Owl’s Head

Elevation: 4,025ft

Distance: 18.2miles

Owl’s head is one interesting hike. It was also one of the most deceiving for me. You start off in Lincoln woods were it’s absolutely beautiful. The path is super easy and flat and you hike on this path for like 5 miles making amazing time and you think you’re going to make amazing time and you don’t get why people complain about this hike. Then you turn onto Lincoln Brook Trail where it’s a bit more overgrown but still pretty easy. You have to watch your footing a bit more but nothing terrible. You’re on Lincoln Brook trail for a surprisingly long time before you actually hit Owl’s Head Path. When we finally hit Owl’s Head Path it still felt like “That wasn’t that bad and we can still be done with this hike by lunchtime!”.

The slide on Owl’s Head path is a really fun slide. I think it’s the easiest of the slides I’ve done so far. The footing is a bit loose but nothing terrible. The pups had absolutely no issue on this slide. The slide is also the only part on this hike you really get views. 

Once you’re up over the slide you like “ah, wasn’t so bad … now where is this summit?” Oh, it’s like another mile down after you’re up. The mile walk over to the summit is flat and easy again but your legs are starting to get tired as now you’re at like mile 10. 

You FINALLY SUMMIT and now you gotta do it all in reverse. By time we got off Owl’s Head Path and back on Lincoln Brook Trail my legs were TIRED. The worst, in my opinion was coming back through Lincoln Woods Trail. It felt like the trail never ended! We finally made it back to the car and all of us were happy to be done but dead and now fully understand why everyone complains about Owl’s Head.  

The pups had no issue on this hike, overall pretty easy but make sure your dog is ready for this kind of distance. My GPS tracker said it was 24miles and that’s a lot if you’re not ready for it.