Episode 16 - So You Wanna - Owls Head

[00:00:08] Here is the latest Higher Summits forecast brought to you by our friends at the Mount Washington Observatory. The above treeline in the White Mountains is often wildly different than at our trailheads. Before you hike, check the Higher Summits forecast at mountwashington.org.

[00:00:31] Weather observers working at the non-profit Mount Washington Observatory write this elevation-based forecast every morning and afternoon. Search and Rescue teams, avalanche experts, and backcountry guides all rely on the Higher Summits forecast to anticipate weather conditions above treeline.

[00:00:51] You should too. Go to mountwashington.org or text FORECAST to 603-356-2137. Hello listeners, Nick here with your forecast for the weekend of April 25th, 2026. Friday. Mostly in the clouds under mostly cloudy skies. Slight chance of snow showers, mainly in the morning.

[00:01:21] Possible additional snow accumulations but trace to less than 1 inch. High around 20. Wind north at 30-45 mph decreasing to 15-30 mph in the afternoon. Windchill rising 5 below to 5 above. Friday night. In and out of the clouds early, trending towards clearing under mostly clear skies. Slight chance of evening snow showers. Possible additional snow accumulations but trace to less than 1 inch. Low in the mid teens. Wind north shifting east at 20-35 mph early, decreasing to 10-25 mph by midnight.

[00:01:51] Windchill 5 below to 5 above. And Saturday. Mostly in the clear under increasingly cloudy skies. High in the lower 30s. Wind east shifting north at 10-25 mph early, decreasing to 5-20 mph. Possibly becoming light and variable at times in the afternoon. Windchill rising to 15-25 above. So looking pretty decent for this weekend. Stay safe. Happy hiking. Hope you get to crush some peaks.

[00:02:46] Podcasting from the Woodpecker Studio in the great state of New Hampshire. Welcome to the Sounds Like a Search and Rescue Podcast. So You Want. A vignette series where we share post-hype reflections, challenges, lessons learned, and essential insights to prepare you for your next adventure in the White Mountains and beyond. So let's get started.

[00:04:05] So welcome, welcome. So Nick, you want to hike Owl's Head Sure, let's do it. Okay, very good. So we are here for So You Want an episode. We have special guests, our friend Jake and our friend Peter here. So welcome, welcome gentlemen. So you were recently on an episode of our regular pod. Although it was kind of a special episode, right, Nick? It was like just a deep dive on Grey Knob. Yeah, super special. Yes.

[00:04:33] So we just basically all survived a near-death experience together. So now we're back to talk about Owl's Head. So, Nick, why don't you start on this one with a little bit about the introduction here? Sure. So Owl's Head, named after the sharp peak at the southern end of the ridge that rises out for the Mepemi. It's thought to resemble a bird's head and it was donned by quote-unquote old man and legendary guide Alan Thompson of Bethlehem.

[00:05:01] The name appeared in 1882 edition of Appalachia and was also used in Moses Sweetser's guidebook as early as 1881. I thought this was interesting just while we're on the topic of what its name, but someone actually tried to sort of, I guess, promote the name Wilderness Mountain in the 1930s and never caught on. Can't imagine why. And there's also an Owl's Head separate peak on Cherry Mountain, one of the 52th of the views.

[00:05:27] It actually was just made the official 52th of the view destination, I believe, on Cherry Mountain as opposed to Mount Martha. And there's actually also an Owl's Head in Benton. So, we're talking about the Owl's Head, the 4,000 footer for the sake of this podcast. Nick, I did some digging on the Appalachia research tool that I have to try to figure out most of the references to Owl's Head were in the early Appalachias in those 1800s were related to the one in Benton and then the one on Cherry Mountain.

[00:05:56] So, there was some references to unnamed peaks. Matter of fact, like I actually asked this tool that I have as a research tool, how many references to, what 4,000 footers would least reference in Appalachia in those early days and Owl's Head and Bondcliffe were the two that didn't come up at all. The same with Gale Head. Very rarely, I think those were named much later. There was a number of references to people hiking into the Pemi Wilderness in the late

[00:06:27] 1800s on the East Branch of the Pemi, but it was really like no man's land out there. There was a couple of references to large summits in the center of the Pemi Wilderness that are clearly Owl's Head at the time, but it really wasn't an established hike at all. There was definitely a few people though that went up there and checked it out. And obviously, when the logging started, there was people that went there. But yeah, it was mostly, like you said, I think most of the history on this thing really

[00:06:55] started in like the 1920s, 1930s is when people started to get in there. And I think once, like the Waterville section on Greeley Pond got connected over to the Pemi and the Hancocks in that area there, then people started really poking around, getting deeper into that section there. But Boncliffe, Owl's Head, Gale Head, all that stuff, nobody really touched that until they really started going in from the Hancocks. And then once people started

