Owl's Head, with some frustrations!

[Umsaskis]

Tuesday was a long, LONG trip up Owl's Head. I think I'm either getting old (not likely just yet) or very out of shape from being too busy to properly exercise. Generally I have a grand time out hiking or bushwhacking, but partway through this day I debated turning around just because I was tired, it was going to be a really late night, and I missed my husband! (Waaahhh!...)

I didn't turn around, however. Instead I plugged along punching through the snow - with this kind of unsupporting crust I found it easiest to punch down hard to get through the crust, then step forward. Otherwise, I punched through as I tried to move forward and lost all my forward momentum - well, I'm sure you all know the mechanics of how to slide backward with each step when breaking trail.

The southern slopes of the mountain are really quite beautiful with open birches and rocks. I did enjoy that part. Breaking out (finally) on top of the southern peak on the ridge was nice too, because the steep rocks up to that point did take a VERY long time, figuring out how to ascend them through the brush. From that point north, the ridge was a mixture of open and dense trees, at some points quite easy walking and at others a bit thicker, but nothing really terrible - at least I could always fit between the trees if I twisted just right and closed my eyes to prevent being poked by all the twigs. The snow was fairly consolidated at the top as well; the wind covered my tracks in several places on the way back.

Now, ever since I got back, I've been trying to figure out if I ever made it to the summit. I saw several places that looked like they may have been the "path" coming up from the slide, but they always led nowhere. I've heard that the path was intentionally obliterated this summer, so that may be why I couldn't seem to find it. Looking at the USGS topo map, I've been going over in my head whether I reached each part on the ridge, and my memory fails me as to how many times I leveled off and how many times I started climbing again.

What I remember of the ridgetop is going down into that really steep, deep little gully between the southern and northern bumps (about 0.8 miles from the true summit based on the topo), climbing steeply out of it, and having at least one long, steeper stretch and one long gradual stretch amid all the other stretches that I don't remember. I recall eventually coming to a place where the ridge appeared to reach a high point based on the fact that it was narrow and I could see the sunlight through the tops of the trees in all directions, indicating that I was on a narrow prominance of the land. I went a ways beyond that, and I don't recall correctly but I think it was mostly flat with some uphill. Towards the end I was mostly going on the flat, but kept going because every so often something to the right looked a couple of feet higher. Eventually I detected that the land was beginning to gradually slope downward in all directions, and then I called it good. I never did see the location of the (apparently incorrect) summit sign, and I've been debating with myself whether I actually only got to that first broad flat area a half mile south of the summit. Where I turned around the area was somewhat broad to the east and only sloped down very gradually - which could be either the spot a short distance north of the summit, or the spot a half-mile south of the summit. But based on that narrow top-like area that I reached, I think I did get onto the narrow summit ridge, and continuing until it headed downhill again, I think I got over the true summit. Somebody, please convince me that I was at the summit, before I drive myself crazy trying to figure it out!

So that was my dilemma, and since it had taken me at least an hour to traverse the ridge to that point and it was after 3:00, I turned around. The sun set about when I reached that steep gully again, and I had enough daylight to get over the southern bump and partway down through the steep stuff before I had to pull out my headlamp. I used 3 sets of headlamp batteries in total, before I got back to my truck. I busted the binding on one of my snowshoes halfway back between Lincoln Brook and Black Pond, but was able to nurse it along connected by one grommet to the shoe. The silly thing kept rotating 180 degrees every time I picked up my foot, and sometimes this made me step wrong, but fortunately I only took a few spills. I finally got back to the parking lot at 10:15, to discover that the tailgate on my truck was frozen shut, so I had to lash my skis to the roof rack. I drove home and spent most of the night coughing from pulling cold air into my lungs all day, slept about 4 hours before getting up for a very sleepy day at work.

By the way, at many places along that ridge there are excellent views through the trees of all the surrounding mountains. The Bonds and Twins are just spectactular! I don't think you can see these views from anywhere else, at least not as close.

