6:00 am, we convene at the Lincoln Woods parking lot.... what was 90+degrees and 100% humidity only 24 or so hours prior is now upper 40 degrees and dam chilly! I am hiking with Dan, Meena, Marianne, Ruby (the dog) and 2 newcomers to my life, Chris & Eileen. I've met Chris once before at a road race but never met Eileen .. Both are young and raring to go after a chilly evening camping in the woods... Eileen is very athletic looking and with a 70.3 sticker(representing the length of a half-ironman) glued to her cars bumper, I found myself a tad intimidated as I laced up my boots for what was going to be an approximate 20 mile and 12 hour trek!
My insecurity didn't last long as we headed into the woods and snapped a few early group photographs that solidified us as a team.. the first 4 miles or so was a flat walk over an old railroad bed, so it gave us time to all get to know each other and strengthen our status as a hiking group.... Dan, cemented his caste as a human GPS, frequently alerted us as to where we were, how long it took us to get there and what mile we've crossed... His knowledge of the White Mountains is impressive but what really perplexes me is the awareness and accuracy of place he is able to maintain in the ever changing topography that are the woods and mountains.... As we hiked thru the changing landscapes of the trail, we learned about The origins of Marianne's "Haunted Hikes of NH" book project, Ruby's beginnings as a Katrina Rescued dog, Chris's place as the City of Manchester's point person for a National Chile competition coming soon to Manch-Vegas, NH.. and a lot of other interesting tidbits of information that combines well while walking in the woods... Meena's naturally bubbly, funny and easy-going personality makes any conversation you have with her fun, I like to stay in ear shot of her when the walking is conducive to conversation....Now we get our first look at Owls' Head thru the trees... It looks a ways away and that's because it god-dam is!!! We are 4 mile or so into this thing and have 4 miles, 4 river crossings, some mildly steep & narrow terrain to go before we hit the steeps of the rock slide and then asent to the summit or summits or whatever (more on this later)
River Crossing # 1: We hit the river Eileen and I think we found a path where we can hop from rock to rock and make it to the other side... Wrong! Half way across, we realize it just ain't gonna happen that way... so Eileen proceeds to find a good size rock to brace herself and remove her shoes and socks... Me, i decide to try to do so on a friggin' stone, wobbling close to dumping myself, my pack and my Droid! into the drink.. Somehow I balance myself enough to get the footwear off and dunk my legs into the freezing cold waters of the stream.. It was a little deep and our route to the other side meandered more than we should of but we did get there and did so without incident.... Meanwhile, on the other side of the rocks stood some campers who had just started cooking their breakfast.. pancakes.... Now, saying that the smell of those pancakes was maybe the sweetest smell I've experienced in my life would not be much of an exaggeration.. Holy shit.. I thought about hitting the cook with my hiking pole and running away with a flapjack! But I didn't, however I did resent them for not offering up a taste....
River Crossings 2,3 & 4: Nothing much to write about here other than Dan said there were 3 crossing and there were actually 4, so every now and then even a GPS is wrong! Don't get me wrong the river Crossings were cool but just can't think of anything that a reader would care about.
The Rock Slide: Now the fun begins..... The entrance to the slide is marked by an arrow carved into a tree, someone built a small Carin at the head of the "trail", but if the human GPS was not with us I'm sure we would have blown right by it. Time to fuel up a little and lighten our pack for the climb.. Dan stashes a Pepsi in the woods to reward himself upon his return, he wanted to dump his pack completely but I machoed him out of that thought.. Up we go.. now this is not an officially sanctioned trail, which means lack of maintaince, so logs, rocks, and other things mean and nasty impede our progress... About 4 hours before Dan had asked me if I had ever climbed I slide, I answered "I don't know".. well I quickly realized as I treked up this friggin mess of nature that I had never before climbed a slide because if i had, I'd fucking remember it! This sucker was a little more than a mile straight up with loose rocks always a hazard of hitting you in the noggin or breaking a limb.... water rushed down and the sun positioned itself just right for beating down on your face! Ruby the dog was in need of a push and tug here and there but it was absolutely amazing how this dog navigated the climb.... Me, i kept a decent pace and took lots of photos because when you turned your head to face away from the mountain, your were treated with one sweet view ... The Lincoln Slide ( a huge rock slide on Mt. Lincoln) was straight ahead.. Panoramic views were breathtaking and watching my fellow climbers huffing it up was entertaining as well.... Chris in all his glorious youth took off at this point, in what seemed like a sprint up .. in fact when we got to the top of the slide he said he thought he may of been lost because he hadn't heard a peep from any of us for a while! No one got konked in the head with a rock, however Marianne did come close to killing Rudy on the way down as she kicked a good size hunk of granite down Ruby's way and with the agility of George W. Bush dodging a shoe, the dog sidestepped the menacing projectile....
