Owl's Head water crossings?

[JH]

Anyone know how the water crossings on the way to Owl's Head are? We were planning to avoid the bushwacks and am wondering if I should bring along some water shoes or if we can make it on the rocks in our boots without getting dunked?

Also - is there anything marking the "new" summit? I thought I saw somewhere there was a little sign on a tree and potentially a cairn if it hasn't been taken down.

 

[CMahoney]

I did Owls Head on July 3rd and we took our boots off to cross at the two bigger crossings. There did not appear to be any way to cross by rock hoping close to the trail. But we also did not spend a ton of time looking for a rock hoping route up or down stream.

Also there is a small sign on a tree at the summit. I did not see a cairn at the top. There is a cairn marking the turn onto the slide path to the summit.

 

[wisher]

If you're planning on avoiding the bushwack because you're thinking it's going to be easier to follow the trail, I'd suggest just taking the bushwack. More people follow it than the trail, so the path is easy enough to follow - perhaps even easier than the trail. The water crossings you avoid are substantial, although you still have a few minor crossings left as you near the slide. There's almost no way to get lost on the bushwack. You're blocked in to the north and east by the rivers, and the trail just follows alongside the river to the west.

 

[Bob]

the water crossings will really slow you down without water shoes. Even the bushwack only cuts out 2 of 4 crossings I believe.
Bring water shoes...

 

[JH]

Thanks all for the info. I will plan to bring the water shoes.

So if I do the bushwack from Franconia Brook falls, does it start at the first crossing on the Franconia Brook trail? And then where does it pop out?

 

[ferrisjrf]

Also there is a small sign on a tree at the summit. I did not see a cairn at the top. There is a cairn marking the turn onto the slide path to the summit.

The sign is at the "old" summit. The cairn is at the "new" summit.

The rangers already know about the sign, and we were told that it'll probably be down by this weekend.

 

[wisher]

Thanks all for the info. I will plan to bring the water shoes.

So if I do the bushwack from Franconia Brook falls, does it start at the first crossing on the Franconia Brook trail? And then where does it pop out?

The usual route doesn't take you past Franconia falls at all, although you do pass somewhat close by. You take the Wilderness Trail to the Black Pond Trail (about 3 miles to the turn-off to the left), then you follow the Black Pond Trail about a mile and a half to where it ends on the southwest side of the pond. There are a couple of large blowdowns, and from there just head out north on your compass (magnetic north, not true north). Ideally you want to go NNW to avoid a potentially muddy walk near the shore, too far east of the crossing. There is an orange-blazed bootlegger's trail, but it will dump you out a bit too far east if you follow it. It's just a little over a mile through the woods.

 

[MichaelJ]

Trail Conditions Report from a July 4th hike. It doesn't get much more up-to-date than that.

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

The usual route doesn't take you past Franconia falls at all, although you do pass somewhat close by. You take the Wilderness Trail to the Black Pond Trail (about 3 miles to the turn-off to the left), then you follow the Black Pond Trail about a mile and a half to where it ends on the southwest side of the pond. There are a couple of large blowdowns, and from there just head out north on your compass (magnetic north, not true north). Ideally you want to go NNW to avoid a potentially muddy walk near the shore, too far east of the crossing. There is an orange-blazed bootlegger's trail, but it will dump you out a bit too far east if you follow it. It's just a little over a mile through the woods.

2.6 miles on Lincoln Woods Trail, then 0.8 miles on Black Pond Trail, then about 1.2 miles on the Black Pond bushwhack, which as noted above, is no longer much of a bushwhack, as the route has a decent tread most of the way (definitely stay upslope to the west of the orange blazes, which take you on a useless circuitous route back towards Franconia Falls).

As long as folks keep mentioning summit signs on this board, they will be removed almost immediately by the USFS. However, I believe that the USFS has agreed to leave the cairns at the base of the slide path and at the new summit of Owls Head, about 0.2 miles north of the old summit, which is a fair compromise, I think.

 

[JH]

Thanks again for the additional info. We hiked it on Friday and ended up staying on the trails the whole way. The water crossings (with the exception of the first one which required knee-deep wading in our flip flops) were all rock hoppable right from the trail.

 

[Jay H]

When I did Owl's Head on July 6th, it was so frikken hot, I wanted to take my boots off and wade through the 2 major crossings and that I did.. Actually purposefully, did a swim on Franconia brook on the way out..

jay

 

[Mike P.]

Glad you had a nice hike.

To clear some confusion up, as others said, the typical bushwhack is from Black Pond. By know it's priobably getting pretty worn - by bushwhack standards

That said, it's not too difficult to take the Franconia Falls spur trail & when it ends just follow the water. (I did it solo in reverse a few years ago & I'm not much of a bushwhacker) You know where the brook comes from.

Only a couple of small crossings before you get to the clearing on the west side of the 2nd large crossing. (I did it only after a very wet few days so the small crossings may not even be noticable on normal days)

 

[Click Clack]

The Franconia Falls whack on the way back is fantastic (during the non snow months) for those not daring enough to attempt missing Black Pond on the way back.

Plus the added bonus of coming up behind a sign that says "end of trail" which is surprisingly satisfying after a long day.