January 23, 2009
Cath Goodwin worked hard at coordinating a hike to Owl's Head in under 24 hours. Four of us met at the Lincoln Woods Trailhead: Cath, Drew, Larisa, and myself.
Heading down the Lincoln Woods Trail.
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We took the standard Black Pond Bushwhack. The bushwhack seemed to wonder all over the place, but at least the trail was broken out and we got where we needed to be EVENTUALLY. I guess black is our team color.
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When we crossed the last river we were a little disappointed to find out the Brutie Bushwhack wasn't broken out. Although the company was good, Owl's Head can be a pretty boring hike, and the way things were going, even Larisa's flamboyant creative writing couldn't save this from being a boring trail report. Then things got much more interesting. We decided to head up Owl's Head slide. There were a few spots that got a little nerve racking to say the least, but Cath got us safely to the top of the slide.
As we neared the old summit for Owl's Head, Cath and Drew stopped for a moment while Larisa and I continued on until we reached the old summit. Now for one more push to the "new" summit.
"We should leave our packs here," I said.
"Great idea," said Cath.
I looked at her to find out that both her and Drew had dropped their packs at the last stop. Darn it. I should have done that too. Larisa was going for extra credit and decided to carry hers all the way to the true summit. It wasn't broken out over to the new summit. Drew used his cell phone to call Unfrozen Caveman, who had hiked this earlier in the week, and kidded with him about not reaching the true summit. We kept wondering if we would ever get there. "Keep going," Drew kept telling us. We finally reached the "exciting" summit of Owl's Head.
Larisa, the tree hugger, on the 4025' summit.
This makes winter 4000 footer #33 for me (any year) and #20 for this winter.
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Rather than head back down the dangerous slide, we broke out the Brutie Bushwhack with Andy leading us. It took us a lot less time coming down. We were all happy to finally get back to our vehicles. Owl's Head had been bagged.
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