[00:07:21] getting like direct approaches to like North and South Twin, then they started getting in there. But it was, they were like the later explored mountains for sure. Yeah, that probably explains sort of some of the confusion around like where the official summit is. And I kind of had a time just trying to dig up some documents, even using like chat GPT on sort of the, the sort of reasons that the summit has changed locations and what it was referred to. Um, it's pretty recent too, like you were saying, Mike, compared to say it's like something like

[00:07:50] Mount Washington that people actually sort of summited Owl's Head and started hitting it in the winter and things. Um, relatively speaking, of course. Um, so sits at 4,025 feet, just above the 4,000 foot marker, 43rd tallest of the MC 4,000 footer. So not super impressive. Um, official summits changed location three times since it was first added to the list. Back in the thirties. Um, and Owl's Head, if you are curious what it looks like, and you're not really sure, um, the best view you probably have of this thing is from Franconia Ridge.

[00:08:20] It's basically right in front of you to the east. It's this wooded mass, um, sort of ridge running from north to south that runs between 3,800 around 4,000 feet. Um, you can also see it south of Garfield, southwest of the twins. Um, and it's west of more or less the bonds and bond cliff and that whole area. Um, Owl's Head can kind of, we'll talk about this when we kind of recap our own trips later, but usually it falls near the end, if not the end of sort of a hiker's journey,

[00:08:47] hiking the 4,000 footers of New Hampshire. It's not one you're probably going to go after just for funsies. Um, it's not, it's not like a Mount Washington or something with great views. It has a really long amount of mileage, um, comparatively, uh, to get to, and it doesn't really have any views except for the Owl's Head slide. Um, the actual summit itself is totally wooded. Um, I was mentioning that slide. There are good views from the slide of Franconia Ridge,

[00:09:11] and, uh, you don't really get a, really a view into that area from anywhere else other than if you're on the Owl's Head slide Um, you should be able to find it pretty easily and follow it pretty easily, despite the fact that it's not officially maintained or marked. Um, you likely will find the same on the Black Pound Bushwhack,

[00:09:40] um, maybe a little bit less speed now and the Brutus Bushwhack. Um, though the latter is much more common in the winter than the other three seasons. And, uh, one final note on this one. Um, it's ironic cause we're recording this in the spring. Um, we're about to be spring anyways, but it's not a hike to attempt. If you have any concerns about high water or sort of heavy rains or anything like that, there's a lot of water crossings in here. Even if you take the Black Pound Bushwhack, um, and substantial water crossings at that,

[00:10:08] that can really be deadly if, uh, if it's the wrong time of year. Right. This is definitely one of those hikes where, um, we talk about this, like reading the river gauges and looking at the East Pemi, uh, river gauge. And I think it's like, what is the number? Like it's anything over 400. Um, I forget what that, that exact measurement is, but I think if it goes over four or 600, then you have to avoid the, I think it's like something per second, gallons per second or something like that, or cubic feet per second.

[00:10:36] That's it. Yeah, exactly. So if it goes over four or 600, then you know, you, uh, you're going to have a tough crossing there. So you definitely want to wait even in low water sections. Uh, if you have like a big storm, water storm or rainstorm or whatnot, uh, it can spike up pretty quickly. So you just want to make sure you pay attention to those river gauge readings. Yeah. And it's, uh, located officially, um, in the Western Pemi wilderness in the town of Franconia.

[00:11:01] So within those borderlines, um, as far as access to this, and it, it's interesting too, we've got a Lincoln Woods closure, depending when you're, if you're listening to this right when it comes out, then, uh, um, that definitely will be an issue. Um, if you're listening to this a few years later, probably not as much of an issue. Um, so we're going to talk about some potential alternative routes to this trailhead later because of that, with that in mind. Um, but most common access point and pretty much the only access point that makes sense to get to Owl's Head is the Lincoln Woods trail off the kink.

[00:11:32] And, um, I guess, do you want to go into some of these alternative, maybe parking areas now, Mike, or do we want to save that for when we're talking about alternative routes given the trail closure later? Yeah, I think let's, let's save that for when we, um, get into the alternative routes here. And then, um, do you want to get in a little bit of history here, Nick? I know we touched on a little bit of it already, but, um, you can probably highlight some of the, some of the interesting little historical facts about the, uh, the summit.

[00:11:58] Sure. I just, I tend to just pull some stuff around sort of the moving summit since I found that kind of interesting. Um, so we have back in 1931 AMC trailman, Nathaniel Goodridge published a list of 4,000 footers in Appalachia. Owl's Head is included with a given elevation of 4,023 feet. He mentions climbing Owl's Head in one, not too long of a day from Greenleaf Hut, which I would think that would be quite a long day from Greenleaf Hut, but perhaps he was a more seasoned traveler than I was.

