Outdoor Diversion: Gridding Out Owl's Head

Summit: Owl's Head (4,025')

Trail route: Lincoln Woods Trail, Black Pond Trail, Black Pond Bushwhack, Lincoln Brook Trail, Brutus Bushwhack

Trail conditions: Spring conditions with a mix of bare ground, mud, wet, ice, packed snow, granulated snow, fresh soft snow on the summit

Weather: Cool start becoming warm, blue sky and lots of sun

Total miles: 16

Total time: 8:44

A day of favorable weather was in the forecast and I had a long hike that I needed to get done for this month. This would be my 12th and final hike to Owl's Head to complete hiking this summit in every month of the year. It was a solo hike today.

I was on the trail just after 7:00 AM. The Lincoln Woods Trail had long sections of ice but I was able to walk beside it and avoid wearing traction for now. I turned onto the Black Pond Trail and it was mostly bare except for a few areas of ice. On my approach to Black Pond there was unavoidable ice so I carefully made my way across it without traction and had no problem. The Black Pond Bushwhack had some areas of mud but no snow or ice.

Everything changed when I started up the Lincoln Woods Trail. There was a variety of Spring conditions along this trail including packed, frozen snow, ice and mud. I put the microspikes on here. The water crossings were manageable with rock hopping although using some slightly submerged rocks and a few with glaze ice.

I used the Brutus Bushwhack and this never gets easy. There was a thin layer of granulated snow and ice but the microspikes worked well to get me up past the very steep section. I made the turn onto the Owl's Head path where there was recent fresh snow from the weekend. I changed to trail crampons for some extra bite and put on a waterproof layer as water and snow was dripping from the tree branches.

There was a couple of inches of fresh snow making the path difficult to follow in some areas since I was the first one up here after the snow and there were no other tracks. I wandered off trail a couple of times and quickly got back on the hard pack after postholing to my thigh. I actually walked past the summit and realized I had gone too far when I started going down. I turned around and found my way back to the Whoo tree that unofficially marks the summit. I noticed the summit stick that was on another tree had been removed.

I didn't stay on the summit long and was soon heading back across the ridge. As I started the descent I met the only two hikers I would see all day that were doing Owl's Head. I continued down the tough, slippery, steep slope of the Brutus Bushwhack and was glad to reach the Lincoln Brook Trail. I swapped back to microspikes and kept them on until the Black Pond Bushwhack. It was then the usual long, monotonous walk out on the Lincoln Woods Trail.

I reached the bridge over the East Branch of the Pemigewasset that marked the end of this long hike after 16 miles. It was especially gratifying today since this was my last hike to Owl's Head having now gridded out this summit. It's a tough month to be hiking with the usual Spring conditions. I have some more challenging hikes ahead of me this month and hoping the conditions will continue to improve. Grid count is now 531/576!

Enjoy the photos!