Sadie
New member
Weather was looking gorgeous & I had Friday off, so I headed up solo to the Lincoln brook parking area to hike up Flume. I got to the parking lot ~9:30 and headed to the hiker registry. There were signs posted all over that said something to the effect: “Aggressive Wasps on Upper Osseo trail, they will sting, Pass at your own risk”. 
Yikes, I hate stinging insects!! I thought about a new plan for the day, but decided to push forward and just take the upper part of the trail real slow and keep an eye out for the wasps to see if I could avoid them by going into the woods or something.
The trip on the Wilderness trail and lower part of Osseo went really quick– nice easy grades and great footing. The AMC guide refers to a right turn and a start of switchbacks at approximately the halfway mark (2.1 mi) on the Osseo, so I used that as my trigger to start looking for wasps. At probably ~2.8 mile mark (I didn’t have a GPS, this is just an estimate based on time), I saw a piece of paper posted on a tree saying “Watch out for bees ahead, hive marked w/ pink marker.” I saw the pink marker and there was quite a flurry of bee activity (think they were yellow jackets) coming out of a hive in the ground. I covered myself with all my extra clothing, thinking that might help avoid bee stings, and I got to the far side of the trail and ran past the hive. It worked, no stings!! I have to say a strong thank you to the person who posted that warning note!! So helpful, I was really worried about just walking through a hive inadvertently. I continued on and soon got to the “ladders”, which are more like steep stairs, nothing scary. Above the ladders is a nice flat area before it continues to climb again and then join up with the Flume Slide trail. I got to the peak in ~3:45 min, book time is 4 h 25 m (I’m usually right w/ the book time, but trail had such great footing that helped a lot). The top of Flume is quite stunning, a lot of nice rocky cliffs and great views!
I had a snack and enjoyed the sun a bit before heading back down. I saw ~8 people on the summit in the 20 m I was up there. I headed down and bumped into a Forestry ranger heading up from Osseo. He asked me if I had been stung coming up Osseo, I said No and he said he had just finished unloading 2 cans of bee killer on 2 hives he found. He said he had been told there was a single hive and he unloaded 1.5 cans on the first one he found along the trail, but the one he sprayed wasn’t the one with the note I had seen, he found that coming up further on the trail. So he had only ½ can left at that point for that really active hive, so he wasn’t sure if he had killed them all. So I was worried again, that the bees would be Angry AND Aggressive now!! But no worries, all signs of bees/wasps was gone!!
Osseo was a really nice trail, highly recommend it for someone looking for an alternative to the trails on route 93. The trail didn’t feel as long as it sounds (11 mi RT). This was my #47, only Moriah left.
Yikes, I hate stinging insects!! I thought about a new plan for the day, but decided to push forward and just take the upper part of the trail real slow and keep an eye out for the wasps to see if I could avoid them by going into the woods or something. The trip on the Wilderness trail and lower part of Osseo went really quick– nice easy grades and great footing. The AMC guide refers to a right turn and a start of switchbacks at approximately the halfway mark (2.1 mi) on the Osseo, so I used that as my trigger to start looking for wasps. At probably ~2.8 mile mark (I didn’t have a GPS, this is just an estimate based on time), I saw a piece of paper posted on a tree saying “Watch out for bees ahead, hive marked w/ pink marker.” I saw the pink marker and there was quite a flurry of bee activity (think they were yellow jackets) coming out of a hive in the ground. I covered myself with all my extra clothing, thinking that might help avoid bee stings, and I got to the far side of the trail and ran past the hive. It worked, no stings!! I have to say a strong thank you to the person who posted that warning note!! So helpful, I was really worried about just walking through a hive inadvertently. I continued on and soon got to the “ladders”, which are more like steep stairs, nothing scary. Above the ladders is a nice flat area before it continues to climb again and then join up with the Flume Slide trail. I got to the peak in ~3:45 min, book time is 4 h 25 m (I’m usually right w/ the book time, but trail had such great footing that helped a lot). The top of Flume is quite stunning, a lot of nice rocky cliffs and great views!
I had a snack and enjoyed the sun a bit before heading back down. I saw ~8 people on the summit in the 20 m I was up there. I headed down and bumped into a Forestry ranger heading up from Osseo. He asked me if I had been stung coming up Osseo, I said No and he said he had just finished unloading 2 cans of bee killer on 2 hives he found. He said he had been told there was a single hive and he unloaded 1.5 cans on the first one he found along the trail, but the one he sprayed wasn’t the one with the note I had seen, he found that coming up further on the trail. So he had only ½ can left at that point for that really active hive, so he wasn’t sure if he had killed them all. So I was worried again, that the bees would be Angry AND Aggressive now!! But no worries, all signs of bees/wasps was gone!!
Osseo was a really nice trail, highly recommend it for someone looking for an alternative to the trails on route 93. The trail didn’t feel as long as it sounds (11 mi RT). This was my #47, only Moriah left.