[00:12:25] Um, the oldest true summit of Owl's Head at this time is widely regarded to be at the top of the slide. Um, this was just doing some research over some old articles and old reports, um, on the history that I'd found. Um, if you find something different, please let me know, but that's the best explanation I could find for what they thought the original summit was. So you just pop to the top of the slide, the height of land right there was considered the summit of Owl's Head, the original destination.

[00:12:51] So we fast forward a little bit to 1959 and, uh, kind of kick back to what I was saying. Pretty recently this, this happened when you think of how long some of the other summits in the whites were being climbed. But 1959, the first winter of Owl's Head were recorded by two different groups. So one was led by Robert Collin and the other was led by Robert and Miriam Underhill and Merle Whitcomb. Only the Underhill group actually reaches the true summit. And they proved this by showing slides, showing views east to the bonds. Um, and they mentioned this being the true summit.

[00:13:21] So already right there, we have some kind of interesting factor here. The original summit being on top of the slide in the woods and the underhills are saying sort of that we reached the official summit. It actually has views out to the bonds from the east, which is a different thing. And they mentioned at the time, this journey is an epic 24 mile, two day journey in the Pemi and snow. So kudos to them for finally reaching it in the winter. Um, 1960, just a year later, an AMC group ends up heading out led by Al Robertson and scouts the ridge again.

[00:13:50] And they actually mark a new summit location further up on the ridge from the top of the slide. So this becomes the official summit until 2005. So in between, um, I just thought this was interesting anecdote. Bob Collin goes back to try to get the summit of Owls Head as part of a nine day winter journey in the Pemi traversing the entire ridge. And he writes in Appalachia, well, Miriam Underhill sometime somewhere today. I just don't know when I just don't know just where, but we stood on the summit of Owls Head.

[00:14:19] So he kind of freely admits that even having been over the entire ridge from north to south, um, they actually didn't know where the official summit of Owls Head was. They just know that they followed that top contour and that at some point they passed over it. Um, so in 2005 hikers actually discovered a measure to slightly higher new summit point, two miles along the Owls Head ridge from the traditional old summit. Um, this is the summit today as we know it.

[00:14:45] Um, and then the only other tidbit I had a history, Mike, I, I know that you've talked about Brutus in the namesake of the Brutus Bushwack on Slasher a few times, but I don't know if we wanted to remind the listeners who Brutus was. Yeah. Brutus was a dog, uh, Newfoundland dog. So I don't know, Peter, are you familiar with the breed Newfoundland dogs? I am. They're, they're big and shaggy. They are. Yeah. Sometimes mistaken for black bear for sure. We had one in my neighborhood named Midnight and, uh, occasionally Midnight would go wandering.

[00:15:13] A totally harmless dog, but, uh, unsuspecting visitors, uh, to our neighborhood friends would sometimes think that a black bear was running up and down the street because they're dark, dark, you know, usually they're, they're very large. Over 120, 130 pounds and, and, and black, uh, fur. So, uh, Brutus was the first known dog to do a single season winter 4,000 footer back in 2004, 2005. Owner is a, uh, hiker by the name of Kevin Rooney.

[00:15:41] And, uh, yeah, the Brutus Bushwhack, which is a, uh, kind of a cutover, um, up to the southern side of Owl's Head that bypasses the Owl's Head slide in the winter season. And is, uh, preferable, I think, in those colder conditions as a route there. It sort of takes you about halfway up the, uh, the ascent, maybe a little bit longer.

[00:16:03] Uh, the way that the Owl's Head slide is set up is that it is a, you quickly ascend above tree line on the slide once you start the climb. Uh, mostly a flat hike in and then you, you know, it's a steep hike up to the, uh, the summit. But the slide is pretty much open. You get views out to the, uh, I guess that would be the, the west and then Franconia Ridge. And, uh, you usually get some pretty good views there. But then you duck back into the tree line, uh, about halfway up.

[00:16:32] And then from there, that's where the Brutus Bushwhack kind of connects with the main trail. So, uh, there are some views there, but, uh, they do, they, they do push you back into the tree line pretty quickly. Uh, but yeah, Brutus was a famous hiking dog and a pretty impressive that a dog that size could do a single season winter, um, 48, uh, to get, get done. So it was a big burly dog. This Brutus looks about 140, 150 pounds. So a lot of cardio for a big fat dog. Yes. And you didn't go to trail named after him.

[00:17:01] So I guess it was, it was worth it. This episode is brought to you in part by the Alzheimer's Association 48 Peaks. Use your passion for hiking to end Alzheimer's. Join 400 plus hikers as they climb New Hampshire's 4,000 footers or create their own challenge to support the mission of the Alzheimer's Association. The annual hiker celebration will be Saturday, June 13th at Ledge Brewing with raffles, food, and an amazing community. Hike that weekend or any day you want this summer. No fundraising minimums.

