Mats Roing
New member
Team Members:
Giggy
ferrisjrf (Jason)
Juniper
Leaf
Darl58
Adventurous (Kim)
Jeff (Giggy's friend)
7Summits
Mats
The goal was to do Owl's Head via Lincoln Slide We debated and changed our plans a few times before we finally decided on starting at Lincoln Woods and head up Franconia Ridge to the top of Lincoln Slide and then down to Lincoln Brook Trail and up Owl's Head via the slide and then back to LW the normal route.
Most of us had some team-building excercises the evening before at Lafayette Campground.
We actually started out with seven of us and then picked up a couple of more hikers en route. Seven started and 9 finished......that's a 129% success ratio
Planned to start at 6:30am and we started at 6:33am.......that's pretty good for having me in the line-up Jeff and 7summits were absent at LW but we found them up on Franconia Ridge later. After de-layering at the Osseo/LW trail intersection Leaf started out at her blistering pace and we were at the 2,450' ele mark by the sharp right turn dripping profusely 7 minutes later or so I took over the pacer role and the pace went below mach 2 by a wide margin. Trail crew had done some great work here since the winter.....we didn't need to pull out the chain saws too many times
Took a break on top of the stairs...the sun was making attempts to dry out the dew in the vegetation......the humidity and very little wind slowed down that process considerably. Atop of Flume we digested the view together with some other snacks including the light green ends of the pine trees which are high in c-vitamins.....kind of strong bitter taste but adds variety to the regular hiking diet. After 20 minutes or so on the summit Jeff shows up! He started from LW almost an hour after us We figured he kicked some rear-end heading up Osseo Trail in 2hrs16 min.....he does a bit of everything including running and climbing....in good shape he is (yoda voice). This was Adventurous 11th 4,000-footer in the Whites! She is not exactly a beginner in the woods since she has all the 46 ADK peaks on her resume already.
The eight of us now descended and ascended back up to Liberty......Juniper took charge of the lead and we were soon taking pix on that summit as well......Kim's 12th peak now At this clip she'll be done with the 48 by tomorrow afternoon! Little Haystack still looked far away so we moved on and soon ran into about a dozen women celebrating summer solstice and had a balloon shaped like a sun danging above their heads.......and there was a b-day lady among them as well! A little later DaveBear shows up and he said that 7summits was on top of Little Haystack.....we keep moving uphill and by the rocks before the ridge levels out towards Little Haystack the sun hits us pretty good and it feels mighty tropical.......it cools off real quick once we hit Little Haystack and a couple of dozen hikers hanging out there.......we take another long break and a few more of us gets intrigued by eating pine trees although the taste doesn't impress anyone. Kim who was thinking of bailing here decides to stay and 7summits decides to continue with us as well although she just did lafayette and Lincoln.....maybe because we haven't cracked the keg in my backpack yet
According to the traffic along the ridge I wouldn't be surprised if Lincoln and Lafayette had 500 or so summits today......after Lincoln we ran into a nice lady who presented herself as an Alpine Steward. She asked us if we had any questions and warned us that it might be thunderstorms later today. Forgot her name but she was very nice and brownie points to her for doing what she was doing. She asked us if we had any question about the plants up her and Darlene replied that we had tasted most of them already
We were able to find the shortest route through the krumholz to get to the top of the slide. We were minimizing erosion by stepping on rocks before we hit the 25 foot krumholz patch. Then the 1,000 vertical feet started......slow steady pace and noone started any rockfalls which registered on the Richter scale......once we hit water we filled up our bottles and bladders and followed the creek until the last "sandpit". I recognized the flat area where I camped last year. At this point we took a left up into the woods.....at 3,850 feet appr. The first part out of the creek is mighty thick but soon it widens slightly.......slow going......moving a little further in before we start our slow downhill adventure through the virgin woods......sometimes thick with blowdowns....sometimes easier.......at some pint 7summits says "This is just wrong".......there is no risk that we would move too fast here.........every 1/10 of a mile seems to take forever......first we cross a smaller creek which we hoped was the big one from a diostance but then we continue down....crossing a swampy area and finally we hit the last downhill and the trail is there.....we hit the trail maybe 1/4 mile north of the creek crossing.....made the creek crossing easier at least..........not sure how excited people were about the last 1.5 hrs in the woods.....no one suggested to go back and do it again Down the trail we went and the only significant issue was some air pollution which affected everyone but me........at one point the trail seemed to disappear but we found it 30 feet later....not the most traveled trail in the Whites.
