Owl's head?

[hikes-with-him]

Ok...we are now at 20 of the 48's (almost half way there) and are looking at some of the more "difficult" to get to peaks.

Owl's head...what is the best way to get this one...maybe with Garfield thrown in for good luck?

We hike about 1 to 1.5 mph (depending on the steepness and difficulty) and can do about 13 - 14 miles in a day...

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Tom Rankin]

Ok...we are now at 20 of the 48's (almost half way there) and are looking at some of the more "difficult" to get to peaks.

Owl's head...what is the best way to get this one...maybe with Garfield thrown in for good luck?

We hike about 1 to 1.5 mph (depending on the steepness and difficulty) and can do about 13 - 14 miles in a day...

Thanks for the advice.

If you come from the North, once you get to the Hut, you have to drop over 1500' of elevation, then go up and down again quite a bit, before you FINALLY start climbing Owl's head.

If I were you, I would plan on doing these as 2 hikes. Do Garfield from the Garfield trail, and Owl's Head from the South, i.e., Lincoln Woods. Even though you say you are slow, there is at least 6 miles of very flat walking on this approach. We started at 6:00 AM, and were drinking a beer at Woodstock station by 3:30.

 

[erugs]

You're thinking of an overnight or two, then? Make the most of your trip!

 

[Mohamed Ellozy]

Owl's head...what is the best way to get this one...maybe with Garfield thrown in for good luck?

Beware of maps!!!

The map does show a "trail" continuing north beyond the Owlshead slide. It has not been maintained for a long time, and is hard to follow. See Semi-Pemi Three Day Backpack, May 29-31, 2010:

This was the first time I had taken the Lincoln Brook trail beyond Owl's Head, and it too was mess. Very hard to follow, tons of blow downs, swampy in a number of parts. All of which is a shame because it's a beautiful trail and if maintained would be very pleasant.

I am not sure what "maintaining it" would do to the swamps

 

[Barkingcat]

If I were you, I would plan on doing these as 2 hikes. Do Garfield from the Garfield trail, and Owl's Head from the South, i.e., Lincoln Woods.

Agreed.

The map does show a "trail" continuing north beyond the Owlshead slide. It has not been maintained for a long time, and is hard to follow.

Also agreed -- the only time I'd recommend doing this section of the Lincoln Brook Trail is when:

a. you have plenty of time (and daylight) to find your way; and
b. the wet sections are frozen solid so that you're not losing time picking your way through the mess; you can just walk on top of it.

Just sayin'...

 

[RoySwkr]

Owl's head...what is the best way to get this one...maybe with Garfield thrown in for good luck?

We hike about 1 to 1.5 mph (depending on the steepness and difficulty) and can do about 13 - 14 miles in a day...

Unless you are confident bushwhackers, the hike is 16-18 miles so you need to decide whether you can hike a couple extra miles on easy trail or wish to camp out

My suggestion is to take the unmarked path that continues beyond Franconia Falls to save a mile of distance each way and the two largest brook crossings. If you lose the footway, just walk up along the brook until you find it again - there's really no way to get very lost. That gives you either a 16-mile day (at 1.5 mph on trails and 1 mph on herd paths that's maybe 12-13 hours) or two days of say 6.5 and 9.5 miles depending on where you camp.

 

[Daniel Eagan]

Beware of maps!!!

The map does show a "trail" continuing north beyond the Owlshead slide. It has not been maintained for a long time, and is hard to follow. See Semi-Pemi Three Day Backpack, May 29-31, 2010:I am not sure what "maintaining it" would do to the swamps

I've only gone one way on that stretch of trail, from the hut. I agree the trail is wet, but it's also quite pretty and remote. Should the preceding days be relatively dry, it would make the trail a bit easier. The 13 Falls campsite is really beautiful.

Because of time issues, we did an overnight, starting late, climbing Garfield, staying in the hut, then Owl's Head on the way out.

 

[hikes-with-him]

Because of time issues, we did an overnight, starting late, climbing Garfield, staying in the hut, then Owl's Head on the way out.

Did you spot a car...come in from the north, over garfield to the hut...then south to Owl's head and out via the south trails?

 

[bryan]

a number of years ago i did a backpack going in from lincoln woods, climbing owls head and continuing on to garfield ridge campsite on day 1. day 2 i climbed garfield early and then went out over the twins and bonds. that's a couple long days, but a great hike. you could make it a 3 day ending day 2 at guyot shelter and hiking the bonds day 3. don't know if any of those other peaks are on your agenda, but you should have no problem hitting both twins and galehead on day 2. then day 3 is a nice jaunt over the bonds and a long mellow walk out. i had no problem following the lincoln brook trail beyond the owls head path, but as i said this was about 6 years ago.
in summer conditions owls head really is a pretty reasonable day hike. the trip to and from the slide is quick despite the mileage. i'd go with roys suggestion and take the fishermans paths from franconia falls to avoid the widest crossings. the route is not as well defined as it used to be as it seems more people are doing the bushwack from black pond, but it's still easy to follow and as he stated you can use the brook as your guide if you need to.
have fun. owls head is a great hike.

bryan

 

[Daniel Eagan]

Did you spot a car...come in from the north, over garfield to the hut...then south to Owl's head and out via the south trails?

