grouseking
Well-known member
My intentions were to hike Mt Flume on Saturday, but for many reasons it never happened. I figured the weather would be perfect for such a climb, before there was too much melting of snow, which would happen after the rainfall of Saturday night. Feeling a bit tired, yet strong, I set off from Lincoln Woods at around 10am.
I probably shouldn't have worn my snowshoes along LW trail, but I wanted to get used to wearing them. In retrospective, not having them on would have saved energy, but oh well. It only took about 20-25 min to arrive at the Osseo Trail, so I was feeling good about my time and my chances of summiting Flume. Still, I had another 4.1 miles to go, no easy feat with limited hiking this winter.
The Osseo trail winds its way thru hardwoods and then sloped up a short but steep hill to get away from the water. It is funny....normally this short hill wouldn't get to me, but this time, I really was feeling it. My last 4k was Tecumseh back in early February and I haven't completed a hike since then. Also, I recently got over food poisoning, which made me extra sluggish. I could tell that I might not have the extra energy to make it all the way, but I continued on to see what I could do. The weather was beautiuful...I had stripped down to my base layer and I could make snowballs for the first time in a long time. Plus, I was breaking trail and following a set of bobcat tracks which made their way up the mountain. It was neat to see that this bobcat prob walked up this way earlier in the day.bobcat tracks . When the bobcat turned off the trail and ran uphill, I decided I could go no further. I was only around 2500 feet, but I figured enough was enough...I was much too tired and a bit light headed to be hiking alone. If I had wanted to I could have taken a long break and kept going, possibly reaching the summit much later, but it wasn't worth it if I didn't enjoy myself. So in half the time, I wandered back down to the Lincoln Woods trail.
It was only a little after noon, and I had another 4.5 hours to kill....what to do? I continued up the LW trail, chatting with skiers and taking some pics of the busy day on the superhighway.
I saw a guy and briefly chatted with him about how he just came from Owls Head. I thought, "wow, it is only like 1pm." He must have camped... In a short time I arrived at the wilderness boundry. I looked up at Mt Flume from the bridge, sighed and thought "next time." But today was gonna have to be a stress free day. I still wanted to get some exercise, but it would now be on flatter terrain. The Franconia Brook trail was callling my name so I cruised up it to check out a couple of the beaver ponds about a mile in. Funny thing...I didn't see anyone on the Osseo trail, but I saw two right off the bat on FB trail....one was comin back from a night of camping. I arrived at the beaver pond and decided to have lunch there. The views of Owls Head were beautiful and unique to what I'm used to. One could see the whole ridge from where I was standing.
After a short snack, and a nice break, it was time to head back. I trudged thru the deep snow in the beaver area (knee deep with snowshoes!) and headed back arriving at the wilderness boundry in about half an hour. I still had a good 2 hours to kill, so I crossed the East Branch and headed back along the East Side trail, with intentions to take a side trip to Pine Island. In my opinion, East Side trail is much nicer that LW, the terrain is a little more varied and there are open areas with views over to Franconia Ridge, Owls Head and the Bonds. Plus, there are more birches and mixed trees along the way, making it a prettier walk in general. I even got a cool picture of an orographic cloud toward Mt Flume. This prob meant the winds were extra gusty up there. As my trip neared an end, I took a side trip along the Pine Island tr. I never hear of anyone hiking thru this area, and it is definitely underrated. There are great views of the Bonds from an open area, and the woods are a nice mix of everything. In fact, there are more firs now than pines, IMO. I made my way off Pine Island and was now only a few tenths of a mile from the end of the trip. This was definitely a trip I'll remember for awhile, even though I never summited anything. It ended up being about 12 miles, so I still got a great workout. I can walk forever on the flats, but give me incline and I die. Also, I noticed that on the sign out sheet at Lincoln Woods there were a couple of VFtT'ers and ROT'ers that were heading off to the Bonds...I believe they were Hikerbob and Posion Ivy....though I could be wrong. (I guess I'm nosy
) Hope you all had a great trip and I can't wait to read those reports and see the pictures. All in all a great day was had, and I was picked up by Mattl after his assault on S Hancock and Arrow Slide.
http://grouseking.phanfare.com/album/231366 Pictures
grouseking
I probably shouldn't have worn my snowshoes along LW trail, but I wanted to get used to wearing them. In retrospective, not having them on would have saved energy, but oh well. It only took about 20-25 min to arrive at the Osseo Trail, so I was feeling good about my time and my chances of summiting Flume. Still, I had another 4.1 miles to go, no easy feat with limited hiking this winter.