[00:17:29] But those who raise $125 will receive the annual performance grade t-shirt and a ticket for the hiker celebration. Let's turn the White Mountains purple to end alls. Visit alls.org slash 48 peaks to learn more. And if you're interested in joining the Slasher 48 Peaks team on June 13th to hike Mount Adams, you can look for the link in this episode description. And what are we going to do? The trail approaches now here, Nick? Yeah.

[00:17:54] So speaking of bushwhacks and whatnot, again, most common approach is from Lincoln Woods, south approach from the kank. You're going to end up taking the Lincoln Woods Trail, Franconia Brook Trail, Lincoln Brook Trail, and Owls Head Path, 18 miles, 2950 feet. Now, a giant caveat with this one, and I know this has changed even since me and Ash did it like, I don't know, eight or nine years ago now. But most people seem to use a Black Pond bushwhack that I see in trail reports.

[00:18:21] I don't think anybody actually goes up the Franconia Brook Trail anymore. It seems like most people go Lincoln Woods to the Black Pond Trail to Black Pond bushwhack. That'll dump you out further on the Lincoln Brook Trail and save you a couple river crossings. If you are doing that route out and back, that'll shave off almost two miles. It's 16.2 miles. Same elevation gain, 2950 feet. So a little bit more on the bushwhacks.

[00:18:48] So the Black Pond bushwhack leaves the Black Pond Trail just southwest of Black Pond. It heads more or less north from there to meet the Lincoln Brook Trail. And it's just after the Lincoln Brook Trail crosses Lincoln Brook for the first time. When you do this, you effectively cut out two crossings of the Camp Nine Brook onto the Franconia Brook Trail. And you cut out a crossing of the Franconia Brook and Lincoln Brook Trail on the Lincoln Brook Trail. I said brook many times in that sentence. I'm sorry if it sounds confusing. But that's why people do the Black Pond bushwhack.

[00:19:17] It saves you those river crossings, which can be dangerous and problematic. And high water, spring, just kind of negates that. So the second bushwhack that we talk about with Owls Head is the one we just mentioned, talking about Brutus. So the Brutus bushwhack leaves the Lincoln Brook Trail to the east around 0.4 miles from the Owls Head Path Junction at about 2,400 feet. It gains approximately the same elevation as Owls Head Path does by the slides, but does so on the side of a southwestern facing ravine. Preferable the open slabs of the slide in the winter.

[00:19:48] Again, why they're bringing Brutus up that way. But did want to mention, having done it, we've all done it before. It's quite steep and can definitely be treacherous in spots depending on the snowpack. Then to round this out, in winter, like we just mentioned, common to use the Brutus bushwhack and the Black Pond bushwhacks. Basically to dodge the river crossings and make your ascent a little bit easier. And you don't have to hit the Owls Head Slide.

[00:20:15] That's really about it, I think, for special winter. Like you're still parking in the same place and things like that. Mike, do you want to talk a little bit here about maybe some of the alternative routes given the Lincoln Woods trail closure? And the first thing, we were texting about this earlier, but there are really no good ways to Owls Head other than from Lincoln Woods. I should say good ways legally that you should be going to get to Owls Head. I want to call it out. I think that there is one good alternative that I'll talk about.

[00:20:44] But I think that with Lincoln Woods closing for, I think, what is it, June to October this summer coming up? Yeah, we're recording this in, I don't know when this is going to drop, but we're recording it in March of 26 right now. Right. So there's nothing ideal, but I think that really all of these, the three that I'll go through all essentially just get you to 13 Falls in different ways.

[00:21:09] So you've got the Gale River Trail, which will take you up to Gale Head. And I guess that's probably the most direct, I would say, not ideal. But you take Gale River Trail to 13 Falls into Lincoln Woods Trail to Owls Head. And that's going to run you about 23 miles and 7,100 feet of elevation up, out and back.

[00:21:34] I mean, that to me is, it's a no-brainer to do an overnight stay at 13 Falls or stay at Gale Head. And I don't really know, like, that's not my area. I haven't been over on 13 Falls. I've been up Gale River Trail to Gale Head and then the Mount Garfield Trail as well is basically parallel to Gale River. And then North Twin over to, I guess, South Twin and then down.

[00:22:02] Basically, it all gets you to Gale Head and then down from there. But I don't know, Peter or Jake, have you guys been on that side? I mean, Peter, obviously you have because you've redlined. But what is it, as you get to Gale Head and you dip down into 13 Falls, like, what is that area like? Yeah, I mean, whether you go down Twinbrook or go down Franconia Brook Trail, because it's kind of like a V from whether you go down Gale Head or more over towards the Garfield side. It's actually really pretty trails down there.

[00:22:32] It's very quiet. They're well-maintained. 13 Falls is a great little area. It's, well, 13 Falls. It's the convergence of a bunch of rivers and there's a bunch of little waterfalls in there. So, yeah, I mean, that is the most logical place. And then to camp out at 13.

