Bondage With Owls (White Mts.) - TR and Pics

“Great weather, great views, great exercise, great times... Full trip report and pics are up on my website! Below is a direct link.

[url]http://www.jamieofthenorth.com/Bonds%20and%20Owl's%20Head.htm[/url]”

“Woohoo! Great pics Skippy!
Excellent trip report also. This trip was as good as it gets. The weather gods were very kind, and the hiking and company was awesome. I got up there a day early, and hiked North and South Hancock, so I only have 17 more peaks to finish the 48 White Mt peaks over 4000 feet. The plan is to finish with Carrigan on July 16. Artex plans to finish the same day, so that should be pretty cool.

After hiking the Hancocks, I headed back towards Lincoln Woods to meet up with Abster and Artex, I was lucky to see a small black bear just off the Kancamangus Highway. It appeared to be less than 2 years old, so I stayed close to the car to take some pics, in case mamma happened to stop by. Artex is jealous as hell because the only bears he's ever seen were small specs on a mountain, so I decided to name the cub "Little Jamie" in his honor.

That was a great start to a great trip. Doing the Hancocks solo was fun, but hanging with Abster and Artex in the mountains rocked. Abster is an excellent hiker, and is welcome on any "buttkicker" hikes. The "secret" campsite was awesome, and there was plenty of birch bark laying around to get a small campfire going each night, despite the damp wood.

Saturday was a looooong day, and we were all pretty whipped. We "only" did 3 peaks, Bondcliff, Bond, and West Bond. However, It was an out and back, so we ended up doing Bond and Bondcliff twice. It was well worth the effort though. The cliffs on Bondcliff are amazing as well as the many views of the surrounding peaks. I was also amazed that there was still a few feet of snow between West Bond and Bond. We were preapred with crampons but didn't really need them, but we did a fair amount of postholing.

It was an early night Saturday, with Abster and Artex crashing before dark. I stayed up a little while longer by the fire to do some reading. After a while, Abster got out of her tent for a nature call and said to me "Are you STILL up?" It was 9:10. Wait until she goes on one of those epic 2am TT trips. ;o)

The Sunday hike to Owl's Head was another looong but great day. Because we dropped off our heavy gear, we weren't prepared for all the stream crossings. My waldies and Wiggy's waders were stashed in the woods and they would have came in handy. While Artex and Abster barefooted it across 2 of the streams, I opted to march thru them in my boots, because I have baby sensitive feet. :o( My feet squished most of the day, but it was a "good" squish because the weather was warm.

The hike up Owls head is a buttkicker and a half! It is one of the steepest trails I've ever climbed. It's about 1500' in a mile and half of it is on a slide with a lot of loose rocks, making it an interesting challenge. While there were no views from the top, like we expected, I was pleasantly surpised by the great views from the slide.

Climbing down from Owls Head was pretty dicey and we were careful not to kill each other with rock slides. It was a long walk back to the cars but a very pleasnt walk in the woods. The pizza in Lincoln was awesome. I ate 5 slices, took 2 to go, but I ate them in the car before I even got to Vermont. I got home around Midnight and slept in today.

Awesome trip!

Here are my pics, as well as the ones of "Little Jamie."
last edited: 5/30/05 3:22:06 PM”

“Great bear pics..... you bastard!”

“awesome pics and reports. Damn, I should have headed north this weekend.”

“love the bear pics, pennsy!
wish i coulda joined you guys....soon, soon, soon.”

“Awesome reports and pics!!!”

“Hey, this is Skeetah....how were the bugs??? You know black flies, mosquitoes??? You know me.....Would have loved to been ou this weekend, it turned out pretty good. We ended up doing stuff around the house that needed to get done :(”

“Black flies were out in small numbers, though I suspect their population is now growing at an exponential basis. I've got about three or four welts from bites sustained at a stream crossing (go figure). I can't remember any mosquitos, so their numbers must have been view.”

“Skeetah - no skeeters but the black flies are starting to come out. They were a minor inconvenience, but it's just a matter of time before they start the big attack.

Hey Yamster - were yer ears burning? We were talking about you all weekend. ;o)

Abster - no wonder my pack felt heavier when we hiked out. I still have the rest of your food in my ursack. Just for that, I'm gonna eat it all! by the way, what's in those ziplocks?”

“Sorry for the extra weight Penns...you walked it out like a pro! I'm not sure of the food or the shelf-life...be careful.
I had such a good time this weekend with you two it is quite amazing. The trip reports and pics were great! Thanks for getting them up so quickly. More later...maybe. Hope to see you soon. Han”

“nice trip. Great pictures! glad it all worked out!”

“Great pics Artex and Pennsy as always!
Pennsy, that couldn't have been Damon pumping water, he was too busy beating the tar out of the Yankees this weekend :-p~~~
Nice bear shots too!!!!”