Owl's Head via Flume Slide (almost), 7/2/2011

[BIGEarl]

July 2, 2011: Flume (also planned Owl’s Head)

Trails: White House Trail, Liberty Spring Trail, Franconia Ridge Trail, Bushwhack Franconia Ridge to Lincoln Brook Trail, Lincoln Brook Trail, Franconia Brook Trail, Wilderness Trail

Summits: Flume

Hikers: Trail Trotter (Sue) and me



The plan for the day was a hike of Owl’s Head but we wanted to add a little variety to the hike. Instead of the usual round trip from Lincoln Woods we decided hiking by way of Flume Slide would be a nice change. Plus, I’ve descended Flume Slide a number of times but have never climbed it. We’ve been doing a little sliding lately; N. Tripyramid Slide and Owl’s Head Slide in May, Arrow Slide in June, and planned for Flume Slide and Owl’s Head Slide in July.

Thanks to Mike Saltmarsh, we were able to leave our truck at Lincoln Woods and he shuttled us to the White House trailhead for the hike. After dropping us off, Mike continued north to meet Brian for a ‘whackfest between Jefferson Notch and Cherry Mountain.

Sue and I left the White House trailhead generally as planned and headed for Flume Slide Trail. The warm-up to climbing the slide included the short White House Trail, a short piece of Liberty Spring Trail, and a long approach on Flume Slide Trail. Along the way we saw three other pairs of hikers also on an early start to their days, two of them were headed for the slide. The trails leading to the slide are all in great shape. They are clear and dry with only a very small amount of mud that was easy to get past with clean boots.

It’s really easy to tell when you have reached the end of the long approach on Flume Slide Trail; suddenly you’re climbing steep, wet, slippery, slimy ledge. I was hoping a few dry days plus hiking on a dry day might give us favorable climbing conditions – not this time. We had to pay attention all of the way up. In many areas there was running water over the ledge making difficult conditions a little more difficult. Much of the climb required hands and feet. On the climb we noticed a few paths that evidently bypassed difficult sections; we stayed on the difficult sections and worked our way up. Climbing the slide was very slow work and we paid a big price in time. The good news was we both reached the junction with Franconia Ridge Trail without a single mishap along the way. The day was warm and very humid. By the time we reached the ridge we were both drenched. We made the turn and finished the short walk to the summit of Mt. Flume.

Our first goal for the day was complete; climb Flume Slide. We stopped for a short break, got the usual summit pictures, and had a snack. We also prepared for the next goal of the hike: bushwhack from Franconia Ridge Trail to Lincoln Brook Trail. I dug into my pack and pulled out a couple gadgets that would help; my compass, and my old friend the Thommen TX-18 Altimeter. I had calibrated it back at the trailhead but again checked to make sure the setting was still good.

Our planned bushwhack route started from a point between Flume and Liberty at a target elevation; finding it is a great job for my Thommen. We set off north on Franconia Ridge Trail and I monitored the elevation. At the target start location we found an opening in the dense growth and took off on our first bearing, which targeted a location at the top of a ridge ~.6 mile to the northeast. Sue and I have been through this area a couple previous times, it’s crazy thick, but for some reason we keep coming back for more. If you’re patient, keep track of the bearing, work around the blowdowns and extreme thick places, and use the terrain to assist in navigating, the top of the ridge isn’t that tough to locate. When you finally hit the ridge it’s obvious; standing on top of the ridge you can see the terrain drop away on both sides – it’s a narrow, very well defined ridge.

From the top of the ridge to the upper crossing of Lincoln Brook by Lincoln Brook Trail is a straight shot of roughly 1 mile. Previous visits have been in late spring and fall; times when the leaves are down and visibility is much better. Now, along with the thick conifers, there is a great deal of other plant life that is limiting visibility both ahead and down. Watching foot placement is often not possible and a fair amount of the trip down the ridge is done by blind faith. I enjoyed three falls that combined to leave a very painful back. Like the man said; you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.

