owls head trail distruction by ranger.

[Robertjohkn]

In reading the trip reports for 8/27 it states how a ranger was seen on the trail to owl head up the slide trying to hide the trail behind longs, rubbing markings off the trees and knocking down the established cairns. Why would they do this since it only makes the trail less safe. I understand its not an 'requlation trail' but what possible reason could there be for this?

 

[dave.m]

I'm neither advocating for nor against these actions. But, I think the arguement goes like this....

There is some amount of public use infrastructure allowed in the wilderness areas that are designed to localize impact. These include maintained trails, foot bridges and campsites. Beyond this, all other impact should be dispersed and should be visibly unseen. Signs and evidences of usages off of maintained trails and campsites are in violation of the USFS mandate to keep wilderness areas free of human impact. That is to say non-maintained trails and cairns are hidden and removed for the same reasons that non-maintained firerings are removed, non-maintained pit toilets are removed/remediated and so forth.

There seems to be disagreement on the next bit. Common use herd paths and campsites suggest to some that the Wilderness Area is overused. It suggests to others that the ideal of no-visible trace might not work in eastern Wilderness Areas in the same way that it works in wesern areas.

 

[Variocana]

I too have asked the same question Robertjohkn and the only logical answer I can come up with is that there seems to be a couple of young fit rangers who enjoy hiking and with a mission they can justify nice long hikes.

as always,
Vario

 

[TCD]

Lengthy thread below on this subject under "My take on wilderness..."

 

[Head]

Sounds like the infamous Ranger Dick! He had an earful of the things he had done along the same lines when we spoke with him on the Carrigain trip. (kicking down cairns, writing parking violations at trailheads(which could be a thread all on its own, etc.)) all done with a great big s#!t eating grin on his mug. No disrespect to ANY rangers meant at all by the above remarks. (The majority of rangers that I have run into have been very pleasant and helpful) but this guy is the one needs to be one written up!

 

[dr_wu002]

"Ranger Dick"

Sounds like the infamous Ranger Dick! He had an earful of the things he had done along the same lines when we spoke with him on the Carrigain trip. (kicking down cairns, writing parking violations at trailheads(which could be a thread all on its own, etc.)) all done with a great big s#!t eating grin on his mug. No disrespect to ANY rangers meant at all by the above remarks. (The majority of rangers that I have run into have been very pleasant and helpful) but this guy is the one needs to be one written up!

Seriously, who is this "Ranger Dick" fellow? Is he a real person or a make believe character? If real, how old etc. How do people know him or know who he is? Is he really a Ranger? Do people know what capacity his position entails? I've heard his name now several times and I'm not sure if he's a joke or someone real.

-Dr. Wu

 

[Stan]

I can't help but wonder, his last name isn't Head* by any chance, is it?



I wouldn't fret about it, though. As nice as it is to have a maintained and marked trail enroute to a destination, the mix of conditions of trails and trailess destinations is what elevates the journey from a just a walk in the woods to an interesting and challenging hike.

* (with apologies to our fellow VFTTer whose name I'm sure is purely coincidental)

 

[Clown]

They removed the sign from the beginning of the Owls Head slide trail. Someone built a large cairn instead. I took a picture, but it's kinda dark, but you can still see it.

To view pic CLICK HERE.

 

[David Metsky]

The sign at the base of the slide? I don't think there was ever a sign down there, just the cairn. The vertical sign that people seem to be talking about was at the "summit", which wasn't really the summit it seems.

Frankly, I think this is all a tempest in a teacup, as it's not very difficult to make your way up Owl's Head with or without the cairns or signs. I like that at least one of the peaks on the 48 list requires a little bit of navigating. But I understand people have differing opinions and respect them.

-dave-

 

[Head]

I can't help but wonder, his last name isn't Head* by any chance, is it? * (with apologies to our fellow VFTTer whose name I'm sure is purely coincidental)

Hey now! Thats not right Actually, the entire crew saw this guy on our Carrigain trip (about 10 other VFTTr's) and I'm sure many of them would agree...not a guy you'd want to run into if you if you were a car-camper! (He said he throws the book at them.) He seemed like he was a little green, but he's definatley out there kicking down cairns and the like. I get along with just about everyone that I meet, but this guy was not cool! (dr_wu002-he's a early to mid 30's, and a real-deal ranger. He patrols the Pemi-wilderness and surrounding area.)

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

I wonder if this guy is the Saco district ranger that I overheard on the top of Carrigain last year bragging to a couple of newbies that he loves his job because all he is required to do is hike, to which I replied that it would be nice if USFS personnel clip some brush along their trails once in a while, given that they are being paid with my tax money, to which he huffily replied that he was too busy to clip brush, which was not part of his job description. He also explained to me that the USFS did not have time to organize volunteers to maintain their trails, although I have since learned that some USFS trails are indeed maintained by volunteers.

 

[skiguy]

Frankly, I think this is all a tempest in a teacup, as it's not very difficult to make your way up Owl's Head with or without the cairns or signs. I like that at least one of the peaks on the 48 list requires a little bit of navigating. But I understand people have differing opinions and respect them.