[00:22:55] And then you dump your heavy stuff, walk around, you know, basically in the valley until you come around to Owl's Head Path. I mean, but yeah, to try to do that, unless you're a real strong hiker, to try to do that in a day, even during the summertime, would be really challenging. Right. Yeah, it's just a long haul. It is a very pretty area. It's very green.

[00:23:23] There's a lot of, you know, a lot of hardwoods in there. It may change with the closing of Lincoln Woods, but it's very remote. You won't see other people out there for the most part. Right. Yeah. I think it's going to get a little bit busier this year for sure with Lincoln Woods being closed. But I'd say the other alternative route, and I don't think any of you guys have done this one. I've done this a couple of times. And I've been, this is on my to-do list for this summer.

[00:23:53] We are going to do this one. But the other alternative that you can do that I think is viable, but it's probably an overnight combination because you can't go out to Lincoln Woods, is going from Franconia Ridge. So you can hike up Falling Waters, make your way across a little haystack over to Mount Lincoln, and then you go over Lincoln, and then there's a little sub-peak past that where you can connect to the Lincoln Slide.

[00:24:22] So anybody that's been on Owl's Head, you can see the Lincoln Slide from, well, you can see it from Lincoln or a little haystack or Lafayette as well. It's pretty obvious there. But you can see it from Owl's Head as well. So there is a section on the Franconia Ridge Trail that you can cut into that slide. You do need to be careful around respecting the ropes and the markings of Franconia because they're doing a lot of work around Franconia Ridge to make sure that the vegetation is protected.

[00:24:52] So there's a couple of spots where you can get to this by just rock hopping and not impacting any vegetation. But it's a little bit tricky. You definitely have to scout it out. But once you get into the top of the Lincoln Slide, then this slide is massive. We talked about this slide before in our slide episode, but it's a big, loose scree field, probably the width of a football field at the very top, and then it narrows down.

[00:25:17] But very loose footing, very similar to, I would say, like a giant version of South Tri-Pyramid Slide. It's that sort of loose vibe. Then as you make your way down to the bottom, it sort of narrows into this very narrow section. And you've got to be careful. I move through this area very quickly because there's large boulders that are just sort of hanging by, I don't know what, like little pebbles are basically holding these large boulders back. So I move through the bottom area pretty quickly.

[00:25:45] And then this will get you into the source of, I think, Lincoln Brook. And you have to make sure that you go on a very dry period where the brook is not running hot. And then essentially you just basically hike down in the river for a period of maybe about a quarter mile, half mile. And then at that point, you want to look to see if you can dive out of the river and the drainage before the walls of the drainage get too high. And you essentially just head over to the north.

[00:26:14] And then you have to parallel the river. You're in some old logging roads and some old logging cuts in basically the most remote center part of the Pemi Wilderness. And eventually you have to sort of cut south a little bit. You don't go across the Lincoln Brook again. You basically stay at the left of Lincoln Brook or to the north of it. And then you make your way through until Lincoln Brook turns.

[00:26:41] I guess Lincoln Brook runs due west, I would say, and then turns south. So you basically will parallel that in the logging cuts to just make your way through. And it's pretty much open forest. And eventually you just hit this very narrow sliver of the Lincoln Brook Trail. And then head over basically south until you get to Owl's Head Slide. And then up Owl's Head. And typically what we'll do then is just go back down the slide and head out to Lincoln Woods.

[00:27:09] In this case, you'd have to basically double back to get back to the slide and then back up the slide. So I think that it's probably a better overnight option for you is basically go down the slide, get to Owl's Head, maybe set up camp somewhere in along the drainage there closer to the slide. And then go back up the next morning. But yeah, you get a two for one. You actually get three. You get Franconia Ridge. You get an epic slide.

[00:27:38] And then you get an epic chance to bushwhack into the Pemi Wilderness. So it's not that difficult. I mean, you just have to basically stay a couple hundred feet along the drainage the whole way. Just follow that through and then you'll hit the trail. And it's pretty open forest there. So did I sell you guys on it, Jake? Are you ready to do this? Absolutely. I'm in. Yeah, we need to do it. Yeah, for sure. I was going to say too, Lincoln slide.

[00:28:04] I mean, it's very noticeable if you're on Garfield Twins or whatever, Bonds, you can see it's like a giant sort of V triangle shape thing coming down. Is it right before the summit of Lafayette? I always forget. Is it like when you dive down after Lincoln and you go over that subsidiary peak? Yeah, it's like North Lincoln. It's actually farther than you think. Okay. It's like not the first sub peak, but it's like the second sub peak.