Our trip down the ridge started and ended as planned, but in-between wasn’t pretty. Soon after leaving the top of the ridge, we started to drift north in an effort to work around thick areas and small blowdown patches. Very quickly, we found that we had dropped off the ridge to the north and needed to get back on the ridge and on course. We turned south and picked our way back up onto the ridge. As I said, it’s a narrow ridge. Back on course we were again headed for our target on Lincoln Brook Trail. Soon, we drifted off the south side of the ridge and were mired in another thick blowdown patch. Again we made the turn and made the correction. After losing the ridge for the second time, we really became focused on our bearing and had no more navigation issues on the descent.

Our previous trip down this ridge was much faster, probably due to the more open conditions. Now, we’re dealing with much thicker growth and less visibility; the end result was a much slower time down to Lincoln Brook Trail.

Overall, the bushwhack was a good one. We recognized a couple navigation errors quickly and made the necessary corrections. Unfortunately, we burned a lot more time than planned. We made a direct hit on the Lincoln Brook Trail target location. When we reached Lincoln Brook Trail I pulled out my filter to make some drinking water and a quart of Gatorade.

With water re-supplied it was time for a sanity check. We go into each hike with a detailed plan including milestones and times throughout the hike. We also usually fill the available time as much as possible. At this time of year we generally work with a target finish time of 8:00 – 9:00pm, or earlier. It’s easy to see where we are against plan at any point. Based on this information, it was easy to see where we were versus where we planned to be when we hit Lincoln Brook Trail. The combination of extra time used in climbing Flume Slide and the much slower-than-expected bushwhack left us with a decision to continue on to Owl’s Head with a very late return to Lincoln Woods, or bail. Returning to Lincoln Woods at ~11:00pm, or later didn’t seem like a great idea. We only have three July hikes on our list (including Owl’s Head). Making a return visit to hike Owl’s Head is easy. We bailed.

Our exit route followed the trails all of the way back to Lincoln Woods. The crossings of Lincoln Brook and Franconia Brook were reasonably okay ending with only one wet boot (a loose rock got it). We wandered into the lot at Lincoln Woods as originally planned but with one less peak. Oh well – plans can change. We’ll be back.

After a quick clean-up and change into dry clothes we hit the highway south. Thanks Sue. Sorry we came up short.



I’ve posted some pictures from the day.


BIGEarl's Pictures


Straight to the slideshow

 

[audrey]

Earl, I enjoy your trip reports very much; keep up the hard work.

When Pat and I first started hiking, almost 30 years ago, we picked a hot and humid June day to loop over Flume and then Liberty. At the time I was using the Daniel Doan 50 Hikes books. We lost the Flume Slide Trail at a brook crossing and ended up on the trailless part of the slide. First we tried the left side which was too slippery; then we worked our way over to the right side, which probably was just a few feet from the trail, but who knew? The scree was like greased marbles, 3 feet up and 2 feet back. After a couple of hundred feet we were afraid to turn around, so up we went. I recall thinking that the book didn't do the hike justice, perhaps we were wimps to be having such a hard time. The slide empties out almost at the summit - you can look right down it.
We weren't about to retrace our steps, so we ended up doing Liberty and limping back to the car with our tails between our legs.
I love clean granite slides, but that one isn't.

 

[Dave Bear]

Earl, Your hike reminds me of August last year when we were out there on that ridge at the same time. I could hear you two often clearly but the terrain drifted me west off the ridge and I opted not to reclimb it. Its a very interesting area in there. Did you see any signs of the the logging camp or the bears and moose in the area? Look forward to the pictures and in "guy speak" we never get lost, we just go somewhere we haven't been before!

I bailed from Owls Head peak that day but it gave me the good fortune of running into Dave Metsky finishing his Pemi loop and secured my necessary ride back to my truck!

 

[BIGEarl]

I’ve posted some pictures from the day.


BIGEarl's Pictures


Straight to the slideshow

 

[BIGEarl]

Earl, I enjoy your trip reports very much; keep up the hard work.

