Owl's Head

Date: 10/9/2023

Elevation: 4,025’

Miles: 18.5 miles

Time: 7 hours, 31 minutes

Trails: Lincoln Woods Trail, Franconia Brook Trail, Lincoln Brook Trail, to Owl’s Head Path (+some random bushwhack) and back

Ever since I started hiking the 4,000 footers, I’ve had mega side eye towards Owl’s Head. Hiking 18.5 miles sounded unfathomable, and I read that Owl’s Head was just a long slog through the woods with no views to speak of at the top. My guidebook even calls it ‘the peak baggers’ nemesis.’ So here’s the story of how Owl’s Head became my nemesis.

It’s been over a year since my last hike in the Whites, but after a ~110 mile trek in the Dolomites, I finally felt ready to tackle Owl’s Head. I read that the one way to make Owl’s Head more bearable is to hike it during the fall when the leaves are changing — even with no view, at least you can look at the pretty leaves! So in early October I headed out into prime leaf-peeping territory just off the Kancamagus.

And the leaves were beautiful! The Lincoln Woods Trail takes you along a wonderfully flat stretch of three miles with no rocks or roots to get in the way. I’d come back to trail run this section, and that may be the only reason I ever come back here. After two miles or so, you reach a sign that points you towards Black Pond 0.8 miles away. I knew there was a bushwhack after Black Pond that would let me avoid two water crossings, but since I was alone and lack much bushwhacking experience, I stuck with the main trail.

After about 4.5 miles it was time to cross the Pemigewasset River. I knew these river crossings were notoriously difficult and wet (hence the Black Pond Bushwhack), but I figured I could find a way to cross somehow. And I did, but I also spent ten minutes at the first river crossing trying to get across. I finally went for it after trying three other routes and wound up slipping off a wet rock and getting my brand new hiking boots completely soaked. I made it to the second river crossing and had the same issue; I tried two different paths before just going for it. I figured, “Well, I can’t get more wet than I already am.” Wrong. I slipped again and wound up in water that was up to the middle of my thigh. At this point I was only five miles into an eighteen mile day. Things were not looking great. I had dry socks with me, but decided to wait to put them on until after I came back through the river.

Shortly after my failed river crossing, I ran into two men from Maine who were on their third summit of Owl’s Head. They had successfully completed the Black Pond Bushwhack and were much more dry than me. We were moving at similar speeds so I chatted with them as we kept hiking. The younger one was a very active hiker, having just completed the North East Ultra 8 this summer (8 hikes of 20+ miles, completed under 24 hours). They seemed to know their stuff and were tracking our hike on Gaia GPS.

My phone with my GPS tracking didn’t have service, so when the two men steered us right at a trail branch when I started going left, I didn’t question them. We went right onto what I now assume to be the Brutus Bushwhack. The Brutus Bushwhack is another offshoot from the main trail that allows hikers to bypass the steep slide on Owl’s Head Path. The problem with all of this is that Owl’s Head Path is an unmaintained trail. Why a highly popular trail lacks cairns or tree blazes is beyond me, but I had no way to verify what my new hiking partners were saying. Both the main trail and the bushwhack are just unmarked paths in the woods.

Brutus Bushwhack looked like a trail that received a lot of foot traffic. Until it didn’t. At one point we were on a trail, and the next we seemed to have lost it completely. And now I was on the side of a mountain with two strangers from Maine. It was at this time that one of the men decided to tell me that in his first two summits of Owl’s Head, he had gotten lost both times.

So that is what a Gaia GPS does for you apparently. From now on I will be trusting my instincts and own research, but at that point I had to just trust these men and their Gaia. We made up our own bushwhack up the mountainside through incredibly thick bramble and brush, rotten logs that crumbled when you stepped on them, and twigs that caught and yanked on my hair. It was a pretty horrible experience to be honest; I wanted to get the f*ck away from these men, but I had to stay with them because they were the ones with the GPS. It felt like we were on this bushwhack for about an hour, but I really have no idea how long it took. We finally found the main trail again and only had ten more minutes to the summit.

For all that work, the summit was just as anticlimactic as it was advertised. I ate and took off ahead of the two men, making sure to get detailed instructions from the other group at the summit who had done the trail properly.

I went down the slide where there was a decent view and backtracked all the way to the river where I had last fallen in. The two men caught up to me at that point and showed me towards the Black Pond Bushwhack. Was I going to trust these two men not to get me lost again or was I going to fall in the river again? I went with the men.

This one was luckily less eventful and we soon made it to Black Pond and back to Lincoln Woods. Another long, flat walk out led us to the very busy parking lot that was now overrun by tourists. I was just happy to make it back to my car. See you never Owl’s Head.

If you're going to do this hike:

• Go with someone else

• Do the Black Pond Bushwhack both ways

• Go up the Owl's Head slide and down Brutus Bushwhack if you feel confident in finding it

• Bring a solid GPS system

*no photos here because my Wix apparently ran out of storage...check out @lizahikes on Instagram to see some pics!