The Summit: This summit has to be the weirdest summit in The Whites, if not the world... There was an original summit that was recognized until 1960, but then a woman named Miriam Underhill, with obviously nothing better to do in life, figured out that the summit was about 2/10th's of a mile and a few feet higher to the north.. so as a hiker now you pass the old summit to get to the new summit. The new summit is funny, it's marked by a shale stone ( I am holding in the picture) with the handwritten words "The Summit" and a wood carved sign placed about 20 feet or so up a tree that says "Owls Head"... The 7 of us had a hard time conjugating together on the summit because it is the size of a picnic table.... Good thing most don't want to exert the energy to get there, because if more people came someone would have to be stationed up there to give out bakery numbers for a turn to actually tag the top... I drank my 1st summit boxed lemonade on Owl's head and it was fucking amazing!!!! I also found out that everybody in the world but me hates vegan jerky, as those who i offered a piece to were disgusted with it and i think with me also for offering such shit to them! As we left the summit I was a little foot and leg weary and thought i was going to kill myself hopping over downed trees with mid-evil knots protruding out from all directions.. I worried about piercing something wicked important!
Down the Slide: same as up the slide but a lot more hazardous to your health.... Slip going uphill, you hit the mountain, slip going down hill & the mountain hits you again and again as you bounce off of it..... The downhill was quite a personal endeavor, each of us using technique that was completely representative of one's own sense of survival.. slide down on your ass, use poles, don't use poles... what ever it took to stay attached to the mountain! Eventually we got down with nothing but a few scrapes, bruises and blisters... Dan was able to drink his beloved Pepsi and Meena, being Meena left an unopened lemonade on top of a pack left behind by a hiker to avoid it's weight (this pack weighed in excess of 50 lbs.) climbing the slide... We Hope a bear didn't eat the pack , being attracted by the lemonade....
Ok, so we are 10 miles and some 6 plus hours into this thing, went up and down the slide and as we stand conjugated at the slide base, The Human GPS reminds us we have approximately 8 miles another 6 hours to go before landing back at the parking lot.... Holy mother of Shit!!!... With our feet in different stages of disarray, the sound and sight of the first water crossing back was a joyous occasion.... That ice cold water penetrating beat up and tired feet was almost orgasmic!!! Marianne, Eileen and I left our water shoes on for the 5 miles (or was it 5.1 miles, ask Dan) left after the final water crossing back.... Good move... back on the train tracks was now just a matter of attrition... walk.. walk ... walk... I mentioned i was impressed that to this point nobody was bitching, which immediately brought comments like "This Sucks", "Are we there yet", ect.....A few mountain bikers left their bikes at trail side and the thought of stealing them was pondered and real... We hit the parking lot exactly 12 hours after departing.... Smiles one and all .. The team left for different places to eat and drink... Chris & Eileen to the Woodstock Inn for burgers and Beer, Marianne and Ruby home to Nashua, with a pit stop at Burger King to reward a well deserved effort by a really cool dog (this was #46 of the 48 4,ooo footers for Ruby), dan and meena headed to a Thai restaurant for spicy Thai noodles and Thai Iced tea and I met my wife and daughter at The Common Man in Lincoln for a Common Man Ale, a cup of mushroom soup and a vegetarian dinner plate..... My daughter Melissa saw me though the window of the restaurant as i labored to the door and laughed at the spaz her father had been reduced to trying to walk!!!
My seventh 4,ooo footer climb proved to be a great day with wonderful, diverse people and a dog... A hike i won't forget soon!