When Pat and I first started hiking, almost 30 years ago, we picked a hot and humid June day to loop over Flume and then Liberty. At the time I was using the Daniel Doan 50 Hikes books. We lost the Flume Slide Trail at a brook crossing and ended up on the trailless part of the slide. First we tried the left side which was too slippery; then we worked our way over to the right side, which probably was just a few feet from the trail, but who knew? The scree was like greased marbles, 3 feet up and 2 feet back. After a couple of hundred feet we were afraid to turn around, so up we went. I recall thinking that the book didn't do the hike justice, perhaps we were wimps to be having such a hard time. The slide empties out almost at the summit - you can look right down it.
We weren't about to retrace our steps, so we ended up doing Liberty and limping back to the car with our tails between our legs.
I love clean granite slides, but that one isn't.

Thanks Audrey,

Flume Slide is an interesting climb. As mentioned in my report, I have descended Flume Slide a number of times but never ascended it. My descents were all done with the slide either wet, icy, or both. I never considered it particularly difficult. More than once on this climb I stopped, looked around, and asked “Did we actually come down this thing?”.

Also as mentioned in the report is the fact we have visited other slides recently. As it stands, I believe the following is true…..

Easiest Climb: North Tripyramid Slide

Most Enjoyable Climb: Arrow Slide (N. Hancock)

Most Memorable Climb: Flume Slide


Note: Feel free to substitute “Difficult” for “Memorable”.


Key Point: They’re all fun in their own way.

Earl, Your hike reminds me of August last year when we were out there on that ridge at the same time. I could hear you two often clearly but the terrain drifted me west off the ridge and I opted not to reclimb it. Its a very interesting area in there. Did you see any signs of the the logging camp or the bears and moose in the area? Look forward to the pictures and in "guy speak" we never get lost, we just go somewhere we haven't been before!

I bailed from Owls Head peak that day but it gave me the good fortune of running into Dave Metsky finishing his Pemi loop and secured my necessary ride back to my truck!

Hey Dave,

It’s really interesting to see how narrow the top half of that ridge is. It is extremely easy to drop off the north or south side of the ridge and then conditions go downhill fast. For quite a distance you can stand in the middle of the ridge and see the terrain drop off on each side. Lose track of your bearing and it’s easy to head off one side or the other.

The only signs of past logging operations I recall seeing were multiple roads contouring around the lower half of the ridge. I also recall noticing these roads, but more of them, on prior trips through the area.

There was a tremendous amount of moose sign but limited bear sign. Actually, I wasn’t looking for either and my observations relate to casual notice of each.

My “guy way” of viewing things; we don’t get lost – we get confused. In fact, we were never confused on this trip but we did drift slightly off the intended course a couple times, and paid a price for it while getting ourselves back on-course.

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

Fine trip report. I hiked the old Flume slide north of the current Flume Slide Trail even before Audrey and remember the same scree movement that she describes. However, in some respects, I think that the route then was safer than what the new Flume Slide Trail has become, as it has eroded to bedrock exposing large amounts of sloping slabs, slippery when wet and/or iced.

I have made the approach to Owls Head a couple of times via Lafayette and the Lincoln slide, which remains similar to the old Flume slide with scree; at the base it is just a short bushwhack to reach the Lincoln Brook Trail a couple hundred meters north of the Owl Heads slide. The Lincoln slide route to Owls Head was the old way to Owls Head in winter before the Kanc was kept open all year long. Most of the winter NH4s records the past few years also have used this route to save distance and time. The Lincoln slide also gets skied in the winter, albiet with a long ski out via the trails to Lincoln Woods.

 

[BIGEarl]

Fine trip report. I hiked the old Flume slide north of the current Flume Slide Trail even before Audrey and remember the same scree movement that she describes. However, in some respects, I think that the route then was safer than what the new Flume Slide Trail has become, as it has eroded to bedrock exposing large amounts of sloping slabs, slippery when wet and/or iced.
…….

Hey Dr. D., Thanks.