[00:28:30] I actually, the first time I went in, I went in way too early and like going through this, the scrub was brutal. We had to push through about maybe, I don't know, five, 600 feet of scrub and it was just painful. Ouch, ouch. So make sure you go, you have to go pretty far past Lincoln to get to the connection on it. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:28:53] So, uh, so that, that sounds like a, I definitely would be in for that, but, um, uh, like Peter kind of was even highland with 13 falls area, Peter and Jake, I should say, um, plenty of camping options within there or even around the PEMI. So if you want to do this as an overnight, which will be pretty realistic for most people. And when we were talking about strong hikers too, like you're in the ballpark of doing a single day Prezi or a PEMI, um, really to do this thing out and back in the day. Um, most of this routes are around 7,000 feet, if not more to do in a day, which is pretty, uh, pretty intense.

[00:29:19] That, and even back to back days is a pretty good amount of hiking to be doing to get just lonely little owls head. This episode is brought to you in part by Reckless Brewing Company. Every hiker knows the 10 essentials, but in Bethlehem, there's a strong argument for an 11th. Reckless Brewing Company was built by people who live for the local trails and respect the grid it takes to hike them. Whether it's a crisp lager to cut the heat or a heavy hitting IPA to celebrate a summit, Reckless Brews for the spirit of the North Country.

[00:29:48] It's a place for the community to gather, toast to a safe return, and plan the next ascent. For those who play hard, Reckless pours harder. All right. Um, so do you guys want to reflect a little bit on maybe some past trips out to Owls Head? I don't know how many times you guys have got it. I know I was on one of these, at least with all of you. Yeah, I think, um, oh, go ahead, Jake. Yeah, Jake looks eager.

[00:30:16] I've done Owls Head three times now. Twice have been with Mike, once with Nick, I think only once with Peter. The first time I did it was with Julie back in 2020. Julie and our friend Miriam, she was still working on her 48. And, uh, it was a long day. That was one of our first real long hikes.

[00:30:43] Um, but the views from the slide were amazing. Uh, I had gotten some intel. Again, it was 2020. I had a friend who had done her 48 years and years and years ago. She's like, make sure you go to the true summit because it's moved. It's not, it's not right there at the, you know. Um, but it was a long day and we, uh, sat down in the middle of the slide on the way down,

[00:31:09] had lunch, just sitting there looking across at, uh, at, at the Franconia Ridge. It was, uh, for a hike with no views, it had some spectacular views of, uh, of the ridge. Right on. All right. I'll, I'll, I'll talk about, um, back when, when my son and I were tackling the 48. I, I, you know, you're doing a lot of research like most of us do where, where, you know,

[00:31:39] starting out that path. And I, and I, all I kept reading was don't leave vowels head till the end. Don't leave vowels head till the end. Right. Um, so I, I had to look back at my, my log earlier and we actually did it as the 14th, you know, summit on the list. Good book. Cause I kept hearing don't leave it till the end. So I'm like, okay, it's gotta be more towards the front. Uh, so my son would have been, I think probably 13 or 14 at the time doing it.

[00:32:07] And we did an early November, which, which we actually had a very nice weather day for it is a little bit on the cool side. Um, but we hit those, those water crossings coming off of the black pond bushwhack cause you do still hit some water crossings there. Um, and you know, a little bit, I would say unexpected, uninformed, you know, as, as sometimes you tend to be when you're just starting out some of these things. Um, and you know, okay, so what are we doing?

[00:32:35] We're, we're already what, uh, five miles in six miles in and okay, well let's, let's take the shoes off and wait across and, and see how it goes. Right. Um, you know, cause the option was to turn back and try it another day and we stuck it out. Thankfully. Um, you know, and I've only somebody that always said, I think three times I've been around that loop more than that from redlining, just, just decided to walk past the Owl's Head path though.

[00:33:05] Yeah. Yeah. And I've done, um, four, four trips out to Owl's Head twice via Lincoln slide. And then, um, I think once in the winter, was that for you, Nick, or was that for me? It was for both of us. It was your trip, but I needed it for winter too. And I think all of us probably needed it for winter technically at that point. Exactly. And then the last one was, uh, the trip up for, uh, for Paul Lemaire's, um, 4,000 foot of finish. And then, um, we should say a couple of things about Owl's Head.

[00:33:35] So Owl's Head is a traditional place where, uh, slasher podcast co-hosts tend to get injured. So Nick had like a, a facial injury off a micro spike slashing his face. And then I had a broken finger. So, and Jakester, um, I don't know if you want to tell that story. You basically did like the wilderness first aid on me. Uh, yeah, we were, it was a real big group that we were in and, um, we kind of wanted

[00:34:02] to spread ourselves out a little bit from the group. And, um, so you and I were up ahead and you were, I don't know, 50 or so feet in front of me. And I, somebody was coming down. I talked and stopped and talked to them for a second. And then I moved on, came around the corner and you're sitting there, you were just sitting there on a log. Jakester, we got a problem. What's up? I think I broke my finger and you held your finger up and you had this big white chunk sticking out of your pinky.