The first time we climbed Owl's Head we left a car at Lincoln Woods and used the Shuttle Connection to get to the Garfield trailhead. The next time we did it the normal way from Lincoln Woods.

While I reallly liked the trail from Garfield to Galehead and down to Owl's Head, if I were doing Owl's Head today I would come in from Lincoln Woods because it's mostly flat.

 

[Elizabeth]

I agree with Tom Rankin's post (and some others). I am also a slow hiker; but the mostly-flat first part makes the distance from Lincoln Woods much more do-able in a day (with an early start) than you might think. Be aware that the unmaintained Owls Head slide "trail" may or may not be well marked. When I was there, I would likely have missed the trailhead were it not for a kind hiker ahead of me who stopped to point it out. By the time I came down, someone had built a cairn at the junction; but there seems to be a history of destroying such markers.

 

[Tom Rankin]

I agree with Tom Rankin's post (and some others). I am also a slow hiker; but the mostly-flat first part makes the distance from Lincoln Woods much more do-able in a day (with an early start) than you might think. Be aware that the unmaintained Owls Head slide "trail" may or may not be well marked. When I was there, I would likely have missed the trailhead were it not for a kind hiker ahead of me who stopped to point it out. By the time I came down, someone had built a cairn at the junction; but there seems to be a history of destroying such markers.

Was there a large tree at head height, right there across the trail?

 

[Elizabeth]

Was there a large tree at head height, right there across the trail?

I can't recollect any downed tree. This was last September, so things may have changed, or it could be that I just don't remember.

 

[sierra]

go in from the wilderness trail set up camp at franconia brook, if you do it early drop your gear and go bag the owl, if its to late, get up early the next day go get the owl then go back out, from your description of speed Id forget garfield and make that a seperate trip.

 

[kaseri]

Owls Head is a single day hike. Although this hike has a lot of mileage it's basically flat the entire way until you reach the base of the slide. It's about a mile to the summit from the base of the slide and just about all of your elevation gain will happen here. Make sure you go to the true summit. It's a long way to hike just to find out later you missed the true summit.

This is what the carin looks like at the true summit -

Look for the "funny root".

 

[una_dogger]

I agree with Kaseri that Owlie is a day hike, but lots of folks do like to do it as an overnight and camp near the base of the slide. In terms of effort, this hike is mainly a flat walk in the woods followed by a short but steep slide climb and then a moderate climb on good footing to the ridge.

The new-troo summit cairn has been disassembled in the past -- but was there the first weekend in May. There are many squirelly herd paths from the older AMC recognized summit to the new troo summit. Just stay on the ridge and you will get there. Personally, I only go to it if someone in the group feels compelled. The ridge looks like total crap to me and no single defined path has been established. Its about a five minute walk in between.

 

[askus3]

I did Owls Head as an up and back from Galehead Hut for a long day hike. Started right after breakfast and made it back right at the dinner bell. The north end of Lincoln Woods Trail for about 1/4 mile at the height of land was a little tricky to follow and logs to ablance on still left gaps in the bog which caused us to slow down in this area. But overall it was doable in 2008. The total elevation gain was 4750 feet. If you e-mail me [email protected] you can get my xcel spreadsheet with elevations, mileages and time schedule.

 

[Fisher Cat]

The ridge looks like total crap to me and no single defined path has been established.

Yea, we stumbled upon what seemed to be a rotary of trails intersecting at one point. We encontered in as we were walking north towards the "new" summit but on the way back had diverged somehow and didn't see it again. It was actually a bit amusing.

 

[Elizabeth]

"This is what the carin looks like at the true summit" - Kaseri


I get the impression that such markers seem to come and go. There seem to be a cohort of Owl's Head "purists" who prefer the trail and summit unmarked. There wasn't any cairn or any other markers or signage there last September. I just kept going along the path in a northerly direction until it started heading downhill then returned to the nearest high point and called it the summit. Others there at the same time seemed to agree.

Frankly, if you are basically on the ridge, who the heck is going to know if you were at the "true" summit or not? I don't think that there is any real deception in checking it off your list either way.

 

[Jay H]

Wow, sounds like the catskills, I think I will thoroughly enjoy Owl's Head!

Looking forward to hiking it this summer...

Jay