I never experienced the “old” route, but the current route is a test. From the appearance of the slabs, large sections of the trail are always wet and slippery. The growth along the sides provides helpful handholds, but there is still plenty of opportunity for a mishap.

There are some areas where a herd path has developed to bypass tough sections. We didn’t explore these bypasses and can’t say if they’re helpful.

It’s an interesting climb that requires focus.

It’s also a fun climb.

…….
I have made the approach to Owls Head a couple of times via Lafayette and the Lincoln slide, which remains similar to the old Flume slide with scree; at the base it is just a short bushwhack to reach the Lincoln Brook Trail a couple hundred meters north of the Owl Heads slide. The Lincoln slide route to Owls Head was the old way to Owls Head in winter before the Kanc was kept open all year long. Most of the winter NH4s records the past few years also have used this route to save distance and time. The Lincoln slide also gets skied in the winter, albiet with a long ski out via the trails to Lincoln Woods.

This is another route on our to-do list. We both spend time looking at Lincoln Slide when we’re in the area. I know what I’m thinking and would imagine Sue has similar thoughts. We both enjoy slides.

I would be interested in hearing if it’s a better approach in winter, or summer.

 

[una_dogger]

Sounds like a great adventure was had by all -- Owls Head is sooo over rated anyhow

 

[BIGEarl]

Sounds like a great adventure was had by all -- Owls Head is sooo over rated anyhow

Do you think Owl's Head probably gets extra attention because it's on a list, several lists?

 

[una_dogger]

Do you think Owl's Head probably gets extra attention because it's on a list, several lists?

I would think maybe so! I bet if it were on zero lists, it may get less visitors.

 

[BIGEarl]

In case anybody is interested, I have added a layout of the bushwhack route from Franconia Ridge Trail to Lincoln Brook Trail to the slideshow.

The image is based on a cropped section of USGS topographic map. Elevations are clear.

Any questions - fire away!

 

[caleb]

Great report and pics. Congrats Earl and Sue. We were further N on franc Ridge. Then yesterday we did the Ammo/Jewel loop. Great w/e..

 

[Raven]

Nice report Earl. I've been thinking of a few similar bushwhacks as well.

I was on Flume Slide Friday - not a dry spot of rock on it. There are a few spots where a mis-step would send one sliding/falling down a ways onto hard granite...definitely not good. It was my first time on it after passing the trail many times - I found it harder/more challenging than the other on-trail slides in the Whites, although I've never done North Slide when wet, only dry.

 

[Raven]

Do you think Owl's Head probably gets extra attention because it's on a list, several lists?

Somehow Owls Head has become cultish and did before I ever heard of it...why? I don't know. I do think it's very cool that it's surrounded by the horseshoe ridges of the Pemi Mountains.

 

[BIGEarl]

Great report and pics. Congrats Earl and Sue. We were further N on franc Ridge. Then yesterday we did the Ammo/Jewel loop. Great w/e..

Thanks Caleb,

You and John on the Ammo/Jewell loop? I hope you were able to make the summit this time through and not use West Side Trail.

Nice report Earl. I've been thinking of a few similar bushwhacks as well.

I was on Flume Slide Friday - not a dry spot of rock on it. There are a few spots where a mis-step would send one sliding/falling down a ways onto hard granite...definitely not good. It was my first time on it after passing the trail many times - I found it harder/more challenging than the other on-trail slides in the Whites, although I've never done North Slide when wet, only dry.

That’s an interesting bushwhack but not with high temperature and high humidity. We had a tough day.

One of the highlights (also mentioned on another site)......

We just completed the bushwhack and were a short distance off Lincoln Brook Trail. Sue looked at me with a big smile and said......

"That was fun! It's interesting when it's so thick even the mosquitoes won't go there."

Accurate comment - there were no mosquitoes until we were back on trail.



As far as Flume Slide is concerned....

Previous visits to Flume Slide Trail have all been top down trips for me. The trail has always been loaded with ice, snow, and in some areas running water. I should have recognized a water problem after seeing the huge ice bulges that develop in some places. Now I know.

