT before turning around -- over some of worst maintained trail I've ever seen in the Whites. It was mostly unmarked, and difficult to follow. It's more than a tad frustrating to know that some trail crew spent a LARGE amount of time taking that cairn (an AMC pet peeve) apart, but couldn't be bothered to blaze an 'unacceptably far gone' stretch of trail no more than a mile further along (a safety issue that should be addressed) on the LBT.

Again, it was my first time out there, so I'll be interested to hear SherpaJohn's impressions after his hike tomorrow. If anyone meeting up with John and his crew haven't been out to Owl's Head before, be careful, and know that the scattered mass of red rocks on the side of the trail *used* to be the cairn. Once I'd walked back to it and carefully inspected the area, I finally picked up the blazes. The AMC wants the Owl's Head trail to be 'unmaintained', but if they include it in their guidebook, they should not be destroying the very landmarks they describe.

Any thoughts on this? This is my first post after being a long-term lurker and I don't mean for it to be a rant, but it's frustrating as hell once you realized you're 8.9 miles out, and not quite sure where you are on your map.

Once I found the path, I made it up and down Owl's Head without further ado. The views from the slide were absolutely fantastic. It was supposed to be in the 90's in the Boston area, but it was beautiful with a great breeze on the slide. Just perfect. As many of you know, the summit experience after such a long trip is rather underwhelming, however, there it was:

O
W
L
'
S

H
E
A
D

The walk out was very uneventful... didn't see a soul on the way back until the Wilderness Trail and got the Franconia Falls daytrippers on their way out and the weekenders making their way in.

Overall, a great day, with some minor frustrations mixed in.. Anything I gained mileage-wise via the bushwhack was given back on the 1.8 round trip to the next brook crossing ('beyond the cairn', that is). 18-19 miles will make for some sore feet! They seemed to appreciate dangling from a bar stool at the Station in North Woodstock, and man, did that Pemi Pale Ale taste great (and earned.. both for the total effort on the day, and the distance into the Pemi Wilderness itself).

Mike

 

[Papa Bear]

Mike

Nice report. Sounds like you had fun. You might want to also post this to the Trail Conditions section:

http://www.vftt.org/trail/nh/index.html

The missing cairn would be of general interest and a lot of folks check that page.

 

[TroutBumNH]

PapaBear--

Will do... I meant to do that (!!)

Mike

 

[John S]

Thanks for reporting the trail info and glad to hear that it worked out well for you in the end. Owl’s Head is a tough enough day even when all goes according to plan. I’m sure the ales tasted that much better after having successfully dealt with the unexpected.

Regarding the trail markings and the missing cairn, a couple of questions come to mind. First, is it the AMC or USFS that that maintains the Lincoln Brook Trail? Second, was the well-known cairn in accordance with the rules for trail markings in a designated wilderness area? I’m sorry to hear that the cairn is gone but would like to know the answers before drawing any conclusions or assigning blame.

 

[TroutBumNH]

John--

Points taken. It probably is the USFS managing the trail once in the Wilderness area.

Although the cairn is probably half-rebuilt by now, let whomever pick it apart at the end of a season, not when the heaviest traffic is about to hit.

Mike

 

[adamiata]

That cairn must've been removed within the last few weeks. I did Owl's Head on June 5th and it was still there. Did they remove any of the other smaller cairns alongside the slide? When I was there, there were small cairns about a foot high speced every few yards, from the junction with the LBt to the top of the slide.

 

[TroutBumNH]

adam--

All of the smaller ones are there... all the way up the slide. Funny, 'cause once your'e on the slide, there's only one way to go (straight up!).

from the 'freshness' of the trail work, it must've been performed in the past few days (before friday).

 

[bobandgeri]

We are doing Owl's Head todeay with Sherpa John so weill take pics of the pile and get a GPS point - who knows - maybe we will even put Sherpa John to work and create a new Carin!

 

[alpinista]

Not to be a skeptic, but how do we know that it was a trail crew that removed the cairn? Have they messed with this cairn previously?

 

[TroutBumNH]

it is an assumption, however, there was a great amount of water bar clearing, etc. that was very fresh. after inspecting the cairn, it looked like someone had attacked it with a rock bar. The gentleman I spoke with at the intersection and I were in agreement about what we thought happened. The other gentleman thought perhaps a bear had taken it down rooting for grubs. That seemed a strange theory to me, but to each their own.

to your point, the sign to the Osseo Trail off the Wilderness trail had been blacked out with spray paint (an ongoing problem). so perhaps there was a trail vandal or even someone w/ a strict-construction 'wilderness area' definition regarding man-made structures.

so perhaps I'm off base here... there's a VFTT group going out there today, and I'm sure we'll get their impressions.

 

[bobandgeri]

The Carin has been re-built. And then re-built again by Sherpa John pracicing his new skills he learned Sat. Our impression was that it was NOT done on purpose as the other smaller carins visibale from the main trail that mark the slide trail were not touched.

 

[hikrgrl]

I made my attempt at Owl's Head on Thursday, coming from 13 Falls. I think I passed the trail up to Owl's Head twice twice - I made it past a significant mudhole and two brook crossings, so I turned around. I saw no cairns...I suppose it is possible that I didn't go far enough....