[00:34:32] All right. Sometimes I'm okay with the, the gore. Sometimes I'm not. You weren't so great on that one. You know what? I, I just didn't want to take the chance. Uh, I knew I was getting hungry and didn't want to, uh, take the chance of getting nauseous. So I said, here's what we're going to do. And I opened my, cause you were trying to dig out your first aid kit. I'm like, my hands are clean. Let's not, you know. So I dug my stuff out and put the gauze on it and then I'll finish taping you up. Right. That's right.

[00:35:02] Cause you were digging through on your end and you had your back turned to me and I was able to gauze it up. And then once that was done, you, you patched me up. So you get your wilderness first responder badge there. Right. Very good. So yeah, it's a, it's just a dangerous place, I guess, for us. Bad luck, Nick. Yeah. And to, to, so to lead onto some of my trips, Tal's had, um, the first time that I had done it was actually with ash. Uh, we had an attempt back. It was September.

[00:35:32] I was looking September 2nd, 2019. So we were definitely in the forties for, in our list. It was definitely towards the latter end of what we needed. Um, and we actually bailed at the bottom of the Alice head slide. Um, the weather forecast didn't look too bad that day. I knew it was going to rain a little bit, but, um, it really, really poured. Like I always say it's like the T-Rex scene in Jurassic park. Um, it's, it was just unbelievable torrential rain the entire time. The temperatures weren't bad. It was probably in like the mid sixties. So we weren't really concerned with hypothermia and stuff though.

[00:36:01] If we had been out there for longer, it probably would have been an issue looking back. Um, but, um, I decided to turn around cause we hadn't seen anybody pretty much all day. We saw some backpackers leaving out on like the Franconia Brook trail, um, was just getting one of the first times I'd ever gotten like sort of bad vibes kind of deal. Um, and I'm glad we turned back when we did because the river crossings were super problematic on the way back. Um, I kind of recapped with Ash a little bit on her memories of this one.

[00:36:27] And, um, by the time we got to the last two crossings of Franconia Brook, um, we were in completely soaked and we were actually, um, at one point we were actually holding onto each other in like waist deep water, uh, crossing back through those brooks. So it got real sketchy real quick. Um, we made it out just fine. Um, kind of to fight another day, so to speak. And, uh, we would return, I didn't realize it was this quickly. We actually returned on the 7th on September 7th, 2019 had a completely different day. It was beautiful.

[00:36:57] Um, great conditions, no issues. And we did this too at the, at the time we did it the traditional way. We didn't do any of the black pond bushwhacks because, um, that was even pre sort of Facebook groups and me looking online. We just looked at the guide, um, and kind of old views from the top forums for sort of the route. So that's what we did. Um, and the only other time I've got up there, uh, which sort of overlaps with what you guys were mentioning is my first time hiking with sort of Mike, Jake, Peter, uh, Steve. And I think Mike Keene joined us that day. It was actually January 14th of 24.

[00:37:25] And as Mike mentioned with the bad luck for, though, I wasn't a slasher host, I guess, technically at that point, um, I actually was wearing snowshoes and we're going, I think almost, we were almost at the true summit of owl's head. And I like somehow tripped and got like a tree branch or something stuck under my snowshoe. Um, and my micro spikes, which I always secure with two carabiners now were not secured. Um, and they actually whipped around my face and smacked me right on top of my eyebrow and my forehead. And I busted open.

[00:37:55] Um, and I believe I turned around, um, Steve, I think was right behind me. And I was like, am I bleeding? And Steve's like, oh yeah, you're bleeding. And Jake was not too far behind him. Um, and Jake, uh, being the good wilderness first aid person that he is, apparently he had a bandaid, like ready to go, uh, lickety split. And I got patched up and it was one of those that looked worse than it was because, uh, I was all sweaty and stuff. So I had some blood and stuff going on. Um, really not that bad of a cut. It was more the fact that I was probably hearts just going from going up.

[00:38:24] And also I did, I did have a pretty good bruise, um, the next week or so just on top of where my spikes hit me, but friendly reminders, secure your spikes cause they can slingshot around and hit you in the face if you're not careful. Um, but that was a really fun day out there. Nothing else, uh, super eventful happened. Um, yeah. And I'm looking forward to getting out there sometime again for the other seasons. I need it fall and spring and having a, hopefully injury. Hopefully we can all have an injury free time. If we get out there together, we have to give Jake a new trail name.

[00:38:53] We will call him the doctor. Yeah, there we go. I'll accept it as soon as you expect it, except cheeseburger. Yeah, maybe. There we go. We'll see. We'll see. Cool. But, uh, what else? So a couple of things. So maybe just wrap this up. A couple of things that come to mind that weren't on the script that I want to just remind people about Owl's Head. So, um, and Peter, no, it must've been Jake. You probably were the one that, um, I was with when this happened, but like there'll be,

[00:39:21] there's a tendency for people to think like, oh, well I can hike out to Owl's Head and just sort of drop my pack at the, um, bottom of the slide and hike up there and, and they've just come back. So just, just realistically an average hiker, you're talking like a good hour to get up there, especially with the way that the summit is, um, pushed off to the, um, the, not to the top of the slide anymore. So an hour to get up and back at minimum for probably a pretty fast hiker.