These conditions won’t keep me off that trail but I will allow a little extra time in the hike plan next time through.

The only part of North Tripyramid Slide that I consider dangerous when wet is the bottom third, which is also fairly sheltered and loaded with growth on the rocks. My first time up this slide involved a fall roughly half way up when I stepped on a wet patch and lost my footing. The fall resulted in a dislocated shoulder. After getting it back together we continued the climb feeling up was a much better choice than down. Everything worked out okay.

Somehow Owls Head has become cultish and did before I ever heard of it...why? I don't know. I do think it's very cool that it's surrounded by the horseshoe ridges of the Pemi Mountains.

In reality, my question had a fair amount of sarcasm in it.

Whenever I want to hike on a bad-weather day Owl’s Head is near the top of my list of potential targets. Many times the winds are very high, everywhere, except for Owl’s Head because it is surrounded on three sides by bigger stuff. There have been times when others were getting blown off the Bonds and Franconia Ridge, and we were having a very pleasant time on Owl’s Head.

I really enjoy hiking out there.

 

[jjo]

Earl,,,another great TR and pics...Thank you...Always enjoy your reports!!

 

[Raven]

In reality, my question had a fair amount of sarcasm in it.

Whenever I want to hike on a bad-weather day Owl’s Head is near the top of my list of potential targets. Many times the winds are very high, everywhere, except for Owl’s Head because it is surrounded on three sides by bigger stuff. There have been times when others were getting blown off the Bonds and Franconia Ridge, and we were having a very pleasant time on Owl’s Head.

I really enjoy hiking out there.

I figured as much - I know you've been out that way a lot - I've always kind of been curious about Owls and the mystique though...

I enjoy the area myself.

 

[ksearl]

Earl,

Great report! That sounds like a great route to Owl's Head. I've never heard of anyone going up and over Flume to bushwhack to the Lincoln Brook Trail. However, after reading some of the comments, it sounds like people have attempted it plenty of times before.

I did the Flume Slide last year, at the end of the season. It was a goal of mine to finish off the season with it and I found it extremely difficult. I commend you for staying on the marked trail the whole time. A few times, my buddy and I had to veer off to the right or the left to get up certain sections. It was certainly my toughest climb and most memorable as you mentioned.

Great job and great TR!

Thanks,
Karl

 

[jjo]

I envy both of you...You're fortunate to be so close to my beloved Whites..A disgruntled. misplaced now midwestener... My visits are now usually once or twice a year....

 

[BIGEarl]

Earl,,,another great TR and pics...Thank you...Always enjoy your reports!!

I envy both of you...You're fortunate to be so close to my beloved Whites..A disgruntled. misplaced now midwestener... My visits are now usually once or twice a year....

Thanks, jjo.

I agree, we are lucky to have these wonderful mountains nearby. Somewhere along the way hopefully you’ll have a mailing address back in the northeast. In the mean time, I’m glad you’re enjoying the reports of our small adventures.

Earl,

Great report! That sounds like a great route to Owl's Head. I've never heard of anyone going up and over Flume to bushwhack to the Lincoln Brook Trail. However, after reading some of the comments, it sounds like people have attempted it plenty of times before.

I did the Flume Slide last year, at the end of the season. It was a goal of mine to finish off the season with it and I found it extremely difficult. I commend you for staying on the marked trail the whole time. A few times, my buddy and I had to veer off to the right or the left to get up certain sections. It was certainly my toughest climb and most memorable as you mentioned.

Great job and great TR!

Thanks,
Karl

Thanks Karl,

We enjoy trying something a little different every once in a while. I think Owl’s Head via Flume Slide qualifies as different. This is the third time we have bushwhacked from Franconia Ridge Trail to Lincoln Brook Trail. I think we’re convinced it is best suited for spring or fall.

There are no problems with water, streams, or mud on the route down from the ridge. Hiking the area when the leaves are down is more enjoyable.

We came out of winter looking forward to hiking a few slides. So far, so good.

Both of us really enjoy slides.