Galehead-Owls Head to Lincoln Woods

Gale River, Frost, Twin Brook, Linocln Brook, Owls Head Slide, Black Pond, Wilderness trails

October 9, 2010


We met Justin and the Gale River trail parking and set out at 8 AM. Mike and Gina were running a little late and were going to catch us. Coming to the Gale River we made a mistake and crossed early - a few hundred yards early, so after bushwhacking up the trail a ways, we crossed back over just in time to see Mike and Gina on the trail. We continued to the correct crossing spot and made our 3rd crossing. In quick time we made it to the hut where we enjoyed some shelter. The tempature at the hut was only 25 degrees and we could see the frost on the trees on the higher summites.

Heading out we dropped our packs for the quick run up to the Gale Head summit. Along the way we encountered snow flakes falling on us - a sign that Winter is soon to come. Retrieving our packs we headed down the Twin Brook trail where we ran into Frodo from VFTT. Off we went heading down to the Thirteen Falls tentsite where we met an ex co-worker of Mike's. We checked out the falls as we headed south on the Lincoln Brook trail.

The Linocln Brook trail is rumored to be very muddy and difficult to follow north of Owls Head. Happy to report that that rumor is 100% true! Lot's of mud and several sections that we had to do some trail finding. 3 hours after leaving Thirteen Falls, we came to the Owls Head slide trail. While Bob, Gina, Justin, and Mike headed up, Geri decide to wait at the first river crossing.

Returning to the trail we found Geri had been hard at work creating a few steeping stone pads to get across the river. She also had encounter with a field mouse that wanted to share the food in her pack. Geri handed out branches she found as good hiking sticks and we headed across the river. 2 more crossings and we were at the spot where we turned into the woods where we would start our bushwhack to Black Pond. It was now near dusk as we made our way through the forest. We arrived at Black Pond just as it became dark. Dawning our headlamps we headed out to the the Wilderness trail. From here we ran out the 2.6 miles back to the parking lot, our head lamps providing light to two on bicycles that had riden in to the Pemi Bridge for their West Bond hike.

What a great day for an epic adventure with good friends!

Length of Hike:
11:30 hours
20.2 miles





Check out our Hiking page

and our

Home Page