The Osseo trail winds its way thru hardwoods and then sloped up a short but steep hill to get away from the water. It is funny....normally this short hill wouldn't get to me, but this time, I really was feeling it. My last 4k was Tecumseh back in early February and I haven't completed a hike since then. Also, I recently got over food poisoning, which made me extra sluggish. I could tell that I might not have the extra energy to make it all the way, but I continued on to see what I could do. The weather was beautiuful...I had stripped down to my base layer and I could make snowballs for the first time in a long time. Plus, I was breaking trail and following a set of bobcat tracks which made their way up the mountain. It was neat to see that this bobcat prob walked up this way earlier in the day.bobcat tracks . When the bobcat turned off the trail and ran uphill, I decided I could go no further. I was only around 2500 feet, but I figured enough was enough...I was much too tired and a bit light headed to be hiking alone. If I had wanted to I could have taken a long break and kept going, possibly reaching the summit much later, but it wasn't worth it if I didn't enjoy myself. So in half the time, I wandered back down to the Lincoln Woods trail.
It was only a little after noon, and I had another 4.5 hours to kill....what to do? I continued up the LW trail, chatting with skiers and taking some pics of the busy day on the superhighway.
I saw a guy and briefly chatted with him about how he just came from Owls Head. I thought, "wow, it is only like 1pm." He must have camped... In a short time I arrived at the wilderness boundry. I looked up at Mt Flume from the bridge, sighed and thought "next time." But today was gonna have to be a stress free day. I still wanted to get some exercise, but it would now be on flatter terrain. The Franconia Brook trail was callling my name so I cruised up it to check out a couple of the beaver ponds about a mile in. Funny thing...I didn't see anyone on the Osseo trail, but I saw two right off the bat on FB trail....one was comin back from a night of camping. I arrived at the beaver pond and decided to have lunch there. The views of Owls Head were beautiful and unique to what I'm used to. One could see the whole ridge from where I was standing.
After a short snack, and a nice break, it was time to head back. I trudged thru the deep snow in the beaver area (knee deep with snowshoes!) and headed back arriving at the wilderness boundry in about half an hour. I still had a good 2 hours to kill, so I crossed the East Branch and headed back along the East Side trail, with intentions to take a side trip to Pine Island. In my opinion, East Side trail is much nicer that LW, the terrain is a little more varied and there are open areas with views over to Franconia Ridge, Owls Head and the Bonds. Plus, there are more birches and mixed trees along the way, making it a prettier walk in general. I even got a cool picture of an orographic cloud toward Mt Flume. This prob meant the winds were extra gusty up there. As my trip neared an end, I took a side trip along the Pine Island tr. I never hear of anyone hiking thru this area, and it is definitely underrated. There are great views of the Bonds from an open area, and the woods are a nice mix of everything. In fact, there are more firs now than pines, IMO. I made my way off Pine Island and was now only a few tenths of a mile from the end of the trip. This was definitely a trip I'll remember for awhile, even though I never summited anything. It ended up being about 12 miles, so I still got a great workout. I can walk forever on the flats, but give me incline and I die. Also, I noticed that on the sign out sheet at Lincoln Woods there were a couple of VFtT'ers and ROT'ers that were heading off to the Bonds...I believe they were Hikerbob and Posion Ivy....though I could be wrong. (I guess I'm nosy
) Hope you all had a great trip and I can't wait to read those reports and see the pictures. All in all a great day was had, and I was picked up by Mattl after his assault on S Hancock and Arrow Slide. http://grouseking.phanfare.com/album/231366 Pictures
grouseking
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