Jeff was ahead of us and we didn't see him at the base of Owl's Head......we figured he either went back to LW or started up Owl's Head. Sun was strong on the slide...it was 3:30pm when we started up....hoped to see MEB there but she left Owl's Head earlier in the day. Probably encountered a dozen hikers coming down the slide.......the Owl hadn't been lonesome today. Slowly the conversations ebbed out to a complete silence as we headed up.......the number of blowdowns seemed to approach infinity higher up.......a good saw and some abled bodies could do some good here but it would also take away some of the charm of climbing Owl's Head It finally flattened out and we followed the meandering top section until we hit the summit.
For Giggy, Jeff, Kim (13th WM48!), Jason and Juniper it was the first time on Owl's Head! We celebrated by opening the keg. Just as we did that Jeff shows up! All nine of us are gathered! Wicked awesome! We don't drink much here since we want to be safe going down the slide.....once beolow the slide it's not that hard to finish it between the nine of us......the flat long march back to LW starts....filling up some more water at the next creek crossing......and on it goes...sometimes jogging sometimes walking......there was some singing going on as well....2hrs42min after coming down the slide we stand at LW parking lot.....it's 8:50pm.....pizza time!!! After picking up the pizzas and scaring away the other customers with our smell we headed back to Lafayette campground and joined the other dudes and dudettes already there.....
And we do have some pix:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hikerdd13/SummerSolsticeHike
That was a wicked awesome hike with great dudes and dudettes! Thanks everyone for driving from far and away and we did have some fun
Giggy
ferrisjrf (Jason)
Juniper
Leaf
Darl58
Adventurous (Kim)
Jeff (Giggy's friend)
7Summits
Mats
The goal was to do Owl's Head via Lincoln Slide We debated and changed our plans a few times before we finally decided on starting at Lincoln Woods and head up Franconia Ridge to the top of Lincoln Slide and then down to Lincoln Brook Trail and up Owl's Head via the slide and then back to LW the normal route.
Most of us had some team-building excercises the evening before at Lafayette Campground.
We actually started out with seven of us and then picked up a couple of more hikers en route. Seven started and 9 finished......that's a 129% success ratio
Planned to start at 6:30am and we started at 6:33am.......that's pretty good for having me in the line-up
Jeff and 7summits were absent at LW but we found them up on Franconia Ridge later. After de-layering at the Osseo/LW trail intersection Leaf started out at her blistering pace and we were at the 2,450' ele mark by the sharp right turn dripping profusely 7 minutes later or so I took over the pacer role and the pace went below mach 2 by a wide margin. Trail crew had done some great work here since the winter.....we didn't need to pull out the chain saws too many times Took a break on top of the stairs...the sun was making attempts to dry out the dew in the vegetation......the humidity and very little wind slowed down that process considerably. Atop of Flume we digested the view together with some other snacks including the light green ends of the pine trees which are high in c-vitamins.....kind of strong bitter taste but adds variety to the regular hiking diet. After 20 minutes or so on the summit Jeff shows up! He started from LW almost an hour after us
We figured he kicked some rear-end heading up Osseo Trail in 2hrs16 min.....he does a bit of everything including running and climbing....in good shape he is (yoda voice). This was Adventurous 11th 4,000-footer in the Whites! She is not exactly a beginner in the woods since she has all the 46 ADK peaks on her resume already. The eight of us now descended and ascended back up to Liberty......Juniper took charge of the lead and we were soon taking pix on that summit as well......Kim's 12th peak now