[00:39:50] So we had run into a group that was backpacking and they were like, oh, we're just going to drop our packs. They've had some serious issues with, um, with black bears in this area where, uh, they, they basically stalked hikers. And, um, one person I think that got to the point where they do their backpack at a bear because they, the bear was basically conditioned to go after them. So my suspicion is, is one of the problems we had with this bear last summer was that, that bear got ahold of some backpacks at the bottom of the Owl's Head slide and started

[00:40:20] depreciate food with backpacks. And that's, that's why they were stalking hikers. So I don't recommend that. Take your backpack with you. Uh, it's, it's, it sucks. Obviously it's a, it's a tough hike, but I would not leave your backpack at the bottom of that slide under any circumstance, because especially if it's got food in it, a bear could be down there and grab that thing and you'd be stuck in the middle of the wilderness with no backpack. And I know that that's happened for sure. Yeah, that would be good.

[00:40:47] Um, on things that I, I didn't run on the script either. Um, I did want to call out there, there's good odds. I think on that path, you run across a few spots, but you go through old logging camps on a lot of this and some of it's on old logging roads. And if you cross any sort of logging artifacts, you hit anything, like don't take anything. It's considered part of the national forest. Um, leave no trace supplies here. It's very cool to see. Like I remember seeing like old, like, uh, I don't even know you say like giant metals or steel iron tongs. Yeah. You see artifacts, but you'll see barrels. You'll see all sorts of stuff.

[00:41:17] Um, really fascinating history with logging in the area, um, that we won't get into here because you could spend a whole podcast series just on that. And we've definitely dived into logging before, but didn't want to call that out about the logging artifacts. Yeah. But I will say it's a great hike. It's a good, it's kind of a bummer that Lincoln Woods is shutting down for the summer because it is a great summer hike, especially like when it's been warm and you get into that, um, the Pemi wilderness. It does, it's a little buggy in early in the year, but like later in the summer, it's,

[00:41:46] it's, it can be pretty cool. You know, you can get your water crossings. You can dip your feet in the streams when they kind of don't run as fast. So, um, you know, I guess the good news is you can explore. Owls had different ways this summer. Uh, check out from 13 falls, maybe think about an adventure on Lincoln slide. Just be careful. Do your homework on Lincoln side message us. If you have questions about the route, I'm happy to give people a heads up. Just make sure that if you go down there, like you're prepared, make sure you respect

[00:42:13] Franconia Ridge and don't step on anything that, um, is, is roped off or anything. It's, I don't know what the lay of the land is right now up there, but I think there's a lot of work, but just do your homework if you're going that way. And then, um, yeah, if you're going to do 13 falls, then, um, treat it as a backpacking trip and, and, you know, you gotta get your, you gotta get your summits for the list, right, Nick? Yep. Yeah. And I mean, as you guys meant, as Peter and Jake mentioned too, like it is a beautiful area and you mentioned too, Mike, it is a beautiful area in there though.

[00:42:41] It really, like it's, it's one of the most, if not the ever most part of the white mountains. Um, so you're really in some true wilderness there and far away from anything else. So embrace the beauty of it while you're maybe hiking for many, many hours on the way back from all that. All right. All right. Well, Pete, you know, Jake, one other thing, you know, a lot of people, uh, you know, don't, don't love Owl's head because they don't get the views.

[00:43:07] But like I said, you got great views back from, from the slide, but it's a great hike to get a lot of mileage without a ton of elevation. Um, you know, you only have that, what, what mile of the, uh, of the slide to the summit, but the rest of it's relatively flat. So if you want a bigger mileage day, it's not that bad a hike really. True. True. And I, I like it with the crowd, you know, it's, I think you're under wilderness rules.

[00:43:37] So you can't technically go with more than 10 people. Um, but yeah, I think going with a nice group and it's a great, it's a wide trail in a lot of spots. So you can sort of walk next to each other and chat away, which is a rarity, you know, that those trails do tend to be a little wider. So, um, yeah, get a few friends, find, find a few friends and then go get out there and, uh, have a good day. Yep. Cool. All right. Well, uh, until next time, uh, thank you, Jake. Thank you, Peter. Your checks will be in the mail.

[00:44:07] Make sure that you report those on your taxes and we will, uh, we'll see you next time. Thank you. Bye everybody. Thanks.

[00:44:15] Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the show, you can subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever. You listen to podcasts.

[00:44:45] If you want to learn more about the topics covered on today's show, please check out the show notes and safety information on slasser podcast.com. That's S L A S R podcast.com. You can also follow the show on Facebook and Instagram. We hope you'll join us next week for another great show until next time on behalf of Mike and Tom, get out there and crush the peace.