-dave-

I would agree with Dave's comment that it is not "very" difficult to make your way up Owl's Head with or without the cairns or signs, but I would say it is "MORE" difficult than your average 4000ftr.
I would guess that many people on their NH 4000ftr. Quest do Owl's Head later or towards the end of doing the list. Doing Owl's Head is sort of like Graduating to a new and different level of hiking. I would personally embrace the challenge of this hike and take pride in finding Owl's Head without cairns and signs. After doing the NH 4000ftrs. many people move on to other List Quests. Consider doing Owl's Head as good training for future endeavors.

 

[RGF1]

The sign at the base of the slide? I don't think there was ever a sign down there, just the cairn. The vertical sign that people seem to be talking about was at the "summit", which wasn't really the summit it seems.

Frankly, I think this is all a tempest in a teacup, as it's not very difficult to make your way up Owl's Head with or without the cairns or signs. I like that at least one of the peaks on the 48 list requires a little bit of navigating. But I understand people have differing opinions and respect them.

-dave-

I agree Dave Carins or not I will allways remember looking for the slide and hiking to the then unsigned Summit many years ago with my farther. when there where only 46 4k peaks .
If there is a good reason for at least a cairn marking the semi official trail it is to prevent herd paths from forming. This happend on Pryamid Peak in Co now the CFI is making a trail to 13,000. People had made all sorts of "routes" some leading to dangerous drop offs there were a lot of cairns and markers on a good section of the route that led to nowhere or went well of the NW ridge route They have benn knocked over I should note that at least one renegade route led to a difficult SAR . Hopefully hardening and making a easy to see route will prevent both herdpaths and more SARs although that peak will always have SARs . Pryamid is a 14 K peak in the Maroon Bells Snowmass wilderness and it is easliy ascessible by car many 14 K peaks are not so a lot of people try to climb it and there is not a offical route so people have made thier own herd paths and routes .


I should say that the Climbing route on Pyramid is about 1 mile from a parking lot . and it is easy to get to once you leave the Trail to Crater lake things change dramatically .

 

[forestgnome]

I've an idea. Remove Owl's Head from the list.

Based on the way some people refer to 'bagging' it as "glad it's over", "glad to be done with it", "long, boring hike without much views", etc., there would be very few people who would hike there anyway. Very few people would even care if there was a trail or not.

 

[Frodo]

Though I agree that it is not very hard climbing the slide without cairns or blazes, I do think that it is a mistake to remove the cairn that locates the start of the slide (a new smaller one has already been built, and hopefully it remains). I have seen people on one side of the Franconia Brook (at the 1st water crossing on the Lincoln Brook Trail), asking me where the trail was??? I responded, "On the other side".

Without the locating cairn, I think that many people will have a problem locating the slide, which will in turn cause for a myriad of herd paths heading up. The same thing is going to happen up on the ridge as hikers aimlessly meander about looking for the "true summit".

IMO, they should just re-survey the peak, and establish an official maintained trail, otherwise it's going to get a little messy...

 

[Arthur Dent]

The sign at the base of the slide? I don't think there was ever a sign down there, just the cairn.

I have photos I took of two different signs that were where the Owl's Head trail left the Lincoln Brook trail. The first was early 1980s when Bruce Brown (he told me the story) had found a brightly colored metal owl and cut the head off and tacked it to a tree. There was no doubt about what the sign meant. In the late 1980s there was a painted board about a foot long on which someone had crudely painted, in bright red paint, "Owel's Head." I liked the creative spelling on that sign. I'm sure there have been other unofficial signs as well

 

[John H Swanson]

Over 10,000 people have already climbed Owlshead. Thousands if not 10s of thousands of people will be climbing this 4000 footer in the future. Even if you "take it off the list" it is still a 4000 footer and people want to climb the 4000 footers.

Anyone familiar with the peaks of the NE knows that a 4000 footer without a clear route to the point clearly known as the summit will quickly be covered with herd paths from people looking to get to the top and find the actual top. These paths will quickly become mud troughs. Soil will erode. Plants will die. Look at Street and Nye in the dacks. In fact the primary reasoning behind the placement of the canisters in the dacks was to eliminate damage and litter on the summit.

This "end" is so obvious that one can only conclude that the removal of the trail, cairn or summit indication was done to intentionally destroy the mountain's wilderness. It's a shame that someone entrusted to protect our forests for so intentionally focus his or her efforts on their destruction.

Unfortunately a sustainable trail is the only real solution. But in this case, the wilderness 10 ft off the trail could exist undamaged for many years to come.

 

[hikerfast]

I agree with John's point about a single maintained path saving the mountain from 35 herd paths. Sounds like a pissing contest is taking place between the hiking community and this particular ranger. I wonder if there is a solution to this. Perhaps we could start a signed petition and direct it to the appropriate person, with the point of saving the mountain from 35 herd path being emphasized? Delicately and politely would be the way to go. This guy probably thinks he is doing HIS job, and others are trying to break the rules.

 

[John H Swanson]

Or we could encourage everone going to climb the peak to take a different route and say things like: make sure to find the actual summit. It's marked and hard to find. You have to look around for it. This will hasten the outcome that the USFS is seeking

 

[MichaelJ]

Your comment makes me think of something...

What, if anything, is the AMC doing about this? Did they create the "Owl's Head Path"? Do they have an official statement or opinion? Have they as an organization been addressed by the USFS, or vice-versa? Anyone know?