At this clip she'll be done with the 48 by tomorrow afternoon! Little Haystack still looked far away so we moved on and soon ran into about a dozen women celebrating summer solstice and had a balloon shaped like a sun danging above their heads.......and there was a b-day lady among them as well! A little later DaveBear shows up and he said that 7summits was on top of Little Haystack.....we keep moving uphill and by the rocks before the ridge levels out towards Little Haystack the sun hits us pretty good and it feels mighty tropical.......it cools off real quick once we hit Little Haystack and a couple of dozen hikers hanging out there.......we take another long break and a few more of us gets intrigued by eating pine trees although the taste doesn't impress anyone. Kim who was thinking of bailing here decides to stay and 7summits decides to continue with us as well although she just did lafayette and Lincoln.....maybe because we haven't cracked the keg in my backpack yet According to the traffic along the ridge I wouldn't be surprised if Lincoln and Lafayette had 500 or so summits today......after Lincoln we ran into a nice lady who presented herself as an Alpine Steward. She asked us if we had any questions and warned us that it might be thunderstorms later today. Forgot her name but she was very nice and brownie points to her for doing what she was doing. She asked us if we had any question about the plants up her and Darlene replied that we had tasted most of them already
We were able to find the shortest route through the krumholz to get to the top of the slide. We were minimizing erosion by stepping on rocks before we hit the 25 foot krumholz patch. Then the 1,000 vertical feet started......slow steady pace and noone started any rockfalls which registered on the Richter scale......once we hit water we filled up our bottles and bladders and followed the creek until the last "sandpit". I recognized the flat area where I camped last year. At this point we took a left up into the woods.....at 3,850 feet appr. The first part out of the creek is mighty thick but soon it widens slightly.......slow going......moving a little further in before we start our slow downhill adventure through the virgin woods......sometimes thick with blowdowns....sometimes easier.......at some pint 7summits says "This is just wrong".......there is no risk that we would move too fast here.........every 1/10 of a mile seems to take forever......first we cross a smaller creek which we hoped was the big one from a diostance but then we continue down....crossing a swampy area and finally we hit the last downhill and the trail is there.....we hit the trail maybe 1/4 mile north of the creek crossing.....made the creek crossing easier at least..........not sure how excited people were about the last 1.5 hrs in the woods.....no one suggested to go back and do it again
Down the trail we went and the only significant issue was some air pollution which affected everyone but me........at one point the trail seemed to disappear but we found it 30 feet later....not the most traveled trail in the Whites.Jeff was ahead of us and we didn't see him at the base of Owl's Head......we figured he either went back to LW or started up Owl's Head. Sun was strong on the slide...it was 3:30pm when we started up....hoped to see MEB there but she left Owl's Head earlier in the day. Probably encountered a dozen hikers coming down the slide.......the Owl hadn't been lonesome today. Slowly the conversations ebbed out to a complete silence as we headed up.......the number of blowdowns seemed to approach infinity higher up.......a good saw and some abled bodies could do some good here but it would also take away some of the charm of climbing Owl's Head
It finally flattened out and we followed the meandering top section until we hit the summit. For Giggy, Jeff, Kim (13th WM48!), Jason and Juniper it was the first time on Owl's Head! We celebrated by opening the keg. Just as we did that Jeff shows up! All nine of us are gathered! Wicked awesome! We don't drink much here since we want to be safe going down the slide.....once beolow the slide it's not that hard to finish it between the nine of us......the flat long march back to LW starts....filling up some more water at the next creek crossing......and on it goes...sometimes jogging sometimes walking......there was some singing going on as well....2hrs42min after coming down the slide we stand at LW parking lot.....it's 8:50pm.....pizza time!!! After picking up the pizzas and scaring away the other customers with our smell we headed back to Lafayette campground and joined the other dudes and dudettes already there.....
And we do have some pix:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hikerdd13/SummerSolsticeHike
That was a wicked awesome hike with great dudes and dudettes! Thanks everyone for driving from far and away and we did have some fun
