Copy/Repost Hike

On Friday, five of us (Martin, Jim, Robert, Dominic and myself) met up at the Lincoln Woods Traihead off of Route 112 (Kancamagus Highway) at a little after 7PM.  The skies were mostly gray and overcast as it was gradually improving after it had rained earlier in the day.  After getting organized we headed out by 7:15.  We immediately made our way to the suspension bridge and after crossing the East Branch Pemigewasset River, we turned north on the Lincoln Woods Trail.  As this was flat, we made great time out to the junction with the Black Pond Trail.  We turned onto this trail at about 8:05 and made our way out to Black Pond for the night.  It took us an additional 25 minutes to reach the pond.  It was still light enough to provide some great views over the pond.  We immediately checked out the tent site on the hill just above the pond and it was occupied.  We checked further up the trail and were not satisfied, so we returned and found another smaller site along the trail.  We made do and used it for the night with Jim and Robert camping a little further up the trail.

In the morning we starting getting up between 5 and 6AM.  We made our breakfasts and got packed up for the day.  The sun was shining and it was shaping up to be a really great day.  By 7:30 we followed the herd path to the west of the pond.  The path faded away pretty quickly, but we bushwhacked on a northerly track through the mostly-open woods.  In roughly an hour we had reached the edge of Lincoln Brook.  There was a herd path here and we followed this until it reached the Lincoln Brook Trail at the second water crossing in about 10-15 minutes.  Now back on an established trail, we headed north following the Lincoln Brook out to Owl's Head.  Even though we had circumvented the first two water crossings by doing the bushwhack, we still had several smaller crossings to make.  We took a break by one of the last ones and it was here that we ran into a number of other hikers (we had only seen one guy before this).  We continued on and by 10:20 we had reached the two cairns which mark the start of the Owl's Head Herdpath.  We dropped out gear and with water in hand began our ascent towards the slide.  Once we gained some elevation, the views of the Franconia Ridge were spectacular!  After about a half-an-hour of steep climbing we reached the top of the slide and the path re-entered the woods.  The path continued to climb at a fairly agressive grade.  At 11:20 we reached the "old" summit.  We took a short break and then proceeded north for about 15 minutes until we reached the true summit of Owl's Head (4025').  There were a couple of other hikers, who we met earlier.  They graciously took our group picture and chatted a bit.  As there was no view, noone was that eager to linger.  We started back by re-tracing our steps and were back down by 12:45.  Congratulations to Robert for completing his 44th peak!  We had lunch and refilled our water bottles at the brook.  After the black flies became too menacing to deal with, we once again packed up and continued north along the Lincoln Brook Trail (1:05).  The trail climbed at a modest, but steady grade up to the col between Owl's Head and Mount Lafayette.  Here we encountered some wet and muddy areas, but they had apparently been improved with some boardwalks (Martin had been on this section of trail about 4 years earlier and it was much easier to follow).  I was surprised to see a number of others back here...we probably passed a dozen hikers as we made our way around Owl's Head.  From here we descended down to Thirteen Falls, where we encountered the first of these falls by 3:30.  We took a break on a wide open granite ledge in the brook.  Here, there was a good open view of the northern side of Owl's Head.  After a half-hour break, we trekked on.

At the junction with the Franconia Brook and Twin Brook Trails, we turned onto the Franconia Brook Trail.  Shortly after this junction we encountered some pieces of flat metal in the woods, which may have been parts of old logging sleds (old Logging Camp 13 was nearby).  By 4:20 we were crossing Twin Brook and a short distance further on we ran into the old railroad grade (luckily, Martin noticed it right off), which met up with the trail.  We turned onto this old rail bed and began our bushwhack up to Bear Pond.  The old grade was easy to follow as it gradually climbed around the shoulder of Southwest Twin Mountain and turned into the Redrock Brook Ravine.  Along the way we encountered an old piece of rail left behind, as well as a piece of an old stove door.  Kinda cool to see in the middle of the wilderness!  These were relics left behind from the rail line up to Logging Camp 14.  As we continued up the ravine there was a point where the rail bed ended and there were two cairns, which we followed higher on the bank.  This was another flat rail grade or tote road.  Still it was easy to follow and this took us a good way up the valley.  At around 6PM we passed through a large clearing.  In some reports there was speculation that this was the location of the old Camp 14, but there was other indications, that we could see.  It wasn't long after this that we just made our way through the open woods following the brook bed.  For a bushwhack this was still fairly easy.  Our trek continued as we climbed until just before the pond, where it got incrediably thick with spruce.  We came in from the southwest, but a good path through the trees didn't seem obvious.  We went around to the northwest, where I thought the talus field might help.  Unfortunately, this was still rather thick.  We pushed our way through this, even stumbling on a couple of patches of snow in the dense pine.  Finally, at about 7PM we were on the shores of the Bear Pond.  How beautiful it was with the talus fields below SW Twin and the Twinway Slides to the east!  We made our way around the pond to the southern shore and found the rather large tent site there.  I think everyone breathed a sigh of relief that the hard part of the day was over...we could relax a bit now!  We set up our tents and began our dinners.  After that, it didn't take long before everyone was turning in for the night.  I was probably the last to bed and that was at about 9:15PM.

In the morning, I awoke early (5AM) and bushwhacked over to climb the talus field.  It was difficult in spots, but I did it to get the view of the Bonds over the pond.  It really was wonderful.  Afterwards, I returned and rejoined everyone as they were waking and getting breakfast.  We finally broke camp and headed back out at around 8AM.  Martin has found what appeared to be a herd path through an opening in the trees.  What a relief...this was so much easier to get though and we were quickly out into open woods again.  We pretty much followed our path back along the brook, and then following the old tote road and railroad grade back to the Franconia Brook Trail.  It was 9:50 when we reached the trail again.  After this we had the relatively easy trek southward along this fairly level and straight trail.  There were just a few brook crossings which posed a bit of a challenge due to the water level and swift currents, particularly Redrock and Hellgate Brooks.  Further south we passed a couple of ponds with spectacular views looking back towards the Bonds.  We reached the edge of the Pemigewasset Wilderness and the Lincoln Woods Trail at approximately noon.  After crossing the bridge, we said our goodbyes to Dominic, since he wanted to wash up at Franconia Brook Falls (he had plans on his way home).  The rest of us walked the final 3 miles back to the Lincoln Woods Trailhead.  It was approximately 1:10PM when we got back to our cars.

Afterwards, Martin and I said goodbye to Jim and Robert and then we went into Lincoln for a quick bite to eat at Gordi's.

What an amazing backpack!  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  I've wanted to hike around Owl's Head and check out Thirteen Falls and Bear Pond for a couple of years.  This truly was a wonderful backcountry, wilderness trip into a very remote part of the Pemigewasset woods.  It was so cool to be joined on this trip with four awesome backpackers.  A huge thanks to Dominic, Martin, Robert and Jim for trusting that this trip even with its modest bushwhack segments would be worth the effort!  Except for the thick bushwhack into Bear Pond it was relatively straight-forward and so wonderful to explore another part of this wilderness that few others would venture.

Total Mileage was 26.8 miles.

Added by Dominic:  Strenuous & rewarding!

First most say that Stephen AKA Shep was very forecoming with info about the trip! He was gentleman & was truly helpful when someone? LOL needed his hand! Well I know for myself with certainty my limits with regads to Bushwhacking! Although it didn't kill me or maybe it did for the future type outings, it did make me appreciate that we still have remote wilderness nearby. It was great to be able to be a part of the group & thank all of you who made my weekend a memorable One! Happy trails guys.....     

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