Nevertheless, I'm going to be very happy to do a lesser hike the next time I go out.

 

[dms]

The path from the slide is not obliterated, it's pretty obvious on the ridgeline. When I was there this fall you could clearly see where the ranger had scraped off the old tree blazes. The sign on the "old" summit has been removed, but you can easily see where it had been. The area where the sign had been, is an open, flat spot with a large boulder next to the tree where the sign was located.

 

[FreightTrain]

Info please

Hello, I will be attempting owl's head in a couple of weeks. I have never done it in winter and was wondering about you specific trail. It sounds like you did the bushwack from black pond. How did you find the correct places to navigate your way up? Any additional info would be extremely appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[David Metsky]

It sounds like Umsaskis bushwacked up the south side of the Owl's Head massif, rather than take the slide. Then she pushed north along the ridgetop, looking for the summit clearing or for the place where the trail/herdpath comes in from the west.

If you go up the slide, the trail/herdpath is easy to pick up and follow in summer. I've never been up there in winter, not sure what it's like when snow/ice covered.

-dave-

 

[dms]

I've gone up the slide in winter, it's really not too bad, you can always bypass, via the woods, any "tricky" spots. The trail is easy to follow in the winter, the trail corridor is obvious, and as I said in my earlier post, you can clearly see the places where the blazes have been scraped off the trees. BTW, I always use the Black Pond route going in to OH.

 

[Dennis C.]

An interesting route that our party used for a winter Owl's Head ascent was from Hellgate Brook. Some advantages were you'd know exactly where along the trail you'd be leaving from at the brook to get a good compass bearing. This route also saves multiple stream crossings by the traditional approach. The woods were fairly open the whole way up (forest conditions DO change over the years ... blowdowns, growth, etc.) along the ridge parallel to the stream (red cross). We purposely ended up slightly north of the summit so you'd know which direction to go to the highest point. One drawback is the one and only major stream crossing just west of the Franconia Brook Trail. This could be a problem if it's not frozen or finding appropriate "boulder jump" spots.

 

[Umsaskis]

Yes, I went directly up the southern end of the ridge, topping out at the southern peak at about 3600 feet (there is a good view west shortly downhill from this peak), then followed the ridge north for over an hour until it started to go downhill (total distance to the true summit should be about a mile, which sounds about right for the one hour timeframe with bushwhacking and consolidated snow). Since I was alone I didn't want to try the slide or the steeper sides of the mountain. A post of about 2 weeks ago had stated the slide was icy, so I opted to avoid it.

I didn't stick strictly to the ridgetop, but often followed it slightly downhill on the east or west - most often the east until I hit that final flat section, which I think is why I missed the incorrect "summit" clearing. In any event, I'm pretty sure I got onto the main ridgetop, based on the topography. After that, I followed it for a while and once it started going downhill, I figured I had come close to the true summit. I'm not going to go crazy about whether I stood exactly on the true summit - I spent about 15 minutes wandering along the ridge looking for a higher spot, once I thought I was there, and that was long enough for me!

FreightTrain, this route is fairly open until the last several hundred feet to the southern peak where there are a few trickier spots to navigate up some rocks amid the trees. The ridgetop is also fairly open, some places denser but easily navigable for the most part. I felt like I was able to make fairly good time up there. I recommend it for the great (partial) views along the top. As far as finding the actual summit using this route - well, you saw my problems with it, so the best you can do is keep going north until you see something obvious or think you've crossed over the top based on topography, as I did. Use the USGS quad rather than the AMC map, because it shows all the minor ups and downs, as well as how steeply the ridge goes up in various places, to help you figure out where you are. Probably you'll run into the path if you stick to the western side of the ridge, but the eastern side is a bit more open. It's a long day with a lot of trail breaking, so bring lots of headlamp batteries.

 

[drewski]

owlshead

the summit has a new sign on the tree